Influence of the social context on pragmatic skills of adults with mental retardation.

The influence of social context on pragmatic skills of adults with mild to moderate mental retardation was examined. Subjects were asked to judge topic maintenance presentations when shown videotaped conversations. These conversations varied in number of speakers, number of utterances per speaker turn, and degree of appropriateness of the speakers' responses. Data analysis revealed that the subjects were proficient in judging topic maintenance presentations in a simplified but not a complex context.