Generalized identity matching to sample of two-dimensional forms in individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Most adults with moderate or severe ID can pass generalized identity-matching tests—check first, assume nothing.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested 44 adults with moderate or severe intellectual disability.
Each person sat at a table with three cards.
One card showed a shape. The other two were new shapes.
The task: pick the card that matched the sample shape.
No one got hints. The shapes changed every trial.ight trials tested if learning would spread to brand-new forms.
What they found
Thirty-four out of forty-four passed.
That is 77 percent.
Their mental ages ranged from 2 to 7 years.
Typical kids of the same mental age often fail this test.
The adults with ID beat the odds.
How this fits with other research
Rosenthal et al. (1980) showed the same group can learn coin labels and use them in new ways.
Both studies used single-case designs and found strong generalization.
The 1980 paper trained comprehension first, then production.
Cordova et al. (1993) skipped labels and went straight to matching.
The newer study extends the older one by proving the skill holds even without naming.
Shire et al. (2022) found two subgroups in mild ID: some switch tasks easily, others do not.
This looks like a contradiction, but it is not.
Y et al. tested shifting between rules.
V et al. tested simple matching.
Different skills, same population.
Together they tell us: test the skill, do not guess from the label.
Why it matters
Before you write a goal, run a quick identity-matching probe.
If the learner passes, you can skip basic matching drills.
Move straight to harder tasks like conditional discrimination or listener responding.
This saves time and respects the learner’s real abilities.
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Join Free →Place three novel shape cards on the table. Run ten identity-matching trials. Record pass or fail to set the right starting point.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
An assessment of identity matching to sample with two-dimensional forms was conducted with 44 subjects with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities. Identity matching that did not require conditional discriminative functions was tested first; subjects who passed that test were then tested on a conditional identity matching task. Tests for generalized identity matching were passed by 30 of the 44 subjects. The 14 individuals who did not pass were given a further teaching assessment that sought to teach identity matching directly via standard teaching methods. Some subjects also received training on a series of simple discriminations taught by the same methods. Four additional subjects passed identity matching tests. Overall, generalized identity matching was demonstrated in 34 of 44 subjects, including 7 of 16 individuals with mental age (MA) scores of 3.0 years and below and 14 of 15 individuals with MA scores between 3.0 and 5.0 years. Results with these two groups are much superior to those typically reported for individuals with comparable MA scores. The capacity for generalized performances requiring same/different judgments appears to have been substantially underestimated in this population, perhaps especially when the stimuli are two-dimensional, relatively abstract forms.
Research in developmental disabilities, 1993 · doi:10.1016/0891-4222(93)90038-l