BEHAVIOURAL STYLES OF 4#fr1/2>‐YEAR‐OLD BOYS WHEN RESPONDING TO TEST DEMANDS

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Abstract
This paper reports an investigation into the method described by Hertzig et al. (1968), for measuring the response style of pre‐school children performing cognitive tasks (the Stanford‐Binet Intelligence Test Form L). The inter‐observer reliability of the major variables proposed as parameters of ‘cognitive style’ is examined, as well as their stability over time, and their association with level of test performance. It was not found possible to record behaviour in adequate detail using the original method of a handwritten protocol so a modified procedure was adopted in which observers classified responses directly by their type and recorded them in code. Using this method, reliability was found to be high. Moreover, over a period of four to six weeks there was substantial consistency in the style of behaviour shown by these children when dealing with test demands. Since there were ethnic differences in the small sample of children studied (N=32), it was also of interest to discover whether children of immigrant and English‐born parents would show differences in behaviour comparable to the differences between Puerto Rican and middle‐class American children reported by Hertzig et al. Some behavioural differences were found, but these appeared to be wholly a function of differing test performance.

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