Gli effetti del superapprendimento sul processo di reversal shift nella formazione dei concetti in soggetti con grave ritardo mentale

Concept learning processes in severely retarded children were investigated using the reversal shift. This paradigm allows to stress the relationships among different conceptual features. According to Kendler's theory shift skills require implicit mediation processes related to the cognitive development. It has been hypothesized that if the mentally retarded children receive specific training and additional over learning trials, they might perform correctly discrimination, intradimensional and extradimensional shift. To 72 normal subjects (5/6 years old) and 72 severely mental retarded children (14 years old), were administered two successive bidimensional discriminative tasks. One half of the subjects in both mental level performed over learning trials on the first task. Then, the subjects were asked to perform an ID, or an ED or a control task, according to condition groups. The results indicate that the severely retarded children performances in ID and in ED shift improve with the overlearning trials training. They show almost the same learning rate as the normal subjects.