Relationship of deficits in intelligence test performance of preschool children to perinatal experience.

The intelligence test records of 193 children age 3 and of 119 age 5 were analyzed in relation to their perinatal experiences and intelligence level (average or superior). The children were classified as unstressed (Group 1), suspect (Group 2), and presumably stressed (Group 3). At both ages, significant differences were found at both intelligence levels between Groups 1 and 2 + 3 in ability to copy forms. At 3 yr. a significant difference between Groups 1 and 2 + 3 in verbal skill was found among the average Ss. It is concluded that isolated deficits on complex verbal and visuomotor tasks may be indicative of minimal birth injury and that such injury is more observable among average than superior children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and validation of the Signed Paired Associates Test.

Objective: To develop and validate a verbal (sign-based) test of learning and memory for individuals who are deaf. Method: Completed test development, determined performance norms, investigated correlation with IQ, and evaluated discriminant validity in healthy versus clinical participant samples. Participants: Thirty-eight deaf adults screened as free from brain impairment and 35 deaf adults referred for cognitive testing. Outcome measure: Signed Paired Associates Test (SPAT). Results: Healthy participant norms were similar to pilot study norms. SPAT performance was correlated with IQ. The healthy sample scored significantly better than the clinical sample on all 13 SPAT performance elements analyzed. Performance patterns paralleled those commonly found with other tests of verbal learning and memory. Conclusions: SPAT shows utility as a test of verbal learning and memory for sign language users and evidence of validity in detecting verbal cognitive impairment in that population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vocabulary Testing.

The point made by Anastasi (see record 1967-08794-001) is most timely. A distressingly high percentage of psychologists still are at the mass stage, developmentally speaking, in their perception of intelligence tests and intelligence testing. Simple differentiations are woefully infrequent in evidence. Many educators have employed Wechsler Performance scores, in their "predictive" thinking, as though they "said" the same thing as the Verbal scores. Articles tend often to be accepted for publication, and the research on which they were based too often to be directed, reflecting an assumption that a vocabulary test is a vocabulary test is a vocabulary test--where scores on, say, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test are taken, at least implicitly, to reflect the same phenomenon as do scores on the Binet vocabulary test, or on a multiple-choice type of vocabulary test. No apparent awareness is in evidence of a sensitivity to a difference between the identification of pictures and verbal labels, the verbal production of definitions, and/or the recognition of verbal equivalents or similarities. Also, psychologists who have been trained primarily with or on adults, with respect to whom IQs can have certain limited value, tend to think of children in similar terms when in reality even a good IQ has very limited value to the elementary class teacher. This studious impoverishment of test information is further perpetuated by group test publishers who refrain from providing level scores that could be of help to elementary level teachers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The usefulness of Canadian Army Selection Tests in a culturally restricted population.

It was hypothesized that Canadian Army pre-enrollment screening tests would discriminate against a group of Indian/Eskimo/Metis youth from the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Various comparisons with standardization samples were made. The hypothesis of bias was partially proven. One test with high verbal content correlated much more highly with education and much less with subjective assessment of suitability for enrollment than the other culture-reduced test. The same trend was apparent on an item analysis of the two tests, in which the experimental sample of 50 achieved as high a percentage of correct responses as the standardization group on the culture-reduced test, but did much more poorly on the highly verbal test. It was concluded that the culture-reduced test should be employed as the preliminary screening device for the Canadian Forces in the population from which the experimental sample was drawn. This conclusion has been accepted as Canadian Forces recruiting policy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does the Defining Issues Test measure psychological phenomena distinct from verbal ability? An examination of Lykken's query.

