Rote Learning and Memory in Retarded Children: Some Implications for the Teaching-Learning Process
1 This paper is based in part upon a presentation made at the Western Regional Conference, Council on Exceptional Children. Las Vegas. Nev. its preparation was facilitated by Grant ZRT-16 from the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration. U. S. Department of Health. Educalion and Welfare. It is the purpose of this brief presentation (a) to summarize research-based knowledge of the rote learning and memory characteristics of the retarded, and (b) to discuss the implications of this knowledge for the teaching-learning process. THE RESEARCH The major impetus for research on the learning and retention abilities of retarded children has been two rather obvious questions: (a) Do retarded children learn at the same rate as normal children? and (b) Do they retain materials, once learned, as well as normal children? Although much of the early research bearing on these questions is contradictory, most recent studies (Baumeister, Hawkins & Davis, 1966; Heber, Prehm, Nardi & Simpson, 1962; Heckman, 1966; lscoe & Semler, 1964; Lance, 1965; Madsen, 1963; Prehm, 1966a, b, 1967, Ring, 1965; Vergason, 1966) are consistent in showing that the retardate has both a learning and a retention deficit on paired-associate tasks. The literature also suggests that: 1. The learning performance of the retarded is considerably more variable than the performance of normal children; almost all studies show this. 2. Distributed practice, as compared to massed practice, enhances the learning performance of retarded children to a much greater extent than it does that of normal children (Madsen, 1963). 3. Retardates learn paired associates more readily when the stimulus and response items are actual objects rather than pictures of objects (Iscoe & Semler, 1964). 4. Normal room noise does not disrupt the learning performance of retardates in an experimental situation (Girardeau & Ellis, 1964).