Intellectual stimulation of young children is crucial, because it helps to break the cycle of poverty by giving each child the skills needed to reach his or her maximum potential. There is a growing need for more extensive early childhood development programmes in South Africa. Several studies in early childhood development have been shown to directly draw a parallel with enhanced student achievement at school and in life (Ackerman, 2005; Bueno, Darling-Hammond, & Gonzales 2010; Frede, Jung, Barnett, & Figueras, 2009). This study therefore explored the effects of an intervention programme introducing numbers, shapes and colours to infants between the ages of three months and 12 months. The sample consisted of 63 infants, with a control group of 34 and an experimental group of 29. The participants were selected from the middle-income group and consisted of infants from three different ethnic groups (black, white and coloured). Nine participants from the experimental group formed part of the focus group, which met every two weeks to give feedback and discuss the development of the infants and experiences of the parents involved in the intervention programme. In this study quantitative and qualitative data was collected. This data was assessed and analysed in order to achieve the four aims of the research study. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development (III) was used to assess three areas of development, namely cognitive ability, language skills and motor skills for the quantitative part of the study. The adaptive behaviour and social-emotional functioning of the infants was also assessed using the BSID (III), and this data was used in conjunction with the focus group feedback and problem-solving scenarios for the qualitative part of the study. Gender and the two age categories (3–7 and 8–12 months) for both the experimental and the control groups were examined and excluded from possible explanations for any significant findings. It was also determined that the control and experimental groups were well matched at the start of the intervention programme. The findings for aim A, the pre-test and post- test results showed that an average of 60 days involved in intervention programme had a statistically significant effect (z = -4.32, p < 0.001) on the cognitive ability of the infants. The findings for aim B, for the comparison between the control and experimental groups after the intervention programme, indicated significant results for the cognitive subscale (U = 732, p < 0.01, r = 0.42). Although the language and motor scores showed an increase in the descriptive statistics for the experimental group after the intervention, the Mann-Whitney U test did not show a significant difference. The findings for the qualitative study for aim C revealed that there was no effect on the adaptive behaviour of the infants. The findings for the social-emotional scales descriptive statistics for the qualitative study in aim D showed that there was a fairly large increase in the composite score means of the experimental group in comparison with the control group. The large increase in results complements the social-emotional functioning theme that emerged from the focus group. Three main themes emerged from the focus group, namely the cognitive ability, communication skills and social-emotional functioning of the infants.The increase in the social-emotional scale for the intervention group and the increase in the cognitive scale as mentioned in aim B were interrelated. These early social-emotional experiences are linked to long-term positive outcomes in both the social and cognitive areas of development (Landry, Smith, Swank, & Miller-Loncar, 2000). The parents all reported the ability to interpret the communication from their infants when participating in the flashcard sessions. This communication forms a foundation for establishing language development. Relationships between an infant’s nonverbal communication skills and subsequent language development have been reported (Brooks & Meltzoff, 2005). The problem-solving scenarios that were assessed during the second assessment showed that the infants who participated in the intervention programme were able to correctly identify a flashcard 73% of the time in comparison with the control group who were only able to identify a flashcard 1.4% correctly. The results of the study show that an early intervention programme has the potential to increase an infant’s cognitive ability and enhance his or her social-emotional functioning. However, the long-term impact of these findings would have to be explored in a longitudinal study. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

by Wong Chi Lap David. / Questionnaires in English and Chinese. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-90). / Acknowledgements / Abstract / List of Tables / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction Page / Chapter A --- Background of the Study --- p.1 / Chapter B --- Statement of the Problem --- p.3 / Chapter C --- Significance of the Study --- p.4 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Review of Literature / Chapter A --- Motivation and Achievement Goals / Theories of Motivation --- p.6 / Cognitive Approach to Motivation --- p.8 / Attributional Theory --- p.9 / Achievement Goals --- p.12 / Performance Pattern --- p.15 / Chapter B --- Theories of Intelligence / Implicit versus Explicit Theories --- p.19 / Prototype of Intelligence --- p.20 / Developmental Changes in Concept of Intelligence --- p.22 / Incremental Theories versus Entity Theories --- p.24 / Chapter C --- Beliefs and Values / Beliefs and Belief System --- p.26 / Attitudes --- p.28 / Values --- p.29 / Chapter D --- Relationships among Variables / Achievement Goals and Theories of Intelligence --- p.30 / Achievement Goals and Values --- p.32 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Research Methodology / Chapter A --- Definition of Variables / Achievement Goals --- p.36 / Theories of Intelligence --- p.36 / Values --- p.37 / Theoretical Framework --- p.37 / Hypotheses --- p.38 / Chapter B --- Instrumentation / Achievement Goals --- p.39 / Values --- p.39 / Theories of Intelligence --- p.40 / Chapter C --- Sampling --- p.41 / Chapter D --- Procedure --- p.41 / Chapter E --- Data Analysis --- p.42 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Results / Chapter A --- Theories of intelligence / Correlation Matrix of the items --- p.43 / Factor Analysis --- p.43 / Correlations among subscales --- p.46 / Chapter B --- Values / Correlation Matrix of the items --- p.46 / Factor Analysis --- p.50 / Correlations among subscales --- p.53 / Chapter C --- Achievement Goals / Correlation Matrix of the items --- p.55 / Factor Analysis --- p.56 / Chapter D --- "Relationships among Theories of Intelligence, Values, and Achievement Goals" / "Correlations among the subscales in Theories of Intelligence, Values and Achievement Goals" --- p.59 / Determination of Achievement Goals --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Discussion and Conclusion / Chapter A --- Summary --- p.66 / Chapter B --- Achievement Goals and educational outcomes --- p.70 / Chapter C --- Achievement Goals and Values --- p.71 / Chapter D --- Achievement Goals and Theories of Intelligence --- p.75 / Chapter E --- Limitation and Suggestion --- p.76 / Chapter F --- Conclusion --- p.79 / Reference --- p.81 / Appendices / Chapter A --- English Translation of the Questionnaire --- p.91 / Chapter B --- Questionnaire in Chinese --- p.97

