Responses to a Picture-Object Sorting test by two Groups of Moderately Retarded Children

This investigation evaluated 2 groups of mentally retarded institutionalized Ss on a picture-object sorting task. Ss included 60, mentally retarded institutionalized residents ranging in CA from 10.3-31.8: MA 4.0-7.2; and IQ 22-54. These two groups were matched on CA, MA, and IQ and paired on perceptual functioning on the basis of Gellner Classifications. 30 Ss were classified as Auditory Autonomic-major difficulties in abstraction and in word comprehension and 30 did not have this classification. 35 colored pictures illustrating a variety of situations were administered with 30 small toy objects to be sorted for each picture. 15 objects applied and 15 were not suitable. (1050 total objects sorted per S). Results showed that the Auditory Autonomic Ss performed less well on this type task. Implications in terms of concept formation and the Gellner theory were discussed.