The purpose of this study was to compare two conflicting theoretical perspectives on the relationship between intelligence and sustained attention. The cognitive resources theory assumes that lower IQ subjects are required to allocate greater amounts of their limited attentional resources during information-processing tasks than higher IQ subjects. The arousal theory assumes that there is an optimal level of arousal associated with task performance, and that an increase or decrease in arousal produces impairment in performance. Additionally the arousal theory predicts that increased time on task leads to a decrement in arousal as a function of IQ levels. Signal detection theory applications were used to operationalize and compare the two theories. Specifically, the signal detection parameters of sensory acuity ( d’), the decision criterion (a), correct detections, and false alarms were used to determine subject performance across three time periods ( 2, 4, and 6 mm.) on a visual continuous performance task. Twenty-nine teacher-nominated at-risk for learning difficulties and twenty-nine normally achieving kindergarten students were adminstered the Stanford-Binet:Fourth Edition (SB:FE) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI.R), as well as the Gordon Diagnostic System (GDS) Vigilance Task. The GDS is a standardized behaviour-based measure of sustained attention. The results of this study were interpreted as suggesting that ability group differences reflect attentional capacity. Two findings were important in this interpretation. First, regardless of IQ, the groups varied on the signal detection discrimination index. Second, these measures did not vary over time in either group. Thus, the arousal theory was not supported. IQ and attention intercorrelation patterns were higher for the at-risk group compared to the normally achieving group. Exploratory maximum-likelihood factor analyses indicated that intelligence plays a greater role in relation to vigilance for the at-risk for learning difficulties group than the normal achieving group.

The purpose of this study was to compare two conflicting theoretical perspectives on the relationship between intelligence and sustained attention. The cognitive resources theory assumes that lower IQ subjects are required to allocate greater amounts of their limited attentional resources during information-processing tasks than higher IQ subjects. The arousal theory assumes that there is an optimal level of arousal associated with task performance, and that an increase or decrease in arousal produces impairment in performance. Additionally the arousal theory predicts that increased time on task leads to a decrement in arousal as a function of IQ levels. Signal detection theory applications were used to operationalize and compare the two theories. Specifically, the signal detection parameters of sensory acuity ( d’), the decision criterion (a), correct detections, and false alarms were used to determine subject performance across three time periods ( 2, 4, and 6 mm.) on a visual continuous performance task. Twenty-nine teacher-nominated at-risk for learning difficulties and twenty-nine normally achieving kindergarten students were adminstered the Stanford-Binet:Fourth Edition (SB:FE) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI.R), as well as the Gordon Diagnostic System (GDS) Vigilance Task. The GDS is a standardized behaviour-based measure of sustained attention. The results of this study were interpreted as suggesting that ability group differences reflect attentional capacity. Two findings were important in this interpretation. First, regardless of IQ, the groups varied on the signal detection discrimination index. Second, these measures did not vary over time in either group. Thus, the arousal theory was not supported. IQ and attention intercorrelation patterns were higher for the at-risk group compared to the normally achieving group. Exploratory maximum-likelihood factor analyses indicated that intelligence plays a greater role in relation to vigilance for the at-risk for learning difficulties group than the normal achieving group. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The purpose of this study was to determine differences in patterns and underlying practices between fathers of gifted and fathers of non-gifted children. The study included 10 fathers of gifted (FG) children and 10 fathers of non-gifted (FN) children. The children were preschoolers, ages 5-6 years old. Giftedness of the children was determined by scoring at or above the 97th percentile on the Weschler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised. Fathers in both groups were interviewed by the researcher using a 119 item protocol, which covered 16 categories. Data analysis revealed differences in parenting patterns between FG and FN in all 16 categories which included: 1. FG read more to their children and chose a greater variety of reading material, and read a higher proportion of non-fiction. 2. FG were more actively involved doing activities and interacting with their children such as building with blocks and Legos and making up nonsense songs, stories, and riddles. 3. More non-gifted children than gifted children frequently watched television. The non-gifted child watched 11 solid days of television more than the gifted child in the course of a year. Cartoons and comedy programs were the typical pattern chosen by children in the non-gifted household; whereas educational programs chosen jointly by the parent and child was the typical pattern in the gifted household. 4. Both groups of fathers used different strategies for helping the child develop interpersonal problem solving techniques for academic, behavior, and discipline problems. 5. FG mentioned that children were encouraged to fulfill household responsibilities because it was their duty. None of the FN encouraged their children to accomplish their household duties because it was their duty. 6. FG frequently took their children to arts activities an often provided their children access to art reproductions, record players, tape recorders, and CD players that FN. / Graduation date: 1992

