Level of Abstraction in the Written Compositions of Children Varying in Intelligence and Age

Abstract

Written compositions were obtained from 48 children assigned to three IQ groups. Compositions were scored for definiteness of style according to several of the Flesch criteria. Two of the Flesch criteria, definite words and Formula R, were associated with MA and IQ; further, definite words and Formula R distinguished compositions written by a superior group of children from those written by normal and retarded children, that is, the high IQ group used more general referents, in terms of the Flesch criteria, than the middle- and low-IQ groups. Increases in age were not associated with increases in stylistic generality for the age range sampled. A six-category profile of definite words, reduced according to word function from 16, was analyzed separately.

Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones, But Ethnophaulisms Can Alter the Portrayal of Immigrants to Children

“…Verbal behavior has been used to gauge the cognitive complexity of children, variously labeled "quality of ideation" (Myklebust, 1965) or "linguistic maturity" (Kaldegg, 1950). Flesch's (1943Flesch's ( , 1948 "readability index," an operational definition of this construct (which incorporates linguistic variables such as the number of syllables per word and the number of words per sentence), has been shown to correlate with the mental age and the IQ scores of children (e.g., Tillman, 1969). Thus, ethnic immigrant children characters portrayed with greater verbal complexity would seem to convey the positive attributes of greater intelligence and cognitive complexity.…”

About face: Facial prominence of George W. Bush in political cartoons as a function of war

“…If this is the case, then there might be evidence in the cartoon of some other form of enhancement or derogation of the president. For example, just as low facial prominence is associated with diminished intelligence (Archer et al, 1983;Schwartz & Kurz, 1989), low verbal complexity is also associated with diminished intelligence (Kaldegg, 1950;Tillman, 1969). Mullen (2004) recently showed that ethnic immigrant characters in children's books were derogated through portrayals of both low facial prominence and low verbal complexity.…”