It has been our experience in using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test that an inordinate number of verbs are missed by mentally retarded individuals. This study attempts to determine whether verb errors were due to a lack of word comprehension or a failure to understand what was being requested by the morphological-syntactic form of the stimulus. Twenty-eight subjects residing in a state facility for the mentally retarded were given a standard version and a modified version of the PPVT. On the modified version of the test, the stimulus "verbing" was altered to incorporate a syntactic helper, forming the stimulus "somebody verbing." As a result, there was a mean reduction of verb error by almost 50%.

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