Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1922. / Vita. Published also as Teachers College, Columbia University, Contributions to education, no. 126. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: p. [83]-84.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.S.)--University of Wisconsin -- La Crosse, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-48)

One hundred and fifteen second and third grade Anglo and Hispanic boys and girls from an isolated rural town in Arizona were tested on two nonverbal measures of cognitive skills to ascertain their predictive validity and ethnic bias. Bias was addressed by regression analysis, a technique that allows for the comparison of slopes and intercepts for two or more groups. The children from both ethnics were roughly equated on SES variables due to the location and nature of the community. The Raven's Coloured Test of Cognitive Skills (NTCS) were employed to predict the state-mandated California Achievement Test (CAT) and the pupils' grade point average (GPA). The results suggested that the Raven's exhibits both slope and intercept bias for three of the four criterion variables whereas the NTCS demonstrated bias only in terms of GPA. Both nonverbal tests correlated highly indicating that they are measuring similar skills. The NTCS generally had higher predictive validity than the Raven's. A combination of the two tests increased prediction by only a small amount. These results indicate that, contrary to previous research, the Raven's may be a biased predictor for Hispanics and that the NTCS appears both less biased and a better predictor. Both nonverbal test validities approached the WISC-R correlation coefficients for Hispanics. Neither test proved to be a potent predictor of Anglo test scores or GPAs. This differential validity infers that the nonverbal tests be employed with caution with native English speakers. The hypothesized reasons for the better performance of the NTCS included its measuring of more than one skill. The two tests were contrasted in terms of psychometric considerations, training time, and testing time. Limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research with various non-native speakers of English was discussed.

This thesis has sought a relationship between score on an objective imagery questionnaire and performance on an objective imagery task. The Sheehan revision (1967) of the Betts QMI (1909) and the Weber Alphabet Task (1969), respectively, were the two measures used.The Sheehan revision (1967) of the original Betts (1909) was administered to 107 students and three imagery groups of 10 students each were chosen on the basis of the results: a high imagery group, a middle imagery group, and a low imagery group. These 30 subjects then performed the Weber Task. An analysis of variance was done on the two sets of scores.No relationship was found to exist between scores on the two measures. Several reasons for this failure to find a relationship were proposed, among them response bias inherent in imagery utilized by the two measures.

The following study had been developed to demonstrate language behavior in subjects that matched or demonstrated deficient language behavior like Sarah's (Premack, 1971). Two autistic children were selected as subjects. These two subjects demonstrated that children who could not normally fulfill the language behavior requirement of selecting specific words, letters, or colored stones, and arranging them in some good temporal sequence, could in fact be taught to do just that activity. In this manner, language deficient candidates more severely damaged than the subjects used by Premack in his study on language difficulties in persons who were "brain damaged,'" could be taught the parameters of syntax and semantics on a non-vocal level, and thereby fulfill the criterion for language behavior, namely that of arranging specific symbols in good temporal sequence.

Much of cognitive science research and almost all of AI research into problem solving has focused on the use of verbal or propositional representations. However, there is significant evidence that humans solve problems using different representational modalities, including visual or iconic ones. In this dissertation, I investigate visual problem solving from the perspectives of autism, psychometrics, and AI. Studies of individuals on the autism spectrum show that they often use atypical patterns of cognition, and anecdotal reports have frequently mentioned a tendency to "think visually." I examined one precise characterization of visual thinking in terms of iconic representations. I then conducted a comprehensive review of data on several cognitive tasks from the autism literature and found numerous instances indicating that some individuals with autism may have a disposition towards visual thinking. One task, the Raven's Progressive Matrices test, is of particular interest to the field of psychometrics, as it represents one of the single best measures of general intelligence that has yet been developed. Typically developing individuals are thought to solve the Raven's test using largely verbal strategies, especially on the more difficult subsets of test problems. In line with this view, computational models of information processing on the Raven's test have focused exclusively on propositional representations. However, behavioral and fMRI studies of individuals with autism suggest that these individuals may use instead a predominantly visual strategy across most or all test problems. To examine visual problem solving on the Raven's test, I first constructed a computational model, called the Affine and Set Transformation Induction (ASTI) model, which uses a combination of affine transformations and set operations to solve Raven's problems using purely pixel-based representations of problem inputs, without any propositional encoding. I then performed four analyses using this model. First, I tested the model against three versions of the Raven's test, to determine the sufficiency of visual representations for solving this type of problem. The ASTI model successfully solves 50 of the 60 problems on the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) test, comparable in performance to the best computational models that use propositional representations. Second, I evaluated model robustness in the face of changes to the representation of pixels and visual similarity. I found that varying these low-level representational commitments causes only small changes in overall performance. Third, I performed successive ablations of the model to create a new classification of problem types, based on which transformations are necessary and sufficient for finding the correct answer. Fourth, I examined if patterns of errors made on the SPM can provide a window into whether a visual or verbal strategy is being used. While many of the observed error patterns were predicted by considering aspects of the model and of human behavior, I found that overall error patterns do not seem to provide a clear indicator of strategy type. The main contributions of this dissertation include: (1) a rigorous definition and examination of a disposition towards visual thinking in autism; (2) a sufficiency proof, through the construction of a novel computational model, that visual representations can successfully solve many Raven's problems; (3) a new, data-based classification of problem types on the SPM; (4) a new classification of conceptual error types on the SPM; and (5) a methodology for analyzing, and an analysis of, error patterns made by humans and computational models on the SPM. More broadly, this dissertation contributes significantly to our understanding of visual problem solving.