ABSTRACT
The provision of superordinate cues at presentation and recall, the opportunity to actively sort items into categories, and even the provision of general instructions to organise improved amount recalled in subjects of a mean vocabulary age (VA) of around 7 and 8. This evidence fulfills some of the criteria specified for inferring the existence of secondary processes from performance. Since all forms of intervention proved effective in the case of subjects of higher VA it is reasonable to assume that both tools themselves, their operation, and the application of the strategy to appropriate tasks are within the repertoire of the handicapped individual. The major question is to determine how the subnormal individual may learn to select a strategy of organisation independent of the experimenter's assistance. It must be admitted that the evidence in the present series of experiments that subnormal individuals can be taught to do this is not particularly strong.
