The Puff Test: An Attempt to Assess the Intelligence of Young Children by Use of a Conditioned Reflex

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Abstract
A conditioned reflex has been established in a number of children under standard" conditions. The reflex used was the eye blink when air was puffed into the child''s eye. The test was performed on 155 mentally normal children with the following results: Children of 6 months old and under could not be conditioned; over the age of 6 months conditioning became progressively easier until the typical adult response of immediate conditioning was reached at about 4 years of age. Provisional results in 74 mentally defective children are also reported. As a group they were more difficult to condition than ordinary children of the same chronological age. When speed of conditioning in the mentally defective children was correlated with their mental age, the ease of conditioning approximated that of normal children, although there was a wider scatter. It is suggested that the puff test can be used as a simple intelligence test. It has the following advantages: It is quick to perform, needs little apparatus, and only requires a minimum of co-operation from the child, and in addition requires no motor skill nor educational knowledge on the part of the child. Two unusual reactions were noticed. In the "stoic" reaction the child voluntarily refused to blink. This reaction occurred in children over the age of 18 months. In the "wait-for-it" reaction which occurred in normal children under 12 months old, the child gave evidence that he knew that he was about to be puffed, but took no avoiding action. It well marked, this was taken as the end point of conditioning. The puff test has been found to be of value in assessing the intelligence of young children with physical handicaps such as spasticity or deafness. Like any other intelligence test, it cannot be used alone, but in conjunction with other tests it should prove valuable.

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