Training EMR and intellectually average adolescents of low and middle SES for formal thought

This study was designed as an attempt to train EMR and intellectually average adolescents to achieve the stage of formal thought. The sample consisted of 120 white male subjects from secondary public schools. Sixty met the EMR criteria and 60 met the criteria for average intelligence. Thirty of each of these were of middle SES and 30 of low SES. Lister's (1970) training procedure was used. The results indicated that three was only negligible transfer. The results also indicated that the training was effective in helping the subjects' competence on the trained tasks. A significant interaction between SES and intelligence was also found. This finding was discussed in terms of the utility of the IQ test as a useful diagnostic tool with all SES levels.