@article{6f8d36db2f4e4f9aaba01a609d1f8ef1,
title = "Flexibility training with educable retarded children",
abstract = "This experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that training in perceptual and cognitive shifts would improve the performance of EMR children on flexibility measures and on the Binet and WISC scales. Twenty-eight children received 42 exercises in cognitive flexibility and were compared to a control group that was matched on mental age. Instruction facilitated performance on variables measuring verbal fluency and concept formation; however, significant improvement was generally limited to those variables which shared content with the training exercises.",
author = "McKinney, {James D.} and Corter, {Harold M.}",
note = "Funding Information: Several experiments have been conducted which suggest that training in specific cognitive skills such as concept formation (Cotter & McKinney, 1966; McDonald, 1964), verbal fluency (Rouse, 1965), and perception (Chansky, 1964) facilitate the performance of retarded children on various test variables. More recently, Corter & McKinney (1968) tested the hypothesis that special training emphasizing perceptual and cognitive flexibility would increase the performance of EMR and normal children on both flexibility tasks and on the Binet Intelligence Scale. Training included such exercises as figure-ground reversal, embedded figures, concept sorting, classification, and verbal fluency. Retarded and normal experimental groups received instruction in 30-45 minute sessions for 20 days and were compared to control groups which were matched on MA and sex. Significant increases were observed for the trained groups on each of the five flexibility test variables and for Binet IQ. It was concluded that this process-oriented instruction had a high degree of generality in that it resulted in improvement on cognitive tasks which were independent of training. At the same time the efficacy of such cognitive training for general classroom use has not been established by replication studies. The purpose of the present experiment was to test the effectiveness of flexibility training as carried out by the classroom teacher over a more extended period of time than that reported by Corter & McKinney (1968). Also, a multivariate 1T his research was supported by a grant from the U.S. Office of Education, Division of Handicapped Children and Youth. Appreciation is expressed to the members of the cognitive training staff at North Carolina University for their aid in the collection of these data. Copyright: Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "1971",
doi = "10.1016/0022-4405(71)90038-0",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "9",
pages = "455--461",
journal = "Journal of School Psychology",
issn = "0022-4405",
publisher = "Elsevier BV",
number = "4",
}