This study examined the incremental validity of the Defining Issues Test (DIT), a test purporting to measure moral reasoning ability relative to verbal ability and other major markers of the construct of general intelligence (g) . Across 2 independent studies of intellectually precocious adolescents (top 0.5%), results obtained with the DIT revealed that gifted individuals earned significantly higher moral reasoning scores than did their average-ability peers; they also scored higher than college freshmen, who were 4 to 5 years older. The relative standing of the intellectually gifted adolescents on moral reasoning, however, appears to be due to their superior level of verbal ability as opposed to any of a number of the other psychological variables examined here. The hypothesis that the DIT is conceptually distinct from conventional measures of verbal ability was not confirmed. Investigators conducting subsequent studies involving the assessment of moral reasoning are advised to incorporate measures of verbal ability into their designs, thereby enabling them to ascertain whether moral reasoning measures are indeed capturing systematic sources of individual differences distinct from verbal ability.… (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of the D 48, Cattell Culture Fair, and Army Beta Tests in a sample of college males.

The D 48 test, the Cattell Culture Fair, and the Revised Beta Examination were administered to lower-division college males (N = 94 to 33). Additional verbal and nonverbal measures, as well as the grade point average (GPA) were also available. None of the 3 tests correlated very highly with the GPA, but of the 3 only the D 48 correlated significantly (.22 significant at the .05 level). Analysis of the results indicates that the D 48 has slightly more predictive validity than the Culture Fair or Army Beta and that it is essentially similar to these tests in its pattern of relationships to other measures of ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Meta-Analytic Review of Verbal Fluency Performance in Patients With Traumatic Brain Injury.

A meta-analysis of 30 studies with 1,269 participants was conducted to investigate the sensitivity of tests of verbal fluency to the presence of traumatic brain injury (TBI). As has been found for patients with focal frontal lobe injuries (but not for patients with focal temporal lobe lesions), TBI patients were comparably impaired on tests of phonemic and semantic fluency. The phonemic fluency deficit could not be accounted for by patients' level of premorbid or current verbal IQ and was also substantially (although not significantly) in excess of the deficit on a measure of psychomotor speed. Phonemic fluency was also significantly more sensitive to the presence of TBI than was the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (R. K. Heaton, 1981). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Latent structure and factorial invariance of a neuropsychological test battery for the study of preclinical Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: To examine the latent structure of a test battery currently being used in a longitudinal study of asymptomatic middle-aged adults with a parental history of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and test the invariance of the factor solution across subgroups defined by selected demographic variables and known genetic risk factors for AD. Method: An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a sequence of confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted on 24 neuropsychological measures selected to provide a comprehensive estimate of cognitive abilities most likely to be affected in preclinical AD. Once the underlying latent model was defined and the structural validity established through model comparisons, a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis model was used to test for factorial invariance across groups. Results: The EFA solution revealed a factor structure consisting of five constructs: verbal ability, visuospatial ability, speed & executive function, working memory, and verbal learning & memory. The CFA models provided support for the hypothesized 5-factor structure. Results indicated factorial invariance of the model across all groups examined. Conclusions: Collectively, the results suggested a relatively strong psychometric basis for using the factor structure in clinical samples that match the characteristics of this cohort. This confirmed an invariant factor structure should prove useful in research aimed to detect the earliest cognitive signature of preclinical AD in similar middle aged cohorts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A solid-phase protein assay: quantitation of protein in the nanogram range

A solid-phase protein assay (SPA) for the determination of protein concentrations in the nanogram range is described. The technique is based on biotinylation of immobilized protein on the solid phase of a microtiter plate and quantitation of the protein-biotin complexes by peroxidase-coupled avidin. Compared to the routinely used Bradford and Lowry protein detection techniques, the described SPA assay is (depending upon the protein assayed) 1000 to 10,000 times more sensitive. Moreover, the SPA assay can be suitable for protein quantitation of samples containing agents which commonly interfere with the routinely used detection techniques. The SPA assay is a valuable addition to the Bradford and the Lowry techniques. Used in combination with an antigen-specific ELISA it gives a reliable ratio of specific versus total protein.     

Sex differences in episodic memory: The impact of verbal and visuospatial ability.

