The effect of overt labelling on the learning of a relatively complex sorting discrimination by severely subnormal and normal children was examined. The sorting discrimination consisted of learning to place one colour (S1) in one box and two others (S2) in another. Half the subjects verbally labelled S1. It was found that the effects of S1 verbal labelling were specific with the severely subnormal, and non-specific with the normals. The results of a post-test in which one of the initial test stimuli was held constant, and a novel S was introduced, helped to explain this group difference.
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