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Distractibility in the Mentally Retarded: Negative Evidence for an Orienting Inadequacy

Three studies are described in which the orienting behavior of normal and mentally retarded children is investigated under a variety of conditions. An initial study found that, in many cases, the normal children showed nontask orientations to a greater extent than did the retarded children. An examination of those circumstances wherein the retarded had been found to glance more indicated that such circumstances, often observed in the classroom, are inappropriate for adjudging retarded children to be distractible. Further research involving only retarded subjects showed that the inclusion of an adult in the learning situation greatly increased the retarded children's nontask orientations. However, it was also shown that if cues were provided by the adult they would be utilized by the subjects; the retarded children's glancing apparently represented information seeking and not merely vacuous orientations to a salient social stimulus. A new conception of children's attending behaviors was suggested to account for the findings.