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

Interest in this research was stimulated as a result of analysing performance of a group of Durban Indian school children, referred to the Durban Child Guidance Clinic as possible cases for remedial education, on A.E. Maxwell's abbreviated form of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). The research describes results of applying the full WISC to a carefully selected group of 72 Durban Indian school children in upper junior school levels, and its aims, besides general description of the results of the group and of subgroups, were to investigate Verbal and Performance scale results of the group more fully and to determine whether the abbreviated WISC in question possessed satisfactory validity for the group tested. The experimental group was found to perform significantly better on the Verbal than on the Performance scale of the WISC, in agreement with results of analysing abbreviated WISC profiles of the Durban Clinic sample, and also in agreement with results of research in which modified Wechsler tests had been applied to youngsters in India. Relative to Performance ability, Verbal ability appeared a more integrated dimension of intellect for the present Indian group. Possible reasons for the WISC pattern obtained were sought within the literature and it was felt that the result could be ascribed largely to cultural background factors. Evidence also suggested the applicability of the WISC to the sample studied, and it was felt to be a suitable scale for the measurement of Indian intelligence, at least in the interim before an individual scale standardised for South African Indian children is devised. Abbreviated WISC results of the group, derived by means of Maxwell's method, were examined, and there was reason to believe that as far as validity was concerned, there was room for improvement. Alternative abbreviated forms of the WISC, with possible usefulness for Indian children of similar background to the present-sample, were accordingly suggested for further research. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 1970.

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.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1956.

It is necessary to assess the intellectual functioning of dementia patients. However, psychometric instruments such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - revised (WAIS-R) are often too demanding for dementia patients, precluding its utility. Clinicians and researchers have indirectly estimated a dementia patient's IQ from the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). This measure is an eleven item screen instrument of global cognitive functioning. Fairly accurate estimates of IQ have been predicted using the MMSE total score.The purpose of the present study was to determine if it is possible to more accurately predict intellectual functioning when the individual MMSE items were used to predict Full Scale, Verbal, and Performance IQ using multiple regression analyses. Forty elderly dementia patients were administered both the MMSE and the WAIS-R. The MMSE total score was entered into a simple linear regression to predict FSIQ. In addition, the eleven item scores of the MMSE were entered into separate stepwise regressions to predict FSIQ, VIQ, and PIQ. The increment in the amount of variance accounted for in the FSIQ between the simple and multiple regression equations were evaluated for statistical significance.The results of these investigations revealed that while the multiple regression equations using MMSE item scores predicted a significant amount of the variance in IQ, they were not statistically superior to using the MMSE total score alone. The MMSE total score was found to account for 76.2% of the variance in Full Scale IQ. The MMSE items that were found to add significantly to the variance in intellectual level accounted for 80.9 %, 75.1 %, and 73.4 % of FSIQ, VIQ, and PIQ respectively. The results of the present study replicated other research that found the MMSE total score to accurately predict intellectual functioning in dementia patients. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The purpose of this study was to investigate the self concepts of a group of high school Negro students in the Muncie Community Schools, Muncie, Indiana, in relation to intelligence, reading achievement, and grade point average. Specifically, the objectives were: (1) to obtain the reading achievement scores, intelligence scores, and grade point averages of a randomly selected group of Negro students in the high schools in Muncie, Indiana, (2) to identify the self-concepts of a group of high school Negro males and the self-concepts of a group of high school Negro females randomly selected from the three high schools in Muncie, Indiana, (3) to measure the relationship of the self-concept of females with their obtained intelligence scores, achievement scores, and grade Point averages, (4) to measure the relationship of the self concept of males with the obtained intelligence scores, achievement scores, and grade point averages, and (5) to measure the relationship of the self-concept of Negro students as a total group with their obtained intelligence scores, achievement scores, and grade point averages. The method of investigation used in this study included the following areas: (1) selection of participants, (2) collection of data, (3) scoring procedures, and (4) methods used in analyzing the data.Of the 278 Negro students in grades ten and eleven in the three high schools, a total sampling consisted of ninety-two (92) students, forty-five (45) males and forty-seven (47) females, or one-third of the total population of grades ten and eleven. The random selection was done during the school year, 1970-71. Two self-concept scales, Maryland Self-Concept as a Learner Scale and Brookover Self-Concept of Ability Scale were administered. Intelligence non-verbal scores, reading achievement scores, and grade point averages, as of January 21, 1971 (semester end) were obtained from the cumulative record card. All data were placed on IBM cards. The method of analysis in the study was multiple linear regression. Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were reached:1. The self-concepts of a group of high school Negro students are identifiable through the use of the two self-concept scales.

Thesis (PhD(Psychology))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--Missouri State University, 2008. / "May 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-103). Also available online.