Chan (1994) reports a study of Cullen, (1985) where it was found that learning disabled
(L.D.)  students tended to attribute failure to uncontrollable causes,  such as their own
lack of ability, task difficulty, or teacher bias, and  attributed success to luck or help from
the teacher.  L.D. students often lack motivation due to repeated failures and association
of learnt helplessness. They often believe that they cannot solve a problem when they
encounter difficulties.  Chan (1994) discusses attributional retraining studies that have
been tried on L.D. students.  Quite often these attempts fail, because in spite of increased
effort, these students still continue to experience failure.  Thus, increasing their belief in
lack of ability and belief of learnt helplessness.  Chan's ( 1994) research found that L.D.
students:       
     a) perceived themselves as cognitively and socially less competent, 
     b) being more likely to attribute failures to lack of ability and success to luck, 
     c) having less confidence in their own control over success or failure in school
     	tasks, 
     d) having less knowledge of learning and reading strategies and indeed, 
     e) attained lower levels of reading achievement.  
          

Chan further discusses that these descriptors correspond to descriptors of learnt helplessness.