The impact of verbal and visuospatial ability on sex differences in episodic memory was investigated. One hundred men and 100 women, 20–40 years old, participated in a series of verbal and visuospatial tasks. Episodic memory was assessed in tasks that, to a greater or lesser extent, were verbal or visuospatial in nature. Results showed that women excelled in verbal production tasks and that men performed at a superior level on a mental rotation task. In addition, women tended to perform at a higher level than men on most episodic memory tasks. Taken together, the results demonstrated that (a) women perform at a higher level than men on most verbal episodic memory tasks and on some episodic memory tasks with a visuospatial component, and (b) women's higher performance on episodic memory tasks cannot fully be explained by their superior performance on verbal production tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Source Recall Enhances Children's Discrimination of Seen and Heard Events.

The effects of rehearsing actions by source (slideshow vs. story) and of test modality (picture vs. verbal) on source monitoring were examined. Seven- to 8-year-old children (N = 30) saw a slideshow event and heard a story about a similar event. One to 2 days later, they recalled the events by source (source recall), recalled the events without reference to source (no-source-cue recall), or engaged in no recall. Seven to 8 days later, all children received verbal and picture source-monitoring tests. Children in the source recall group were less likely than children in the other groups to claim they saw actions merely heard in the story. No-source-cue recall impaired source identification of story actions. The picture test enhanced recognition, but not source monitoring, of slide actions. Increasing the distinctiveness of the target events (Experiment 2) allowed the picture test to facilitate slideshow action discrimination by children in the no-recall group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioning of a response class on a personality test.

This study attempts to demonstrate an increase in responses indicating self-acceptance on a personality test as a function of the contingent stimuli "good" and a light blink. Ss were chosen from students scoring in the lowest 15% of the acceptance-of-self distribution on a specifically constructed test. They were matched on the basis of scores and assigned to one of 3 experimental groups, "good," light, or control. "The results indicate that: (a) Learning without awareness to respond positively to acceptance-of-self statements can occur; (b) the behavior of Ss who are aware of the purpose of reinforcement does not differ significantly in this situation from that of Ss who are not aware; and (c) the verbal stimulus "good" is capable of bringing about such learning whereas the nonverbal light stimulus is not." 15 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pain and dissociation in the cold pressor test: A study of hypnotic analgesia with "hidden reports" through automatic key pressing and automatic talking.

To test whether pain blocked by hypnotic analgesia may still be perceived at some level, 20 highly hypnotizable undergraduates participated in an experiment involving cold pressor pain in the normal condition and in hypnotically suggested analgesia. 3 reports were obtained reflecting felt pain within the hypnotic analgesia condition: the usual verbal report on a numerical scale, a manual report by "automatic key pressing," and a retrospective verbal report through "automatic talking." 9 Ss who were amnesic for both keypressing and automatic talking reported more pain in the automatic (hidden) reports than in their usual verbal reports. 8 of these 9, following release of amnesia, had a clear perception of 2 levels of awareness of the pain: the usual hypnotic experience of pain attenuated by analgesia suggestions, and a knowledge at another level of a more severe pain. In no case, however, did an S give a retrospective report of normal suffering at this "hidden" level. The hypnotically analgesic S may have reported no pain verbally because he was amnesic for it; when amnesia was removed he recalled the sensory pain, but without a suffering component, because suffering apparently did not occur. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of mental abilities: An investigation of the "differentiation hypothesis."

Attempted to determine the extent to which verbal, numerical, spatial, and perceptual speed abilities will be differentiated as a function of differing amounts of classroom learning. The hypothesis was tested that verbal and numerical abilities will be differentiated earlier than perceptual speed and spatial scanning, because learning requiring the former types of abilities is emphasized quite early in the school program. 3 groups (111 7th graders, 95 9th graders, and 75 11th graders) were given the tests measuring verbal, numerical, perceptual, and spatial-scanning abilities from the Kit of Reference Tests. The factor analyses of the correlation matrices yielded 4 factors for each sample associated with eigenvalues greater than 1. The verbal and number factors were identifiable at the Grade-7 level but neither of the other 2 was easily interpretable. The spatial-scanning factor emerged at the Grade-9 level and all 4 factors were distinctly defined at the Grade-11 level. Results support the hypothesis that mental abilities become differentiated as a function of increased learning experiences. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

