Successive Discrimination Learning of Children with and without Perceptual-Motor Handicaps

Abstract

Children with (N = 30) and children without (N = 30) visual-motor handicaps, defined by the Bender-Gestalt test, were matched on IQ and MA and given a successive discrimination task involving 2 stimuli varying only on spatial orientation. The handicapped Ss learned at a significantly (p < .05) slower rate with no recall deficit 3 min. after acquisition. Their slower learning may have been produced by weaknesses in verbal mediation, raising the possibility that language contributes to their limited academic progress and thus also underlies the reported correlations between school achievement and perceptual-motor scores. Similar comments could be made about limited brief-memory storage and inadequate perception of spatial orientation, both of which may have also impeded their successive discrimination learning. Thus, the frequent tacit assumption of a simple cause and effect relationship between achievement and perceptual-motor development seems questionable.