A study of the performance of selected groups of five-year-olds on the Leiter International Performance Scale

72 Pages·04.426 MB·English

by  Tate, Miriam Esther

A STUDY OF THE PERFORMANCE OF SEIOTED GROUPS OF FIVE-XEAR-OIDS
OH THE ZSZIBR ZNIBinATIOHAL FIRFCmmHCE SCALE
Compared with the Revised Stanford-Binet, Form L,
and the Grace Arthur Scale of Performance Tests on Croups
Selected According to Known Environmental Differences
fey
Miriam E. Tate
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillm ent of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
in the Department of Child Welfare in the
Graduate College of the 5tate
University of Iowa
June 1950
ProQuest Number: 10598604
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The writer la indebted to the many people who have helped in
making this research a fait accompli t to Br* Beth L. Wellman for her
patience and guidance in directing the study and, especially, in direct­
ing the preparation of the manuscript; to Dr. Russell G* Leiter for his
enthusiasm and generosity in making available test materials and source
data; to I* A. Ops tad, Superintendent of the Iowa City public schools; to
the elementary school principals and kindergarten teachers; to Dr. Robert
C* Hammerer, psychologist with the Iowa Board of Control of State Insti­
tutions ; to the succeeding superintendents of the Iowa Annie Wittennayer
Home, Mr* E. G. Wiggins and Mr* H. R. McFhail; and to the staff of the
University of Iowa preschool laboratories for their cooperation during
the collecting of the data; to Dr* Orvis C* Irwin and Mr. Charles Spiker
for their assistance with the statistical treatment of the data; to Mr.
Chandler Screven for taking the pictures; to Ifar* l&nvill© Bro for typing
the manuscript; and to the fellow students and friends for their sugges­
tions and encouragement*
ii
TABLE OF CQUOTT3
page
Chapter I Introduction • .......................................... . ♦ 1
Chapter XX The Literature . . ......................... 7
Chapter XU Subjects and Procedure • * * • # . • • • 12
Chapter 17 Intra-test Analysis of the Leiter
International Performance Seale. . . . . 26
Chapter 7 Inter-test Comparison i
Analysis of Variance, Correlations • • • 44
Chapter 71 Summary and Conclusions. . ...........................57
Appendix A . . • * • • • • • • . • • » . .......................... 61
Appendix B . * * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Bibliography .................... @5
iii
The University of Iowa
LIBRARIES
TABLE OF TABLES
page
Table 1 Age Distribution of Subjects According to Seat and Group. 15
Table II Distribution of Preschool Enrollment . . . . . . . . . . 15
Table IH Distribution of Subjects According to Occupation of
Father . . . . . . . . . .................... 15
Table I? Education of the Fathers According to Groups . . . . . . 16
Table V Education of the Mothers According to Groups........................17
Table VI Distribution of Subjects According to Kindergartens. . . 17
Table VII length of Residence In the Iowa Annie Wittenmyer Home. • 18
Table VIII Distribution of Subjects According to Length of Testing
Interval .................... . . . . 24
Table IS IT® ANALYSIS s Percentage of Children Passing Each
Sub-test of the Letter International Performance Scale,
According to Experimental Groups and Sex, Compared to
Loiter *s Standardisation Group of Five-Year-Old s . . . . 59
Table X ITEM ANALYSIS; Percentage of Children Passing Each
Sub-test of the Leiter International Performance Scale;
Comparison of Socioeconomic Groups . . • * . . . • • • • 4 1
Table XI Analysis of Variance ............................• • • • • * • 4 5
Table XH-A Means, Standard Deviations, and Standard Errors of the
Means of Performance and Intelligence Quotients for the
Experimental Groups and Total. . . . . . . • • • • • • • 4 5
Table XII-B t Test of Differences between Test Means for Experi­
mental Groups. . . . . . 46
Table XII-C t Test of Differences between Group Means for Three
Tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................... . • • • • • • 4 6
Table XIII Bang©, Means, and Standard Deviations of Leiter Intel­
ligence Quotients in Two Scoring Systems According to
Experimental Groups. • • • • • 5 0
iv
TABLE OF TABLKS (Coat.)
page
Table HV-A Bange, Means, and Standard Deviations of Performance
and Intelligence Quotients for 108 Pive-Xear-Olds • • . . S&
Table XIV-B Bange, Means, and Standard Deviations of the Perform­
ance and Mental Ages in Months for 108 Five-Tear-Olds • • 52
Table IF Inter-test Comparison! Bange and Mean Difference
between Intelligence Quotients According to Experi­
mental Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *54
Table XVI Inter-test Correlations (Pearson Produet-moments) la
Terms of Mental Ages and Intelligence Quotients . . . . 15
Table XVIX Sequence of Test Administrations Subjects Assigned to
Sequence, According to Sex and Experimental Groups. 61
Table XVIII Bangs, Means and Standard Deviations of the Mental Ages
(Expressed in Months) Obtained on Three Tests According
to Experimental Groups . . . . . . . 8 2
v
TABLE OF PLATES
page
Plate 1 Typical arrangement of materials
during administration of the