[Truncated abstract] Intelligence in children increases with age until adult levels of performance are achieved. Dempster (1991) proposed that developmental changes in inhibitory processes underpin these changes in the development of intelligence. The evidence Dempster presented to support this thesis typically takes the form of noting changes in inhibitory performance that occur in the same time frame as changes in psychometric intelligence (Dempster, 1991, 1992, 1993; Dempster & Corkill, 1999). He also provides correlational evidence from studies in which intelligence scores are correlated with various inhibitory measures. One problem with much of the evidence presented by Dempster is that it does not distinguish between developmental and individual differences in inhibition and/or intelligence. Developmental differences are differences in performance between children at different ages. Individual differences are differences in performance between children of the same age. The majority of evidence Dempster provides concerns individual differences in inhibition and the relationship of these differences to intelligence rather than the relationship of any developmental differences to intelligence. Anderson (1987) suggests that the processes underpinning these two types of differences are not necessarily the same. For example, individual differences may be related to speed of processing, while developmental differences may be related to changes in inhibitory ability. Therefore, a more accurate test of Dempster’s thesis is to assess whether developmental changes in inhibition are related to developmental changes in intelligence, rather than whether individual differences in inhibition are related to intelligence. This was the primary goal of this thesis. A secondary goal was to address whether or not any developmental changes seen were primarily due to changes in inhibition or could be accounted for by changes in speed of processing. Measures which utilise difference score reaction time (RT) measures as inhibitory indices such as the stroop task do not typically account for this potential confound. A number of researchers have addressed this problem of difference score measures and proposed alternative analytic techniques (Christ, White, Mandernach, & Keys, 2001; Christ, White, Brunstrom, & Abrams, 2003; Faust, Balota, Spieler & Ferraro, 1999). Each inhibitory measure used in the current study will attempt to control for group and individual speed differences, either by utilising one of these alternative techniques or using regression analysis to identify the contribution of speed to the developmental shift in intelligence.

Thesis (M.A.)--B.Y.U. Dept. of Psychology.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-49).

Bibliography: pages 102-115. / The purpose of the study was to explore the feasibility of training conservation skills to a group of Black 7 - 8 year old children enrolled in a primary school in the Gugulethu township, a Black residential area in the Cape. From a group of 100 children, 60 subjects were selected on the basis of failure to conserve as measured by Piagetian conservation tasks. One of the conservation tasks was employed for training the subject to be able to conserve. A pre-test/post-test experimental design was used in a six phase experiment; assessment of possession of conservation concepts through the aid of Piagetian tasks of conservation of substance, weight, number and length; assessment of intelligence with the aid of the New South African Individual Scale; assessment of mental ability using the Draw-a-person test; group training with different methods of teaching on length conservation; immediate post test to determine effectiveness of training and transfer to other tasks and a delayed post-test to four weeks after training to assess retention of training effects.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of family size, birth order, socioeconomic status, and parent-child relationships to young children's intellectual development. Seventy-four children, 39 boys and 35 girls, with a mean age of 4 years-8 months, and their parents (mothers and fathers), selected from 9 preschool programs and daycare centers in Corvallis, Oregon, acted as subjects for this study. Ninety-five percent of the families came from upper or upper-middle socioeconomic classes. All the families were intact, consisting of children and their biological parents, representing one-, two, and three-child families. The children in this study were either first-, second- or third-born children. Family socioeconomic status was determined via Hollingshead's Four Factor Index of Social Status. Information on family size and birth order was obtained through a Demographic Questionnaire. Parent-child relationship was assessed via the Parent Attitude Research Instrument-Short Form. Children's intellectual level was measured with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised. Zajonc and Markus' Confluence Theory, Page and Grandon's Admixture Theory, and Falbo and Polies Parent-Child Relationships Theory were utilized as the basis for investigating the relative contributions of family size, birth order, socioeconomic status, mother-child relationship, and father-child relationship to children's intellectual development. The regression procedure was used in data analyses. The .05 probability level was used as the criterion for statistical significance. Findings revealed that the variables of socioeconomic status and quality of father-child relationships contributed significantly to children's intellectual development. The higher the socioeconomic status of the family, and the more supportive the father-child relationships, the higher the children's intellectual development scores. Birth order and family size made no contributions to children's intellectual development. These findings, therefore, provided support for Page and Grandon's Admixture Theory and Falbo and Polies Parent-Child Relationships Theory, but not for Zajonc and Markus' Confluence Theory. / Graduation date: 1995

Educators from schools located in the Midlands region of KwaZulu Natal were approached to participate in the present study with the aim of investigating educators' perceptions of their learners' intelligence. School type differences in educator estimates of their learners' overall and multiple intelligences, and the best predictors of learners' overall intelligence were investigated. Information was elicited pertaining to educators' views on intelligence and the multiple intelligences most valued in pedagogical practice. A questionnaire was administered to educators from Previously Disadvantaged High and Primary Schools, and Ex-Model C High and Primary Schools. Educators from Previously Disadvantaged High Schools gave comparatively lower estimations of their male and female learners' intelligences. Mathematical and verbal intelligence were shown to predominate as the foundations for academic intelligence, especially for male learners, while cultural and social intelligences were included as best predictors of female learners' overall intelligence. A preponderance of the Western associated academic intelligences (mathematical and verbal) was demonstrated in pedagogical practices. The study highlights the need to engage with educators' implicit perceptions of intelligence to facilitate change in education. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.