Learning capacity in adolescents with mild intellectual disabilities

Scores on a learning potential test (the Hessels Analogical Reasoning Test) were examined to assess how to provide a better estimate of the learning capacity of students with mild intellectual disabilities compared to IQ scores. As a criterion, a dynamic test of chemistry learning was used. 46 adolescents from a special education institute participated. The results show that learning ability, as estimated with the learning potential test, did not correlate with a traditional measure of IQ (n = 23). Moreover, IQ did not predict who would profit from training in novel, school-related domains. Multiple-regression analysis confirmed the superiority of the learning potential test to predict scores on a chemistry test administered in training-posttest format. This study demonstrated that a learning potential test is able to better predict such specific future learning outcomes and may be of added value in the differentiation of the learning potential of students with mild intellectual disabilities.