Survival Word Acquisition In Mentally Retarded Adolescents With Multihandicaps: Effects Of Color-Reversed Stimulus Materials

Abstract

This study examined the effects of reversing the color of stimulus materials used to teach survival vocabulary to 16 spastic cerebral palsied and 16 other multihandicapped adolescents with mental retardation. Subjects were taught with standard black-on-white and with white-on-black, sight word cards. Order of administration, color presentation, and words were counterbalanced; trials to criterion was the dependent measure. Results indicated that white-on-black cards improved the acquisition performance of both groups, but did not affect retention. Findings are consistent with previous related research with cerebral palsied and nondisabled children. Implications for practice and for additional research are discussed.