This study was designed to answer three research questions: (1) What is the nature of knowledge structures in persons with mental retardation? That is, do persons with mild or moderate mental retardation respond to stimuli in terms of features, category membership, or functions associated with the stimuli? (2) Does the method of presentation of materials (input mode) influence identification of subordinate members of a general category and selection of prototype order? (3) Does the method of response (output mode) influence the selection of subordinate members of a general category and prototype order? Results for Question 1 indicated that individuals in the mild group differed significantly in their production of both members and members in prototype order from their counterparts in the moderate group. For Question 2, results were non-significant. Results of the analyses for Question 3 displayed a trend toward significance for the output mode main effect, with visual output exceeding verbal output. The prototypes produced by participants with mental retardation were compared to and contrasted with the results reported by Rosch (1975) for non-handicapped students.
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