Task persistence among organically impaired mentally retarded children.

Goal-directed persistence of mentally retarded children on tasks that have been used to assess mastery motivation among nonretarded infants was examined to determine whether retarded children were motivated to solve or work on tasks that were slightly challenging to them. The sample included 44 organically impaired retarded children (39 of them with Down syndrome) who were between 12 and 36 months of age. Results indicated significant age-related increases in children's goal-directed persistence and ability to perform tasks. Children's persistence was associated significantly with their relative ability to perform tasks. There were also highly significant differences between persistence on tasks that children could solve quickly and easily and persistence on tasks that were slightly difficult. These results are inconsistent with the interpretation that persistence is a good index of the mastery motivation of young retarded children.