Stimulus relations, blocking, and sorting in the free recall and organization of EMR adolescents

Educable mentally retarded adolescents received a list of either clusterable or unrelated words according to one of three presentation methods. In blocked groups, words were presented both spatially blocked in fours and consistently ordered from trial-to-trial. In sorting groups, subjects were required to group the stimuli themselves into four groups of four. Subjects in the blocked-random conditions received the items spatially grouped in fours, but they were not consistently ordered; i.e., the groupings changed from trial-to-trial. Results indicated that clusterable items were recalled better than unrelated items and that both consistent blocking and sorting produced better recall than did the blocked-random treatment. The data for organizational measures generally parallel those for correct recall. The results were discussed in terms of appropriate techniques for remediating input organizational deficits.