Identification and Recall of Structurally Important Units in Verbal Discourse as a Function of the Metacognitive Processing of Mentally Retarded Children

Luftig, Richard L. Ph.D., Purdue University, August 1980. Identification ani recall of structurally important units in verbal discourse as a function of the metacognitive processing of mentally retarded children. Major Professor: Ronald E. Johnson. This study investigated the ability of mentally retarded students to judge the structural importance of idea units in prose. In addition experimental comparisons were made of the relationship between the judgments of importance and the patternings of recall. Sixty-four mentally retarded students ranging in chronological age from 10 to 17 years and in IQ from 50 to 73 were randomly assigned to one of five groups. The groups were presented with a passage which contained units differing in levels of structural importance and stimulus saliency. It was hypothesized that the mentally retarded learners would have difficulty in assessing the importance of the ideational units. It was also predicted that the ability to identify important units would be positively related to story recall. The treatment conditions differed as a function of whether students were given advance notice of the later recall task; whether importance ratings were required, and whether emphasis was given to the potential UtefUlnetS of the ratings in aiding recall: It was hypothesized that differential task instructions would lead to differential metacognitive fUnttidning as inferred from recall of structurally important Units. Ana4tes of variance indicated that the mentally retarded pupils