Communication in retarded adolescents: response to listener feedback

Retarded adolescents' response to listener feedback was studied using an interpersonal description task. Thirty-six adolescent retarded speakers were asked to describe nonsense line figures for a confederate adult listener so that the listerner could select the same stimuli from an array. The listener responded to the descriptions with a predetermined random order of success and failure. Communication failure was reported to the speaker by three methods: gestural, implicit, and explicit feedback. Redescriptions given by the speaker following each type of listener feedback were counted and analyzed as to type of redescription. Significant differences were found among intelligence level groups for number of redescriptions after communication failure and also for type of redescription.