The effects of teacher-delivered social reinforcement on the task persistent behavior of educable mentally retarded children

The effects of teacher-delivered social reinforcers on the task persistent behavior of children enrolled in an intermediate class for the educable mentally retarded were studied. These children were grouped with a regular fourth grade class during a social studies period in which the study was conducted. The special education children were randomly divided into two groups, with seven children in each group. Using a reversal design, social reinforcers were delivered contingent upon the task persistent behavior of the seven target children. The seven youngsters in the control, or nonreinforcement, group were essentially ignored as they engaged in appropriate task-related behaviors. The results clearly show that increases in the level of task persistent behavior and the administration of social reinforcement were functionally related. The level of task persistent behavior emitted by the control children was not affected by reinforcement delivered to their peers.     

1972 Revision of the Stanford-Binet: A farewell to the mental age

Inspection of the 1972 revised norms for the Stanford-Binet demonstrate that the average mental age for a particular CA no longer numerically corresponds to that CA. Thus, mental ages derived from the test cannot any longer be interpreted as mental ages. A table of test ages based on the 1972 norms is provided.