Modeling Effects on Impulsivity with Learning Disabled Children

Abstract

Thirty learning disabled third- and fourth-grade children classified as impulsive on Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test were assigned to one of three training conditions in which they viewed a model who responded in either a reflective or impulsive cognitive tempo on a matching-to-sample task or a control model who played an unrelated game. Training sessions were carried out weekly for three consecutive weeks. Match-to-sample tasks were administered to each subject following each session and one week after the third training session (delayed posttest). These tasks were scored for response latency and error rate. It was found that children who observed a reflective model showed significantly longer latencies than subjects in both the impulsive modeling and control group following each treatment session and on the delayed posttest. No significant group differences in error rates were found following the first training session; however, the reflective model group showed significantly fewer errors than the other groups following the last two training sessions and the delayed posttest. The results were discussed in terms of the educational implications for the impulsive learning disabled child and previous modeling research.