A Study of Personal Patterns in an Intellectual Performance*

Abstract

The present study is concerned with personal patterns in an intellectual performance. By personal patterns we mean individual differences in a given performance which are of a qualitative rather than of a quantitative nature and which might possibly have a relation to certain other personality traits. Since in a unified whole, such as personality, no part is completely isolated and independent from others, it may be assumed that typical personal differences within one sphere, such as the sphere of intellectual performances, reflect significant differences of the personality structures. We may hope, therefore, through a consideration of personal patterns within a limited performance to obtain essential cues for the understanding of much more general personality characteristics.We came across the problem of personal patterns of intellectual performance in the course of an investigation of the thinking of schizophrenic patients which was conducted with the help of a concept formation test (3). A second part dealing with the qualitative analysis will be published shortly. This test was invented by Ach and later modified by Saharov, but is perhaps better known by the name of Vigotsky-Test, after the Russian psychologist by whom it was much used (2). The material of the test consists of twentytwo wooden blocks varying in color, shape, and size. On each block a nonsense word is written. The subject has the task of finding the characteristic that serves as a basis for naming. This basis is provided by the combination of height and size of the top area of the blocks, so that the same nonsense word is written on all large tall blocks, another one on all large flat ones, a third one on all small tall ones, and a fourth on all small flat ones. At the beginning of the test all blocks are spread in front of the subject, in a

Relationships between Visual Figure Discrimination, Verbal Abilities, and Gender

“…Thinking in scientific concepts, on the other hand, is based on abstract rules somewhat distanced from the concrete material upon which they are imposed, making it easier to guide ones attention to a specific property of the visual stimuli while disregarding the rest with an aim to find the figures. The types of thinking correspond well to the notions of Hanfmann (1941) and observations of Witkin and colleagues in relation to field dependence-independence (Witkin 1950;Witkin et al 1977).…”

“…The method used by Dickstein is very similar to the one used by Vygotsky (1934Vygotsky ( /1986) in his classical studies and borrowed by Hanfmann (1941) to conduct studies on thinking. In her study Hanfmann distinguished between two types of approaches to solving the taskperceptual and conceptual.…”

Estilos cognitivos en la dimensión científica y aportaciones a estilos de enseñanza en docentes universitarios de química

“…En el rastreo de las investigaciones sobre estilos cognitivos, se puede encontrar un importante inicio a finales de los años 40 y principios de los 50, desde estudios que pretendían identificar diferencias individuales en la cognición con las características de ser estables, libres de valor, además de estar relacionadas con la personalidad y las relaciones sociales (Hanfmann, 1941;Klein, 1951;Klein y Schlesinger, 1951;Witkin, 1950;Witkin y Ash, 1948). Tales estudios estaban enfocados en indagar respecto a etapas básicas o primarias de procesamiento de información, que incluían la percepción, la formación de conceptos, la clasificación y la categorización.…”

“…En referencia a las primeras investigaciones cabe citar a Hanfmann (1941), quien encontró que algunos sujetos empleaban una aproximación más perceptual que conceptual al ordenar objetos, al tratar de formular hipótesis sobre posibles agrupaciones. Witkin y Ash (1948) (Witkin et al, 1954;citado en Hederich, 2004).…”

Chapter II: Current Construction and Evaluation of Intelligence Tests

“…An interesting report on the patterns of behavior shown on this test by graduate students and hospital attendants was made by Hanfmann (24). The test as described by Hanfmann and Kasanin is easily administered and applicable over a wide range of ability.…”