Correlation of the Auditory Digit Memory Span With General Intelligence
- Author:
Arthur S. Clark, M.A.
Graduate Student, University of Pennsylvania Memory span has come to be accepted ” “?? f ta of intellectual development.” So true is is ^ ^ ^ compre_ rarely omitted from any battery of tests w ose ^oW reiiable an hensive. Some doubt, however, is arising as o ^ intelligence, index this particular ability is with re|a* . complete bibliogWhipple, (1) who perhaps has compile . . ^ ^rp^e m0re careful raphy of memory span tests, reports (p. ‘ strates at least a correlational work of the past few yeais . ^iate memory and fairly good degree of correspondence between.1 ^gence.” On the either school standing or estimated geneia adequate other hand Humpstone (2), who worked ^ own college standard procedure for the digit span, oun children of the students purely negative results. As r?&ai s , . ^ memory spans upper grades he finds, p. 17, those wo a ^ -n school are about equally divided between &00 a^^ve |oW spans.” More Work, and the same is true with those w 0 ^91 nine-year-old recently Sherman (3) made an investiga ion^ border-line, children which included individuals ? ee variability backward and adequate capacity. She s a es, ^ cases were frewas such that even “feeble-minded 01 or digits” Her conclusion quently able to repeat as many as six or seven digits or more, the is that “in case an individual is able to rePea e diagnosis is digit test is of no positive value so far as concerned.” , direction of Dr Witmer, Last year it was my privilege, unc er ? minimum auditory to undertake the standardization ol t eg ^ pupils of the digit span at the fifteen-year level. For this s y ^ ^ tegt> Tilden Junior High School, of Philade p ia, jjg were arranged Except in the 8B and 9th grades, all tne ^biUty Grouping” according to the so called “Intelligence ortunity to test Plan. It occurred to me that here mig general intelliont the correlation between digit memory s variability revealed gence. Upon a somewhat cursory inspectionx ^ ^ University of ^as amazing. At the suggestion of Dr 1 e > out to explore Pennsylvania, the present investigation was -ne koW far the *ore definitely this fact. The purpose is to ae intelligence. group auditory digit memory span correlates wit g
PROCEDURE
An unselected group of fifty boys and girls of the 9B class of the Tilden Junior High School, Philadelphia, were taken as subjects. To them was given the group digit memory span test, using Humpstone’s arrangement of digits. The Humpstone procedure for written reproduction was followed with these exceptions:?(1) Only fourteen series of digits were used, ranging in length from three to nine digits, including two series of each length; (2) The digits were pronounced at a conversational rate instead of one per second. On another day the same pupils were given the Philadelphia School District Group Test of Mental Ability. This test is a modification of the Army Alpha. It consists of six parts as follows: Test 1. Directions Test 2. Common Sense Judgment Test 3. Same and Opposites Test 4. Number Completion Test 5. Observation?(Missing Parts) Test 6. Information The results were then correlated, using the product moment formula.
RESULTS Digit Span with Direction Test r = . 137 Digit Span with Common Sense Judgment Test.. . r = . 018 Digit Span with Same and Opposites Test r = ? . 062 Digit Span with Number Completion Test r = . Digit Span with Observation Test r = ? .003 Digit Span with Information Test r = . 030 Digit Span with Total Score of Entire Test r = ? . 029
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
It is obvious that memory span shows no correlation with this general intelligence test as a whole, or with any of its component parts. From this it follows that memory span is a mental ability distinct from the abilities measured by these particular tests. Aside from this the most interesting fact brought forth was the results of the negro children. In the various test scores they stood in every instance among the lowest ten per cent while they gave a digit memory span of eight and nine placing them among the highest ten per cent in memory span.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Tests. Part II. BaltimoreWarwick and York, 1915.
2. Humpstone, H. J. Some Aspects of the Memory Span Test. A Study in Assoda bility. The Psychological Clinic Press, 1917. 3. Sherman, I. C. A Note on the Digit Test. The Psychological Clinic, 1923, X i p. 124.
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