THE INFLUENCE OF MENTAL RETARDATION ON MENTAL REPRESENTATION AND MOTOR EXECUTION

Abstract

Abstract study of the cognitive phenomena is a relatively new field, though it is connected to past framework of cognitive psychology and can be attributed to previous research targeted at brain and behavior. All researches leading up to this point has been oriented toward healthy or animalistic models, directed toward examining the significance of cognitive functions and its influence on the subject of mental representation. Along these same lines, this research was geared in a similar but newer direction. We tested the contribution of cognitive functions over a group of examinees who are mentally retarded. Toward that end, we used two groups of movements (non-transitive and transitive, from and toward the body). With the purpose of examining the influence of maturation and education, examinees were sampled to be diagnosed with mental retardation between the ages of 16 to 19. results from the research showed that all the examinees had a significant fall of accomplishments in relation to the maximum possible correct movements. Also, examinees encountered more problems when given assignments with imaginary objects (transitive movements). Finally, we found that older examinees had better test results than the younger ones. Key words: mental representation, mental retardation, movement. (ProQuest: ... denotes formula omitted.) Introduction Probably the most common descriptions of mental representation appeared as anecdotal content. After that, real-life content becomes challenge for consideration and research. Jeannerod, using a simple example, gives this explanation: Motor ideas in relation to their representative action operate the same as a teacher and pupil do. For example, when the motor skills for playing an instrument are learned. student observes as the teacher demonstrates the action and then, using these instructions, the pupil imitates and reproduces the action. Although the pupil doesn't perform the actions during the demonstration, the teacher's actions can be represented in the student's thoughts. ones who explore the process of motor learning or learning in general also explore the issue of programming. It has been established that programming is connected to mental representation. The first step in programming is imagining. I want to imagine a structure that will represent reality. It is a structure of data that is kept in the thoughts during the internal process. Bill Gates gave a very interesting interpretation of mental representation, You have to simulate in your mind how the program's going to work, and you have to have a complete grasp of how the various pieces of the program work together (1). Petre (1989) describes mental representations as something visible. He explains that the earliest things are a visualization of those structures in one's head. They are the dynamic structures in which things can function together. Defining mental representation and theoretical opinions There are a relatively large number of definitions for mental representations. very notion of imagery is met as often a new idea. As always, there are many different points of view for observation and definition of problems or ideas. These are mainly a reflection of the education system or the researcher's own affinity. We believe that we can take out two directions of this paradigm of mental representation and its interpretation with insinuation that in the frames of every direction there are oposits, and their number enlarged rapidly. One direction consists of a group of authors who formulate their opinions based on neurology. We recognize the imagery as multiple neural subsystems that support, for example, spacial and visual memory (2). Those subsystems carry information that can be decoded in different ways. Furthermore, this multiple decoding in the frames of the mental representations are actually instruments for solving problems (3). …