Intelligence and learning of learning disabled adolescents under three conditions.

Summary.-In further analysis of previously presented data Pearson correlations between scores on learning tasks and WISGR IQs were computed for 90 adolescents diagnosed as learning disabled who had learned the hardness levels of 14 minerals under three conditions, keyword mnemonic, direct question, and free study. A statistically significant correlstion of .44 was noted for students in the keyword condition vs .16 and .19 for free study and direct questions. The relation between intelligence and learning has long been of interest to psychologists. Since the early studies of Woodrow (1938, 1939), intelligence and "ability to learn" have not been understood as necessarily the same. Jensen (1980), drawing upon the work of Zeaman and House ( 1967) and Woodrow ( 1938, 1939). listed nine conditions under which scores on learned tasks and IQs are correlated. These conditions include circumstances under which the task to be learned is (a) intentional, (b) meaningful, (c) insightful, (d) age-related, (e) controlled for time, (f) hierarchical, (g) of moderate difficulty, (h) facilitated by transfer from past learning, and (i) relatively unpracticed or learned. These conditions suggest that a task which requires conscious transformation of stimulus and response material would be more highly correlated with intelligence than material learned by rote. Such a condition is thought to be the keyword method (Atkinson, 1975). In a recent investigation (Mastropieti, Scruggs, & Levin, 1983) 90 learning disabled junior high school-aged students were taught the hardness levels of 14 minerals (e.g., bauxite = 1) using keyword, direct question, or free study methods. In the keyword condition, students were first taught easily remembered keywords for the mineral names (e.g., buxite = box). They were then taught rhyming pegwords for the numbers one to ten (one is bun, two is shoe, three is tree, etc.). Finally, they were shown a picture of the keyword interacting with its respective pegword (e.g., for buxite = 1, a picture of a box full of buns). In the direct-question condition, students were drilled by the examiner on the minerals and hardness levels. In the free-study condition, students were allowed to study the minerals and their hardness levels however they wished, although in fact all students in this condition reported using rote strategies. After the study period, all subjects were questioned regard~ng their recall of hardness levels when given mineral names. Students were given a score of 0 to 14, depending on how many hardness levels were correctly given. Students in the keyword condition recalled substantially more information (755%) than those in either directquestion (28%) or free-study (36%) conditions (standard deviations were 2.87, 1.73, and 2.70, respectively). The level of conscious mental manipulation in the keyword condition suggests, based on Jensen's model, that the scores of these students would be more highly correlated with IQs than the scores of students in the direct-question or free-study conditions. The present analysis was intended as a test of this hypothesis.