Prediction of academic achievement with the McCarthy screening test and metropolitan readiness test

There is a need for accurate, efficient assessment of children's readiness, to provide information concerning strengths and weaknesses of children and to identify those children who may be at risk for school failure. This necessitates determining the relative usefulness of instruments in predicting later school achievement. This study examined the efficacy of the McCarthy Screening Test (MST) and Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT) to predict academic readiness at the end of kindergarten and achievement at the end of first grade. Eighty-eight children were screened upon entering kindergarten, using the MST. As a measurement of academic readiness, the MRT was administered at the end of kindergarten, and the Scott and Foresman Achievement Test (SFAT) was administered at the end of first grade as a measure of achievement. Regression analyses indicated that the MST significantly predicted children's scores on the MRT and SFAT. Additionally, the MRT was a significant predictor of the SFAT.     

Factor analysis of the metropolitan readiness test on first-grade children

The factor composition of the Metropolitan Readiness Test was investigated, using 1st-grade subjects in a suburban school district. In this analysis, a total battery score was supported, as well as a second factor believed to represent a language dimension of the test. None of the MRT's other content areas (auditory, visual, or quantitative abilities) or a distinct prereading measure were identified for this sample.     

The Stanford-Binet mental age and the WISC-R test age: A comparison study

The Stanford-Binet and WISC-R were administered to 100 students (CA—6 to 15 years) to determine the comparability of the age equivalent scores obtained from each test. The limited range of test age (TA) values in the WISC-R Manual required the use of extrapolated values for some subjects. The results indicated that, for subjects whose WISC-R scores fell within the TA table, the Binet MAs and WISC-R TAs were comparable (p>.05). However, when the use of extrapolated TAs was required, the scores were not comparable (p<.05). Implications for test age and mental age equivalency were discussed.     

A comparison of the peabody individual achievement test,the metropolitan achievement test,and the otis-lennon mental ability test

In order to clarify the concurrent validity of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) and the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT), product-moment correlations were computed for all subscores and total scores for 26 normal-range public school third-grade girls and boys. The reading comprehension subtests correlated.81, spelling.88, and PIAT Mathematics with MAT Total Math.64. Correlations were computed for the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test and the PIAT General Information subtest as.77, and the Otis-Lennon and the PIAT Total Test scores as.79. Concurrent validity of the PIAT with both tests is tentatively considered adequate except in the area of mathematics, in which the PIAT, relative to the MAT, appears to be reflecting ability to handle math concepts (.68) more accurately than math computation (.41) or math problem solving (.56). Correlations with IQ partialed out suggest the PIAT Total Test, and PIAT and MAT reading and spelling measures, are relatively uninfluenced by IQ variations, whereas with IQ held constant, the weak positive correlations between the PIAT and MAT math subtests became essentially random relationships.     

Clinical and psychometric merits of the frostig developmental test of visual perception

Clinicians and measurement experts often debate the merits of psychometric vs. clinical approaches to diagnostic procedures. Both methods are illustrated emphasizing the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP). Insights obtained from observations of the testing situation by teachers, skilled observers, and clinicians are presented. The merits and limitations of each approach are discussed.     

The perception of time relations in auditory tempo discrimination

European starlings (Sturnuis vulgaris) were trained to discriminate between pulses of sound presented at rates (tempos), for different birds, of 4/sec and 8/sec or 8/sec and 16/sec in a two-alternative choice task. Once the discrimination was learned, psychometric functions and bisection points were determined for tempos between the standards. Then the starlings were transferred to a new discrimination, which either maintained or changed the relationship between response keys and tempo (relational or nonrelational transfer). The results showed that the starlings generated psychometric functions for tempo with properties much like those found for discrimination of single time intervals. Also, the starlings transferred the tempo discrimination faster under the relational than the nonrelational condition. In general, starlings-like human and other nonhuman animals-perceive temporal structures as invariant over proportional changes in the duration of structural elements.     

Factorial validity of the 1976 edition of the metropolitan readiness tests for males and females

The 1976 edition of the Metropolitan Readiness Tests was factor analyzed from the responses of 408 beginning first graders. A single General Readiness factor, consistent with prior research, best described the battery of eight subtests. This factor was found to be invariant across sex when separate analyses for males and for females were compared. The coefficient of congruence for the general factor across sex was .98, and the salient variable similarity index reached a value of 1.00.     

The function of shifting fixations in the visual perception of infants.

The processes underlying infants' shifts of fixation from 1 stimulus to another were explored in 3 studies. The results suggest that infants 3 months and older shift more when the 2 stimuli of a pair are similar than when they are different. Shifting is affected by stimulus repetition as well. There were age differences in the number of shifts per trial, with older infants shifting more. The possibility that shifting may facilitate stimulus recognition is discussed.     

