THE RELATION OF FIVE COGNITIVE VARIABLES TO CHANGE I N I& 149

REFERENCES BAYLEY, NANCY, Consistency and variability in the growth in I& from birth to eighteen years. Journal

BAYLEY, NANCY. On the growth of intelligence. American Psychologist, 1955, 10,805-818. CLARKE, A. D. B., & CLARKE, A. M. How constant is the I&? Lancet, 1953,266, 256. DAVIS, A. What happens to students from lower socic-economic groups? Proceedings of the Northern

California regional wnference on wunseling, guidance, and student personnel services. San Francisco: San Francisco State College, 1950.

FRICK, J. W., GUILFORD, J. P., CHRISTENSEN, P. R., & MERRIFIELD, P. R. A factor analytic study of flexibility in thinking. Educational and Psychologicnl Measurement. 1959, 19, 469-496.

GARDNER, R. W. Cognitive control principles and perceptual behavior. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 1959, 23, 241-248.

GARDNER, R. W., JACKSON, D. N., & MESSICK, S. J. Personality organization in cognitive controls and intellectual abilities. Psychological Issues, 1960, 8.

GILLILAND, A. R. Environmental influences on infant intelligence test scores. American Psychologist, 1948, 3, 265.

GUILFORD, J. P. Person.aZity. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959.

of Genetic Psychology, 1949, 7.5, 165-196.

JACKSON, D. N., & MESSICK, S. J. Content and style in personality assessment,. Psychological Bulkdin, 1958, 55, 243-253.

KAGAN, J., SONTAG, L. W., BAKER, C. T., & NELSON, V. C. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psy-

LEES, R. W., & LORD, F. M. Nomograph for computing of partial correlational coefficients. Journal

LEVINSON, B. M. Subcultural values and I& stability. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1961,98, 69-82. MCNEMAR, Q. On growth measurement. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 1958,18,47-55. OLIVER, J. A., & FERGUSON, G. A. A factorial study of tests of rigidity. Canadian Journal of Psy-

PETTIGREW, T. F. The measurements and correlates of category width as a cognitive variable. Journal

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A NOTE ON THE RELATIONSHIP OF LEARNING ABILITY AND INTELLIGENCE THEODORE A. CHANDLER

Frankfurt American Elementary School No. 2

The idea that intelligence is somehow inllately fixed seems unlikely in view of Hebb's (1949) and Hunt's (1961) contributions. According to them, the quantity and quality of early experiences determine the ultimate development of intelligence.

A related idea by Kendler (1959) suggests that mediated thinking develops in the child sometime between kindergarten and first grade. That is to say, the younger child is still making a direct association between symbols and objects. The S-R bonds are devoid of any mediation-meaningful links or associations. Only later, as the child gains experience with language does he begin to form these mediating links spontaneously. Since the older child already is adding his own relevant media-

150 THEODORE A. CHANDLER

tors, Kendler found that the use of relevant labels had no effect. However, when used with the younger child, relevant labels facilitate learning.

Obviously then if thcse ideas are further substantiated, the child who comes from a verbally impoverished environment should benefit most from a nursery school and kindergarten program. Ironically though it is frequently this child who fails to receive the needed early experiences.

In an attempt to measure the effect of verbal mediation on learning, Jensen (1963) compared educable mentally retarded youngsters of Stanford-Binet IQs from 50 to 75 with average (IQs 90-100) and gifted (IQs above 135) children in the same school on a selective learning task consisting of learning by trial-and-error to asso- ciate an array of five or six push buttons with colored geometric forms which ap- peared randomly and a t a constant rate on a display screen. Highly significant differences werc found between the groups, and the rate of learning correlated with IQ even within the retarded group. Since the positive corrclation was low and significant, it is suggested that this learning task has potential as a diagnostic de- vice. As might be expected, variability was much greater among the retarded, though they showed much greater improvement with practice on successive forms of the learning task. Some of the retarded Ss learned as fast as the gifted. In fact, the fastest lcarners in the entire study had IQs of 147 and ti5! Adding verbal re- inforcement and requiring Xs to vcrbalizc (by naming the stimuli) while learning, resulted in marked improvement of the lcariiing rate of some Ss.

