This study evaluated a cognitive-process approach used to train three secondary-aged students with moderate mental retardation on a social skill involving response to criticism. The cognitive-process approach teaches a generative process of social behavior rather than specific component behaviors; relies on receptive and expressive language skills; actively involves learners; and requires learners to analyze, discriminate, and respond to multiple stimuli. In this study, subjects were presented with five scenarios depicting workers being criticized, and were then given training in four components of the cognitive-process approach: social decoding skills, social decision skills, social performance skills, and social evaluation skills. Instructional techniques included modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. Two of the three students successfully learned the process and generalized their performance to untrained stimuli after process training. (25 references) (JDD)