Expectancy of success and the probability learning of middle-class lower-class, and retarded children.

This study tested the hypothesis that retarded and normal children of the same MA differ in their performance on a partially reinforced 3-choice learning task because they have differing expectancies of success. The performance of 60 normal lower-class (low expectancy) and 60 normal middleclass (high expectancy) Ss were compared with that of 60 noninstitutionalized retardates. J of the Ss in each group were assigned to a success, failure, or control condition which they experienced prior to performing on the criterion task, i of the Ss in each group were penalized for making errors on the criterion task while the other i were not. Normal lower-class Ss showed the most maximizing (correct responses) and the least left, middle, right patterning of their responses, while normal middle-class Ss showed the least maximizing and most patterning. Retarded Ss fell between these 2 groups on both measures.