Several hypotheses resulted from this study. In the first place, the previously held notion that learning ability is a single, unitary ability appears untrue. Rather, it is composed of fairly independent dimensions which have not yet been isolated or identified. Learning ability, per se, is not enough. Retention must also be measured, especially in the light of Stroud and Schoer’s (1059) evidence that it is not highly correlated with learning ability. A second hypothesis states that “the normal and fast learners in the retarded group are not really retarded in a primary sense, but are children who, at some crucial period in their development, have failed to learn the kinds of behavior which are necessary as a basis for school learning and for the acquisition of the kinds of knowledge and skills tapped by I& tests.” In fact, Jensen suggests that standardized I& tests are not really tests of ability but basically achievement tests. Hence, they tell us more about what the child has acquired in his experience befcre the test is given. If we really equalize the opportunities for learn- ing the kinds of skills and knowledge assessed by I& tests, then perhaps these tests will reflect learning ability.

Recognizing the need for measuring instruments which can differentiate the child in school who is retarded because of his verbally impoverished environment from the child who is retarded because of deficient brain matter, Contra Costa County, California, Schools Department decided to see if they could develop a battery of diagnostic learning tasks which would distinguish the low I& Mexican- American child from the low I& Anglo-American child. They were suspicious of the disproportionately large number of Mexican-American children in mentally retarded classes. (One could call this a distinction between the genotypically retarded and the phenotypically retarded.) The evidence suggested that the Mexican-American group actually learned much better than their IQs would predict. But the research failed to answer the question of why the Mexican-American child achieved so

A NOTE ON THE RELATIONSHIP OF LEARNING ABILITY AND INTELLIGENCE 151

poorly in school but was able to demonstrate normal learning ability in an experi- mental learning situation.

Two important findings emerged from the research which was subquently re- ported by Rapier (1962). In the first place, it appears that the low I& Mexican- American child lacks the mediating links required to facilitate his learning of con- ceptual tasks. The second finding suggests that this child not only can be taught these mediating links but will spontaneously use them in a new learning stiuation.

As a matter-of-fact, Jensen and Rohwer (1963) in another experiment found that mental defectives (IQs 41-78), who usually do not appear to use verbal media- tors spontaneously, were able to learn paired-associates when instructed how to use verbal mediators.

The child must be able to make verbal responses which facilitate further learn- ing and permit the development of conceptual thinking, since success in the class- room is largely based on the child’s ability to spontaneously verbally mediate be- tween his past and present learning experiences. Hence, the S-R bonds are really S-O-R bonds where the “0” consists of mediating links.

The verbally handicapped child, such as the Mexican-American or Negro, will spontaneously mediate in a new learning situation if the necessary mediated asso- ciations have been previously provided. Unfortunately, most of the previous exper- ience of the verbally impoverished child has not provided him with the necessary language habits. Hence, he fails to spontaneously mediate in most learning situa- tions. Unable to benefit from the positive transfer of previously learned associations, he must continually learn new connections and therefore his learning appears tedious and slow.

Attempt must be made to determine in what specific ways culturally deprived children may be different from normal children. Are there perceptual differences? Is the deficiency in mediation ability total, partial or differential? What various kinds of paired-associates can be implemented and standardized into a series of learning tasks?

REFERENCES HEBB, D. 0. Organization of behavior. New York: Wiley, 1949. HUNT, J. McV. Intelligence and experience. New York: Ronald, 1961. JENSEN, A. R. Learning ability in retarded, average, and gifted children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly,

JENSEN, A. R., & ROHWER, W. D., JR. Verbal mediation in paired-associate and serial learning.

KENDLER, T. S., & KENDLER, H. H. Reversal and non-reversal shifts in kindergarten children.

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1963, 9, 123-140.

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Research: Contra Costa County Schools Dept., Pleasant Hill, California. November, 1962.

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