The Race is Not Necessarily to the Swift: Validity of WISC-R Bonus Points for Speed

Abstract

To investigate speed as a factor in WISC-R performance, scores of 66 high-scoring (IQ 120 + ) and 36 average-scoring (IQ < 120) children were examined in a clinic for gifted children. Although significant mean group differences were found on all subtests, they were only marginal for Coding, which depends strongly on speed. On the three subtests using speed bonus points, the high-scoring group gave more correct answers, but on only one, Block Design, was there a trend toward more bonus points for speed. The results are interpreted as casting serious doubt on the utility of speed bonuses in tests of general intelligence with gifted children.It has long been established that brighter individuals tend to solve problems and learn new information more quickly than those who are less bright. It is tempting to assume that speed should therefore play a central role in intelligence tests.In constructing the prototype of his intelligence tests, David Wechsler (1944) took as his guide a comprehensive view of intelligence as a part of the total personality. The Performance Scales in particular were designed to include variables which Wechsler considered nonintellective, including speed of response. On the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for ChildrenRevised (WISC-R) (Wechsler, 1974), for example, bonus points are awarded for three of the five subtests on the Performance Scale (Picture Arrangement, Block Design, and Object Assembly), and speed constitutes the major scoring criterion for a fourth Performance subtest, Coding. Similarly, for the new Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence -Revised (WPPSI-R) (Wechsler, 1989) for younger children, bonus points are awarded for rapid performance on two subtests, Object Assembly and Block Design, with speed the major variable in an optional subtest, Animal Pegs (formerly Animal House). On both WISC-R and WPPSI-R, additional performance subtests and a verbal subtest, Arithmetic, also have time limits, as do those with bonus points, but the limits are sufficiently generous that correctness rather than speed usually determines the score.Wechsler viewed mental speed, then, as a noncognitive aspect of intelligence. Similarly, Kagan (1965) viewed response speed as a matter of cognitive style, rather than cognitive ability. More recent research has, however, focused upon speed of processing as an index of cognitive ability. After a long period of disfavor, research into reaction time has reemerged as a legitimate endeavor. Most investigators have looked at the relationship between IQ and reaction times on tasks such as choosing which key to touch in response to visual cues in the form of patterns of lights or shapes (e.g., Detterman, 1987;Jensen, 1982;Matthews & Dorn, 1989;Vernon, 1987). Other investigators have looked at the relationship between IQ and inspection time, typically the minimum time needed to apprehend information in tasks such as identifying the longer of two lines (Kranzler & Jensen, 1989) . Indeed, relationships have been discovered even in infancy between speed of ...

Development of Mental Attention in Gifted and Mainstream Children: The Role of Mental Capacity, Inhibition, and Speed of Processing

“…Response time patterns on the FITFa complex problem-solving taskFwere similar for gifted and mainstream samples. This is consistent with the claim that gifted children may strategically moderate their speed of responding to suit the demands of the task (e.g., Reams et al, 1990;Sternberg & Davidson, 1982), suggesting a superior executive know-how. The gifted advantage on the M-capacity measures, thus, is not due to greater speed in basic processing or to superior inhibitory ability.…”

“…Geary and Brown (1991) found that gifted children were more accurate than nongifted children at solving single-digit addition problems and were more likely to use a memory retrieval strategy, but they were not faster at retrieving answers from long-term memory. Reams, Chamrad, and Robinson (1990) examined three subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children -Revised (WISC -R), on which bonus points are given for rapid responses, and found that high-IQ children received more speed points than did average-IQ children on only one of the subtests. The authors suggested that ''higher capacity need not always be reflected in faster performance'' on insight problems (Reams et al, 1990, p. 110).…”

Mental attention in gifted and nongifted children

“…Mental may be more dependent on cognitive functioning than other maturity processes. Gifted children may strategically moderate their speed of response to suit the demands of the task (e.g., Reams Chamrad, & Robinson, 1990;Sternberg & Davidson, 1982), suggesting a superior executive know-how (Johnson, Im-Bolter, & Pascual-Leone, 2003, p. 1609. The research literature suggests that gifted children have superior executive abilities: For example, they quickly develop problem-solving strategies and are flexible in their strategy use (Shore, 2000).…”

Development of attentional networks in intellectually gifted children

“…According to the demands of the cognitive task, this difference between both gifted and nongifted group might disappear (Geary & Brown,1991;Lajoie & Shore, 1986). In conclusion, high intelligence does not always reflect faster performance (Reams, Chamrad & Robinson, 1990). In the same vein, some studies have shown an equivalent learning progression in intellectually gifted and average children (Vogelaar, Bakker, Elliott, & Resing, 2017a;2017b;Vogelaar, Resing, Stad, & Sweijen, 2019).…”