The blocking effect of pictorial prompts on sight-word reading

This study replicates and extends previous work showing that pictorial prom pts can interfere with the learning of sighs words by students with moderat e mental retardation. Effects of training with 6 students were assessed dur ing five conditions using an alternating treatments design. In four conditi ons, words were presented either alone or with a corresponding picture. In a fifth condition, pictures were used to provide feedback. The results show ed that: acquisition was achieved fastest during the word-alone conditions with 5 students.