A rotary pursuit task employing a supplementary feedback paradigm was used to study the effects of augmenting, task-inherent information (feedback) in enhancing motor acquisition of mildly retarded children. 119 subjects were trained on the task under control and six differential applications of supplementary visual, tactile or auditory feedback. Task acquisition was facilitated by supplementary feedback in specific treatments. Also, task acquisition was favored under conditions where the locus of the supplementary feedback was juxtaposed with the "correct" response behavior. Those feedback treatments which were juxtaposed with incorrect or "error" behavior did not serve to facilitate acquisition of the pursuit task with mildly retarded subjects. A tenable explanation for the consistency of the difference between treatments could be an increase in habit state, created by the locus of the feedback which served to reinforce the elicited response.
The purpose of study was to examine the differential coding and processing characteristics of two movement cue types in the investigation of the short-term memory of mentally retarded and nonretarded children. The central focus of the study was to determine the effects of formal instruction in the use of a mnemonic versus no instruction with both types of cues in a memory for movement paradigm. The investigation was conducted across two experiments. The main conclusion drawn from Exp. 1 was that movement 'location' cues were coded, processed, and retained by both the mentally retarded and the nonretarded children, but only the former required instruction in the use of a mnemonic to achieve accurate recall. Exp. 2 was fundamentally a replication of Exp. 1 with the exception that movement 'extent' cues were maintained reliable. The results were similar but not exactly the same as those of Exp. 1. Only the mentally retarded children given mnemonic instruction appeared to code, process, and retain movement 'extent' cues over time. The net result of the two experiments was that formal instruction in the use of a mnemonic was of benefit to the mentally retarded subjects and was not necessary for nonretarded subjects to achieve the same level of movement accuracy.
A short-term memory paradigm was employed to contrast differences in accuracy of recall of three groups of children who ranged in age from 7 to 16 yr. The experimental task required reproduction of a preselected criterion movement of the arm/hand on a linear positioning device. However, the relatively sizeable age differences between groups were associated with marked disparity in arm lengths. Such disparity is typically not represented by a linear or scalar measure of movement. Since movement of the limbs of the body takes place in an arc of a circle, an angular representation of movement at the primary joint (shoulder) seemed a plausible alternative. This representation was achieved by transposing the raw linear measures into an angle which fully considers differential arm lengths. The results of the linear analyses of absolute error indicated that the 7- to 9-yr.-old group was significantly inferior in accuracy of recall to both the 10- to 12- and 14- to 16-yr.-old groups. Also, the 7- to 9-yr.-old group did not appear to rehearse spontaneously as did the older children. Data transposed into an angular form yielded quite different results from the linear ones reported. In this instance the 7- to 9-yr.-old group remained significantly inferior in accuracy of recall to the 14- to 16-yr.-old group but not the 10- to 12-yr.-olds. Of most interest is that the linear evidence for spontaneity of rehearsal in the two older groups was not sustained by the angular data.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.