A Group Performance Test and Scale of Intelligence

Abstract

1.-Introduction. 11.-Development of performance tests. 111.-Construction of the group performance scale : (a) group cube construction test ; (b) group Koks block designs test ; (c) scoring. 1V.-Estimation of the reliability and validity of the scale. V.-Conclusions and their educational implications. V1.-Summary. Appendix : (a) Instructions for the group performance scale ; (b) designs for the group performance scale ; (c) photographs of the group procedure ; (d) factor analysis. ~.-INTRODUCTION. A PERFORMANCE test in the true sense of the word implies a problem presented in a concrete form and demanding some degree of manipulation for its solution.As such, it differs radically from the various non-verbal tests which are presented through the media of pencil and paper. In the field of mental testing, performance tests have a significant contribution to make, largely because of their special advantages, namely : (1) their approach is concrete, and for this reason supply a valuable complement to paper and pencil tests, whether verbal or perceptual ; (2) they offer an attractive medium to the majority of testees ;(3) they are freer from the influence of any particular culture pattern. Hitherto, performance tests have, for the most part, been individually applied, and this has inevitably limited their use. The present research, however, removes this major disability and makes it possible for a performance scale to be administered successfully in group form. It has, in fact, been used effectively with children from 8 years of age up to 15+.Performance tests, applied individually, have frequently been used as a means of assessing temperamental qualities, but such conclusions are inevitably highly subjective and cannot be regarded as being scientifically convincing.2In any case, it has not been our purpose to deal with this aspect of performance tests in the present research. II.-DEVELOPMENT OF PERFORMANCE TESTS.and their utility and value as adjuncts in the individual assessment of intelligence is fully acknowledged. They owe their development to two motives : (a) to test dull and defective children who are handicapped verbally, particularly in reading and writing ; (b) to test illiterate or foreign-speaking adults.The history of performance tests of ability is a long