The effect of relative age on achievement in middle school

To determine the relationship between relative age and achievement in middle school, standardized math and reading scores for a sample of middle-class, suburban middle school students (N = 933) were examined. Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference among relative age groups in only one area, sixth-grade reading, F(2, 146) = 3.1, p < .05. There was no main effect for gender and no interaction between age and gender in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. When the birth month of students who had repeated one or more grades was examined, it was revealed that a large percentage of these students would have been the youngest in the class when beginning school. Results suggest that a relationship between relative age and achievement may exist in the lower grades but diminishes or disappears by seventh or eighth grade because of the retention of a larger proportion of the youngest children.     

The use of visual media in the service of enriching mental thought processes

Visual media of communication are not just convenient and indifferent technologies for the transmission of knowledge but also, and perhaps mainly, different languages for gathering, packaging and conveying knowledge. The real differences among the media are not so much in the kinds of knowledge they can convey, but rather in the languages, that is — the symbol systems — they uniquely employ. The experienced horrors of Clockwork Orange, or the possible better understanding of group processes after viewing Twelve Angry Men are greatly due to the visual mode and the unique languages of such films, not just the content (which can be read in a book).Media's different and often unique symbol systems have been studied in recent years. It has been found, for example, that different symbol systems call upon different kinds of mental skills and convey different meanings. But above all, media's unique symbol systems cultivate unique mental skills by either activating or overtly supplanting them. By doing so, these symbol systems offer new ways for internal, cognitive, representation. Thus, they can be seen as potentially serving as cultivators of mental abilities.This paper was presented at the IW APP Festival 1980, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, January 1980.     

The effect of learning background and imagery cognitive development on visual perception

This research looked into the effect of how cognitive development toward imagery is formed through visual perception by means of a quantitative questionnaire. The main variable was the difference between the learning backgrounds of the interviewees. A two-way ANOVA mixed design was the statistical method used for the analysis of the 2 × 4 (2 by 4) study design. The analysis on the main effect was conducted, and a significant difference was also shown in the result. First, the two variables of student learning background and imagery cognitive development interact with one another. Second, there is a significant difference in students’ learning backgrounds. The cognitive level between the two was visibly apparent. Last, the four aspects that made up the visual perception all showed significant difference. Therefore, cognitive development will be affected by lifestyle, personal preferences, interests, and biological conditions which will have different levels of influence on visual perception.     

Developmental differences in visual and auditory processing of complex sentences

Children aged 8 through 11 (N = 250) were given a word-by-word sentence task in both the visual and auditory modes. The sentences included an object relative clause, a subject relative clause, or a conjoined verb phrase. Each sentence was followed by a true-false question, testing the subject of either the first or second verb. Participants were also given two memory span measures: digit span and reading span. High digit span children slowed down more at the transition from the main to the relative clause than did the low digit span children. The findings suggest the presence of a U-shaped learning pattern for on-line processing of restrictive relative clauses. Off-line accuracy scores showed different patterns for good comprehenders and poor comprehenders. Poor comprehenders answered the second verb questions at levels that were consistently below chance. Their answers were based on an incorrect local attachment strategy that treated the second noun as the subject of the second verb. For example, they often answered yes to the question "The girl chases the policeman" after the object relative sentence "The boy that the girl sees chases the policeman." Interestingly, low memory span poor comprehenders used the local attachment strategy less consistently than high memory span poor comprehenders, and all poor comprehenders used this strategy less consistently for harder than for easier sentences.     

Temporal resolution of auditory perception in relation to perception, memory, and language skills in typical children

This study examined temporal resolution of auditory perception (TRAP) in relation to speech perception and phonological working memory in one experiment and in relation to measures of rapid naming, understanding of grammatical contrasts, and phonological awareness in a second experiment. In the TRAP test, 6- to 9-year-old children discriminated four pairs of two sine tones, 878 Hz and 1350 Hz, presented in blocks with stepwise decreasing interstimulus intervals from 256 ms to 8 ms. In Experiment 1, weak but significant correlations between TRAP and speech perception and phonological working memory were found, as well as a significantly lower TRAP performance by girls. Experiment 2 indicated a significant relation between TRAP and the phonological awareness task. The results give qualified support to the notion of a weak relationship between TRAP and speech perception and language skills among typical children. However, the gender differences in TRAP performance, the limited variance explained by the regression models, and the finding that only one of the language parameters correlated with TRAP do not support the notion of a causal relationship between language skills and TRAP. The possibility that TRAP is connected to general neurological maturation rather than specifically to language abilities is discussed.