Can helping hurt? Effects of constraining and nonconstraining retrieval cue on list transfer by mentally retarded adolescents.

Retarded adolescents were given constraining and nonconstraining retrieval cues on one of the four presentation and recall trials. Subjects were cued on either Trials 2 or 3, and one-half of each group received either blocked or random presentation over the first two trails. Lists for the last two trials were randomly arranged. On Trial 4, recall for all subjects was uncued. Subjects who received nonconstraining cues showed significantly more recall transfer than did those in the constraining condition; there were no significant differences on Trials 1 through 3. Blocking facilitated clustering but not recall. Improvement over trials was associated with increases in both the number of categories and the mean number of words per category recalled. Results suggested that the provision of constraining retrieval cues may have encouraged subjects to adopt a passive role in list learning, a tendency that proved to be detrimental to subsequent uncued list processing.