Implicit Learning in Children and Adolescents With Mental Retardation

Abstract

The literature on implicit learning in persons with mental retardation is scarce and contradictory with respect to the relationship between degree of intellectual disability and impact of implicit-learning processes on performance. We examined children and adolescents with mild or moderate mental retardation and typically developing children matched on MA with regard to their implicit learning. Individuals with mental retardation modified their behavior after an implicit training procedure in a way similar to MA- or CA-matched controls. The impact of implicit learning did not vary as a function of IQ or age. However, some differences appeared between groups in their explicit remembering of the training conditions. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.

The possible benefits of reduced errors in the motor skills acquisition of children

“…Such an evolutionary perspective offers an explanation for why the patterns observed in implicit learning among adult learners have been replicated in children despite different cognitive processing abilities. Consistent with the findings of the recent studies [10,11,18], a lack of sensitivity to both age [22] and IQ [23] has also previously been demonstrated for implicit motor learning in simpler sensorimotor tasks.…”

The impact of spatio-temporal constraints on cursive letter handwriting in children

“…The combination of both constraints may be a means of eliciting implicit learning processes that would facilitate the formation of associations between the different segments of a letter. The efficacy of these processes has been revealed in several studies, in typically developing children (Vinter & Perruchet, 1999 as well as in disabled children (Vinter & Detable, 2003). Our results suggest the importance of encouraging the production of a continuous movement, not hampered by continually referring back to the model.…”

Artificial grammar learning in children: abstraction of rules or sensitivity to perceptual features?

“…The training items constituted primes for the subsequent generation test. These instructions made use of the criteria defined by Vinter and Perruchet (1999, 2000; see also Vinter and Detable, 2003) for preventing conscious influences from contaminating information processing during testing. 2 When a flag was completed, the experimenter recorded the production using the numeric keypad and the colors selected by the child appeared on the monkey's flag.…”