B. F. Skinner and the Auditory Inkblot: The Rise and Fall of the Verbal Summator as a Projective Technique.

Behaviorist B. F. Skinner is not typically associated with the fields of personality assessment or projective testing. However, early in his career Skinner developed an instrument he named the verbal summator, which, at one point, he referred to as a device for "snaring out complexes," much like an auditory analogue of the Rorschach inkblots. Skinner's interest in the projective potential of his technique was relatively short lived, but whereas he used the verbal summator to generate experimental data for his theory of verbal behavior, several other clinicians and researchers exploited this potential and adapted the verbal summator technique for both research and applied purposes. The idea of an auditory inkblot struck many as a useful innovation, and the verbal summator spawned the tautophone test, the auditory apperception test, and the Azzageddi test, among others. This article traces the origin, development, and eventual demise of the verbal summator as an auditory projective technique. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactive effects of test anxiety, test difficulty, and feedback.

Examined interactive effects of item difficulty, test anxiety, and failure feedback in a study of 67 undergraduates (mean age 20.1 yrs) using multiple-choice verbal aptitude items. Ss' levels of test anxiety were measured on the Achievement Anxiety Test and the Test Anxiety Scale. Ss were then randomly assigned to receive either a hard or an easy test either with or without immediate feedback. Results indicate that ability estimates can be affected in complex ways by the examinee's anxiety level. The least anxious Ss in the sample did best on a very hard test, and moderately anxious Ss did best on an easy test, whereas the most anxious Ss did poorly on both tests. In addition, it was found that immediate feedback improved performance, especially for Ss given an easy test. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rorschach developmental level and intelligence factors.

Attempted to provide a more complete exploration of the relationship between Rorschach developmental level scores and intelligence than has appeared to date in the literature. Factor scores for both the WAIS and Rorschach measures were used in comparing test protocols obtained from 86 16–68 yr old psychiatric inpatients. Results reaffirm a relationship between intellectual level and developmental level. Further, the relationship was found to be of a general nature. It did not rely specifically on verbal, perceptual, or memory factors. Results also indicate that the relationship held for females as well as males. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychophysical Test for the Independence of Perception and Action.

Research has suggested that perception and action are independent (see M. A. Goodale & A. Haffenden, 1998). The authors used the Ebbinghaus illusion to test this hypothesis in 2 experiments. Verbal reports of perceived size were compared with maximum grip aperture during grasping (Experiment 1) and manual reports of perceived size (Experiment 2). A multidimensional signal detection analysis was used to distinguish among the possible interactions between the two processes in each experiment (H. Kadlec & J. T. Townsend, 1992a, 1992b). In Experiment 1, the percepts were independent, and there were no interactions between processes for verbal and visuomotor responses. In Experiment 2, the percepts associated with verbal and manual reports were independent, but the processes interacted at the levels of the stimulus information and the decision rules used to transform each percept into a response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of verbal cues on recognition memory and pleasantness evaluation of unfamiliar odors

The experiment investigated the effect of verbal cues on recognition memory for unfamiliar odors. 58 participants learned 20 odors of chemical substances. The control group learned the odors without accompanying verbal labels whereas two other groups learned the odors with accompanying verbal labels. The labels referred to relatively pleasant or unpleasant odor sources. On a memory test, administered 15 min. and also 1 wk. after the learning phase, participants were asked to recognize 10 learned odors from 10 unlearned odors and to evaluate each odor's pleasantness. Analysis showed (a) the verbal labels did not facilitate recognition of the unfamiliar odors, (b) recognition performance was lower after 1 wk. than after 15 min., and (c) rated pleasantness tended to be affected by the verbal label assigned to the odor in the learning phase.