[A developmental study about the effect of an organizational strategy on memory in mental retardates]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the organizational strategy of memory in mental retardates. Forty young (mean CA = 9:07, mean IQ = 60) and forty old retardates (mean CA = 13:07, mean IQ = 58) were required to learn a list of sixteen pictures from four taxonomic categories. Learning was continued during four trials by study-test method. In B-C treatment subjects were presented the pictures in category block and required to recall in constrained method with category. In R-F treatment subjects were presented pictures in random order and asked free recall. The effect of an organizational strategy on recall prompted by B-C treatment was found to be greater in the old retardates than in the young retardates. Thus the memory strategy of retardates showed the same developmental order with time lag as in normal children, and the developmental lag theory (Zigler, 1969) was supported.