The validity of the Porteus maze test.

Abstract

Investigators who were previously engaged in the study of intelligence, have turned their attention in the past several years to the study of personality and adjustment. It has been recognized by these investigators that no one concept, however important, suffices to interpret all clinical cases. Even such fundamental concepts as general intelligence and mental level are by no means sufficient for the diagnosis of all types of maladjustment. There are many individuals who function on an average mental level, or who, in a manner of speaking, are even bright, but still fail to meet the ordinary requirements placed upon them by the social group. A diagnostic classification, namely, mental age, mental level, or intelligence quotient, does not in itself interpret or solve a person's failure to adjust. Lowrey 1 reports that child guidance clinics have found mental deficiency to be a lesser factor in the production of difficult behavior than was anticipated by psychiatrists.Although social behavior cannot be sharply divided into two distinct types, namely, good and bad, individuals can be ranked from best to worst insofar as their social adjustment is concerned. The classroom teacher can thus rank his pupils and point out those who do not, for some reason, get along socially. He may also observe that certain pupils, though maladjusted at the moment, respond to training and become better adjusted with maturity. There are also those children who do not respond to training and remain quite hopeless insofar as social adjustment is concerned. Some of these, and other children, are brought to the guidance clinic. Upon studying them, the clinician finds himself in need of some working concepts other than general intelligence and mental level by means of which he could better interpret the dynamic behavior of the maladjusted individual who functions 481

Recidivist criminal behaviour and executive functions: a comparative study

“…< out of several mazes that are presented in increasing difficulty, and it gives two scores that reflect distinct cognitive features: the test age (TA), that is calculated from the total number of mazes successfully completed, can be considered as an intelligence measure (Porteus, 1965); and the qualitative score (Q score), that is the result of the various types of errors the subject has committed in each maze, can be used as a measure of impulsivity, social adaptation abilities and delinquent behaviour (Brill, 1937;Docter & Winder, 1954;Porteus, 1965). Overall, Porteus Maze Test is a good measure of executive functions (Krikorian & Bartok, 1998) that assesses planning and foresight (Lezaket al, 2004), and the Q score can differentiate patients with frontal lesions from patients with other brain injuries (Stuss et al, 1984).…”