According to confluence theory, a child is helped or hindered in intellectual development according to the average absolute intelligence (mental age) in the family when the child is born. An analysis of test scores, family information, and socioeconomic data of 36,000 college applicants in Colombia failed to support this theory. (Author/CP)

Three measures of field dependence were used to determine whether: (1) Mexican American students are more field dependent than Anglo Americans; (2) intercorrelations between the tests are significant and comparable for both cultures; and (3) field dependence significantly affects academic performance. These assumptions were generally not…

Intelligence and short-term memory correlations in children were measured using probed serial recall of supraspan digit lists. Results showed the predictive power of intelligence to range from a maximum in the case of recall for recency items to practically zero in the case of primacy items. (Author/MV)

It has been suggested that IQ's of gifted children resemble parents less than do people in general. This finding may have been an artifact of the particular estimator of the regression coefficient used. An unbiased estimator is introduced and shows that gifted children resemble parents more than persons in general. (Author/RD)

Reports that no significant difference in reliability appeared between a heterogeneous and a homogeneous form of the same general science matching-item test administered to 316 sixth-grade students but that scores on the heterogeneous form of the test were higher, independent of the examinee's sex or intelligence. (SB)

This article explains the use of the multiple intelligences theory and rubric design to assess student learning. A rubric is a series of narrative statements describing the levels of quality of a product or a performance. The article discusses how these assessment tools can be used in K-12 classrooms and notes ways to assess quality results by…

Results were interpreted as supporting an inhibition deficit theory of mental retardation. (Authors)

Reprinted from The California Palms, (December 1969). (JJ)

Attitudes of 168 practitioners (pediatricians, psychologists, special educators, allied health professionals, and social workers) toward mental retardation were compared. Results showed that pediatricians were significantly more pessimistic about the ultimate abilities of mentally retarded adults than psychologists and educators. (Author/SEW)

Data on the magnitude of significant Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised Verbal-Performance Intelligence Quotient (IQ) discrepancies (specifically the nondirectional aspect of significant frequencies) within the normal population are often misunderstood by clinicians. Suggestions for remedying inaccuracies in reporting discrepancies…

The Ramey and Haskins intervention experiment is examined. Narrow transfer of training from cognitive intervention techniques to IQ test performance in early childhood, rather than enhancement of the g factor itself, is hypothesized as a cause of the typical fadeout of early IQ gains in later childhood. (Author/RD)

Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) and McCarthy Scales subtests were ranked according to relative reliance on left-cerebral-hemisphere function. Results suggest that black-white IQ discrepancies may be partially explained by differences in hemisphericity. (Author/RD)

Compared the factoral structure of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) for Anglo, Black, and Mexican-American children. Found high similarity across groups. The order of subtest difficulty was significantly correlated with subtest g loadings for Mexican Americans. Results provide support for Spearman's hypothesis with…

Construct organization was inferred from subjects' responses to a specially modified implication grid. Both developmental predictions and the validity of grid measures received excellent support from the analysis of children's theories of their peers as a function of their own age, sex and verbal intelligence. (Author)

This article examines the potential contribution of latent trait models to the study of intelligence. Nontechnical introductions to both unidimensional and multidimensional latent trait models are given. Multidimensional latent trait models can be used to test alternative multiple component theories of test item processing. (Author/CTM)