Question

Tony is a typically developing student in preschool. He learned to discriminate between a circle and a triangle in 3 trials. His classmate, Jay, has an intellectual disability. How many trials might Jay require to perform the same task?

Answer 1

Answer:

The best answer to the question: How many trials might Jay require to perform the same task, would be: at least 30 trials.

Explanation:

Commonly speaking an intellectual disability is diagnosed when an IQ test is administered and the results show a score lower than 70. This means that a person´s perceptual, learning and understanding capacities, as well as cognition, will be less rapid than those with higher IQ scores.

Seeing a figure like a circle and a triangle, diferentiating them, learning their differences and understanding those differences, depends on the mental acuity and the fast processing and integrating centers in the brain. Jay, who has been diagnosed with an intellectual disability, which means his IQ is below 70, will take a lot more trials to differentiate a circle from a triangle, than Tony, because these shapes are particularly complex, and require the engagement of processing centers that will take longer in Jay to engage. Thus, he will need at least 10 times more tries than Tony to learn the difference between the two figures.