ABSTRACT
In the mid 1950s, behavioral research in mental retardation accelerated dramatically, and in the decade that followed, more studies were conducted than in all the prior years. The earlier research related to clinical problems—diagnosis, psychometric evaluation, and similar issues. The “new era” was characterized not only by quantitative increases in experimentation but by qualitative changes as well. Much of the new research was clearly not directed toward the solution of practical problems. Experiments dealt with learning, motivation, perception, memory, and other concepts from general psychology. Much normative data on the behavioral potential of the retarded resulted. They were compared with normal children and adults, occasionally with lower animals, and often with other retarded persons differing psychometrically, etiologically, or in some other way believed to be important to the behavior in question.