Leiter Xnteraation Performance
Scale, Test material shown Is
I? - 2 Eight Forms,.................... ♦ 27
Plate 2 Test material® of the Leiter
International Performance Scale,
Test material shown is ? - 1
Genus,, 28
vi
X
Chapter I
xm mm rKM
The measurement of intelligence 1®, relatively speaking, a
long worked area in the field of psychological research; yet it has not
been overworked for, as the tools of research are refined, nm problems
are uncovered. The earliest attempt at defining and measuring intelligent
behavior occurred before the turn of the century, but the work of Dr* Al­
fred Binet published in France in 190S set the pattern for much of the
Interwork. He is generally regarded as the illustrious ancestor of the
intelligence test. The history of the Binet-type or verbal scale and
its many revisions in this country is too commonly known to even the be­
ginning student of psychology to be reviewed h e r e S u ffic e it to say
that the Binet-type test has been regarded generally as the standard
instrument for measuring intelligence and has been thus employed in
studying the influence of various factors upon the development of
intelligence,
In recent years, however, there has been a growing dissatisfac­
tion with tests of this type. Scientists in the areas of sociology and
psychology have raised the question a® to whether research findings have
not been partly a function of the instrument employed as well as of the
purportedly operating factors; this question has been raised most
. ________ _ \
1, The reader is referred to Henry 3* Garrett, Great Experiments In
Psychology. Rev. Edit •, Appleton-Gentury Company, 1941, pp. 1-30,
for a comprehensive history of the Binet test. See Reference (3)
in bibliography.
z
pertinently in regard to the study of environmental differences • The
criticism has been that the highly verbal Binet—type test discriminates
against the economically and educationally handicapped.
On the other hand, individual performance tests and batteries
of such tests which have been used extensively to supplement Binet-type
results, rely heavily upon manual dexterity and speed; as valid indica­
tors of intellectual functioning, they are far from satisfactory. One
suggested solution would b©{ a non-verbal test of relatively culture-free
content itiich w ill assess behavior indicative of a functioning in telli­
gence^ for example, reasoning and grasp of abstract concepts. The Leiter
International Performance Scale purports to be such a test.
The Leiter International Performance Scale
The Leiter International Performance Scale was developed by
Dr. Bussell G. Leiter in 1950-56 and standardised on Hawaiian-born orien­
tal children in 1956 (17) and on white California-born children in 1958
(28). k non-language test utilising Binet-type material, it m s con­
structed originally to be a valid Instrument for comparing th© intellec­
tual development of children from widely divergent cultures • Subsequent
to the 1958 study, 1^ was restandardised on California Caucasian children
in order to make it useful to clinicians in the United States who "would
wish to speak of the test performance of the foreign, the deaf, and the
child of varying degrees of language or speech handicaps or deafness, in
terms of th© clinicians1 asm orientation.ft^
2. Bussell G. Leiter, MA comparative study of the general intelligence of
Caucasian, Chinese, and Japanese children as measured by the Leiter
International Performance Scale,” Doctoral dissertation, 1958, Univ.
of Southern California, p. 189. Reference (28) in bibliography.
5
The present Seale consists of four sub-tests at each age level,
two to eighteen years* The Caucasian standardisation was mad© on 35
children at each age level, five through twelve years | 12 four-year-olds
and 13 three-year-olds were also tested* Leiter states that the chil­
dren* s ages were calculated from their last birthday; thus, the five-year-
olds averaged, as a group, five and one-half years, the six-year-olds six
and a half, etc.3 These California children came from average to lew
average socioeconomic backgrounds. Of the environment of the standard­
isation group, Leiter state® (5)t
In many respects their physical environment was quite
comparable to the physical environment of the Oriental child
of Honolulu If the tongue used in the home were not taken
into consideration. At least it is certain that children
from many, many other localities would have scored higher •
Leiter ha® recommended his scale as "superior to scales of the
Binet-type for use in psychological clinic® even with children who might
otherwise be able to take a test involving language, because (a) greater
objectivity of scoring; (b) greater novelty of the tasks set the child;
and (c) less chance of experience entering into the test results."
The Problem
The present research set for itse lf a three-fold problem* the
primary aim of the study was that of evaluating the underlying hypothesis
in the construction of the Leiter International Performance Scale; namely,
3* Specifically, the average C.A* for the "five year group" m s 66.09
months; for the "six year group", 77*05 months* For other years see
Table XIII, p# 197 of Reference (28).