A comparison of part and whole training methods with mildly mentally retarded workers

A whole method of training mildly retarded young women to thread an industrial sewing machine was compared with a pure-part and a progressive-part method. All three methods produced comparable learning, as defined by performance on the complete task one month after initial training. However, part methods were markedly superior to the whole method; fewer errors were made during trials to criterion and less training time was required. Although the progressive-part method produced satisfactory training with least errors and in the fastest time, differences between progressive-part and pure-part procedures were not statistically significant.