Classical Conditioning of Profoundly Retarded, Multiply Handicapped Children

Abstract

A classical conditioning procedure was used with five profoundly retarded children with multiple handicaps in order to investigate basic learning processes in such children. Their chronological ages ranged from 48 to 108 months and their mental ages from 0 to 5.5 months. The procedure used a sound as the conditioned stimulus, a puff of air to the cornea as the unconditioned stimulus, and eye-blink as the conditioned response. Conditioning was established for the two most developmentally advanced children, and the intermediate pair showed different patterns of orienting response to the conditioned stimulus but no evidence of conditioning. The fifth and most developmentally delayed child did not respond to the stimuli. The extent to which these results can be generalised to the conditioning of profoundly retarded, multiply handicapped children is discussed.