Intelligence Tests at the Royal Eastern Counties Institution
- Author:
Douglas Turner, M.B.
We have recently made comparisons between several of the different tests used for Mental Defectives. I give our results with the tests most generally employed in this country, namely, the Stanford, Burt s London Revision, Porteus Maze, and Healy’s Pictorial Completion A Test. We use many other tests, some in one case, some in another, but those named are always used wherever possible.
The comparison in each case is between the respective Intelligence Quotients and not the Mental Ages. The patients tested were all high or higher medium grade. Few Stanford Intelligence Quotients were below 50.
It is considered that as a rule defectives grade higher at Performance Tests than they do with verbal tests like the Stanford. This seems to be the case here. Our first comparison was between the results of the Stanford Test and an average of the Porteus Maze Test and Healy’s Pictorial Completion A Test. An average ?f the two Performance Tests would seem to be fairer than a result obtained from either of them alone.
Ninety-two patients were tested in this way. In 69 cases the average I.Q. arrived at from the two Performance Tests was higher than the Stanford I.Q. In three the results were the same, and in 20 the Stanford I.Q. was higher than the Average Performance I.Q. Further, where the Performance I.Q. was above the Stanford, it was much more above it than the Stanford was above the Performance Test result in the 20 cases in which the latter was the case. Where (he Performance average was above the Stanford, it was anything up to 42 points above it, and in only 24 out of 69 cases was the difference nine or less than nine points. The average for the whole 69 was 15 points above. Where the Performance average was below the Stanford, it was in 19 cases out of the 20 nine or less than nine points below, and the average difference was only five points.
For the same patients we then compared the results from the two Performance Tests already used. In 41 cases the Porteus I.Q. was above the Healy I.Q., ‘n four it was the same, and in 47 Porteus was below Healy. The range of the differences was a little higher in the latter, where Porteus was below Healy.
Twelve cases on each side were 10 or less than 10 points apart, but the average difference for the 41 cases where Porteus was above Healy was 15 points, and the average for the 47 cases where Porteus was below Healy was 19 points.
It is also usually supposed that the Stanford Tests are harder for English children than Burt’s London Revision Tests. Our experience here is small, but such as it is it seems to imply that there is, on the average, not much difference in the results where defectives are tested. Forty-four defectives were given both the Stanford and Burt’s. In 22 cases the Burt I.Q. was above the Stanford. In four the result was the same, and in 18 Burt was below the Stanford. The range of difference was small, only 11 cases, or 25 per cent., showed more than four points difference, and in two only was the difference higher than 10 points.
The average difference where Burt was above Stanford was three points, and where Burt was below Stanford 4.7 points.
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