Reasoning by trainable mentally retarded and young non-retarded individuals

Three groups of trainable retarded children, and three groups of non-retarded children matched for mental age, were presented with two problem-solving tasks. The tasks required the problem-solver to combine relevant parts of the problem and independently arrive at a solution from their combination. The data was analysed to determine: (1) whether the ability to reason in trainable retarded children showed developmental changes, and (2) to compare the development of reasoning behaviour in trainable retarded children with that of comparable MA non-retarded children. Implications were made from the findings for classroom teaching.