American journal of mental deficiency最新文献

This study was designed to begin establishing the ecological validity of laboratory research indicating that nonretarded children's responses toward mentally retarded peers are positively affected by the retarded peers' competence in different areas. Groups of 3 children (1 retarded and 2 nonretarded fourth through sixth-graders) played a bean bag toss game in which the retarded child was either the best or an average player. Then children selected one of their two partners as a partner for a subsequent game and indicated their attitudes toward each peer and their attribution for each peer's performance. Retarded children who were the best players were selected as partners significantly more often than retarded children who were average players. Nonretarded children's attitudes toward retarded peers, however, were the same regardless of the retarded peers' performance. A relationship was also found between children's attributions of retarded peers' success to ability and their selection of the same peers as partners.

Using a modified procedure developed by Chechile and Meyer (1976), we assessed the relative importance of encoding, storage, and retrieval processes to overall short-term and long-term memory deficits of mildly mentally retarded adults in a continuous paired-associate task. The basic analysis revealed deficits in each process, with storage the most important and encoding the least important at all retention intervals. Additional analyses showed that retrieval deficits are present in both short- and long-term retention but that storage deficits are primarily short-term in nature. The overall pattern of results suggests that short-term storage is the most likely locus of structurally based limitations of mildly retarded adults.

Information-processing correlates of computer-assisted word learning by moderately and severely mentally retarded students were identified. Nineteen subjects completed 10, 15-minute computer-assisted instruction sessions and seven basic cognitive tasks measuring simple learning, choice reaction time, relearning, probed recall, stimulus discrimination, tachistoscopic threshold, and recognition memory. Stimulus discrimination, probed recall, and simple learning were significantly related to word learning. Results suggest that instruction should be modified to accommodate individual differences in these abilities.

Dunst (1983) suggested that severely handicapped infants' intentional and unintentional communicative behaviors may be less interpretable or less easily "read" than are those of less handicapped infants. This hypothesis was tested in a sample of 15 pairs of mothers and their handicapped 11-month-old infants. As expected, the results indicated that coders agreed on the occurrence of an infant cue a lower percentage of the time when coding severely handicapped infants than when coding less handicapped infants.

The Aberrant Behavior Checklist was used to collect data from a large United States institution for comparison with ratings previously obtained in New Zealand. A total of 531 subjects within the American facility and 937 residents of New Zealand institutions were studied. The United States data were factor analyzed using the same procedures that were employed to develop the scale in New Zealand. In addition, subscales of the Checklist were analyzed as a function of sex, age, country, and level of mental retardation. Finally, the effects of various medical conditions were analyzed. The original factor structure of the Checklist was validated for the United States sample, with a mean coefficient of congruence of .93 averaged across the five factors. Sex failed to influence subscale scores, whereas age, country, and severity of retardation significantly affected ratings. Deafness was unrelated to Checklist scores whereas cerebral palsy, epilepsy, psychosis, and psychoactive drug treatment were related.

Automatic and effortful processing by brain-injured and cultural-familially mentally retarded and nonretarded persons were compared in a letter priming task. Both retarded groups responded considerably slower than did the nonretarded group. Inhibitory effects due to a prime stimulus and facilitative effects following brief presentations of prime stimuli were similar for all groups. Facilitative effects remained at the same level for the nonretarded group but clearly continued to increase for the retarded groups along the longest presentation intervals. The findings were interpreted as showing similar automatic processing effects in all groups. Effortful processing by retarded persons, on the other hand, was slower to develop and possibly greater than that by nonretarded persons.

Life-span development of adaptive behavior of 30,749 mentally retarded individuals residing in California and being served by the California Department of Developmental Services was studied. The estimated life-span trends differed somewhat from those reported in an earlier investigation (Eyman & Arndt, 1982.) We used a larger sample and a more appropriate model and found different growth curves in adaptive behavior over levels of retardation, contrary to the Eyman and Arndt findings. Moreover, when cross-sectional vs. semi-longitudinal growth curves were compared, the degree of similarity of the two types of curves was a function of level of retardation. Evidence on the need for large sample life-span studies based on at least 6 to 8 years follow-up was presented.

Body composition of 57 mentally retarded adults (25 women, 32 men) was assessed. Skinfold and girth measurements were collected to determine how accurately existing regression equations could predict percentage body fat for a retarded population when compared to hydrostatic weighing (criterion measure) at total lung capacity. No significant differences were found between five of the six regression equations evaluated for men and four of the six regression equations evaluated for women; however, three equations had the greatest predictability and were recommended for use in estimating the percentage body fat of retarded adults.

Compared to the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) is generally reported to result in IQs that are somewhat lower for nonretarded subjects and unchanged for retarded subjects. In the present study these findings were replicated with subjects in a residential treatment center, except that the moderately retarded subgroup demonstrated significantly higher WAIS-R IQs (mean increase of 6 points in Full Scale IQ), with reclassification as mildly mentally retarded possible for 64% of these persons. Such differential, level-specific effects require careful interpretation of WAIS-R IQs of retarded persons in the context of actual adaptive skills.

Pulmonary edema is an important medical risk for mentally retarded persons. To evaluate the predisposing conditions and their influence on clinical management, I analyzed 1,197 records with autopsy findings over a 40-year period in a state hospital. Of these, 220 subjects had severe pulmonary edema, and 433 had no pulmonary edema. There was more frequent occurrence in patients who were older, had higher IQs, and were ambulatory, as well as in those with epilepsy. Sudden death also predisposed to pulmonary edema. Atelectasis related prominently, but aspiration and pulmonary emphysema did not. Cardiovascular lesions were not a significant cause of pulmonary edema in this population. The underlying conditions must be considered in individualizing treatment.