Transfer of associative-clustering tendencies in borderline mentally retarded and nonretarded adolescents.

Twenty-four sixth graders, 24 seventh graders, and 24 special-education students with MAs roughly equivalent to the sixth graders were randomly assigned to the cells of a 3 (grade level) X 2 (list novelty) X 2 (list organization) factorial design. In the list-novelty condition, subjects were immediately transferred to either a same-categories or a new-categories list on the third and fourth trials. In the list-organization condition, subjects received the lists on the first two trials in either a random or blocked format. For all subjects, the last two trials were presented randomly and contained new words. The results of the analyses revealed that there was significant negative transfer over trial blocks for the same-categories transfer condition. In addition, the new-categories group clustered significantly more on the second than the first trial block. There was no significant interaction between subject and treatment factors, suggesting that the processes involved in recall were similar for nonretarded and borderline retarded subjects.