Tammy Beck

Publication Date

1982

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Harry Robe, Doris Redfield, Lynn Clark

Comments

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Degree Program

Department of Psychology

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

The effect of examiner pacing and children's cognitive tempos upon obtained scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) was investigated in this study. It was proposed that children who have a fast cognitive style would obtain greater raw scores on the items of the WISC-R Verbal Scale that were presented to the child at a fast rate than on the items that were presented at a slow rate. It was further hypothesized that children with a slow cognitive style would obtain greater raw scores on the items of the WISC-R Verbal Scale that were presented at a slow rate than on the items that were presented at a fast rate. The independent variable, presentation rate of WISC-R verbal items, was defined as the length of time between the child's response and the examiner's presentation of the next item. Cognitive tempo was defined as response latency on the Matching Familiar Figures Task (MFF). The dependent variable measure was raw scores on the WISC-R verbal items.

The subjects were 48 fourth and fifth grade boys. Each subject was individually administered the MFF and one-half of the WISC-R verbal items at a fast rate and the other one-half items at a slow rate resulting in a repeated measures design. The 48 boys were equally divided into a fast cognitive group and a slow cognitive group on the basis of a median split of total response latency scores on the MFF.

A two-way analysis of variance indicated there was no significant main effect for rate of presentation. Therefore, it was assumed that the reliability of the WISC-R allows it to withstand any effect of examiner's pacing and produces consistent scores. However, examiner pacing may have some effect upon the subjective feeling of the child taking the test.

Disciplines

Child Psychology | Cognitive Psychology | Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Psychology

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