Performance on the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale and Success in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Detroit

Abstract

The problem undertaken here constitutes a part of a broader investigation to determine more exactly the role of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale, Form II, in guiding college students. The purpose of this investigation is, first, to determine the average scores of freshmen enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Detroit, on the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale, Form II; secondly, to determine how well this test predicts the grades obtained by freshman students in their first semester in the College of Arts and Sciences. That the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale might be used for the purpose of guiding students was suggested by Wechsler when he stated: The most obviously useful feature of the Wechsler - Bellevue scales is their division into a Verbal and Performance part. We have already discussed the general significance of this division. Its a priori value is that it makes possible a comparison between a subject's facility in using words and symbols and his ability to manipulate objects, and to perceive visual patterns. In practice this division is substantiated by the differences between posited abilities and various occupational aptitudes. Clerical workers and teachers, in general, do much better on verbal tests, whereas manual workers and mechanics do better on performance. The correlations are sufficiently high to be of value in vocational guidance, particularly with adolescents of high school age. This statement suggests that these tests should be of value in vocational guidance, hence, applicable to our problem. However, Diamond states that: The Wechsler-Bellevue Scales, which have been so thoroughly studied a s instruments of clinical diagnosis, have received little attention, as far as the literature indicates, from the standpoint of their possible helpfulness in determining vocational aptitudes. To investigate this matter empirically, he grouped the subtests of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale into three catagories: linguistic, clerical, and spatial. He administered three widely used aptitude tests, one falling in each of these three areas. He found a high degree of correspondence between each aptitude test and the corresponding group of subtests in the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale. He states that: “these relationships may be taken as evidence of the validity of the group scores…as indicators of linguistic, clerical, and spatial aptitudes." Another study by Renate Gerboth compares the Wechsler Bellevue Intelligence Scale, Form I, and Form II, with grades made by students at the end of their first semester. Subjects were freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior students at the University of Washington who had, at one time or other, contacted the counseling center of the University. Gerboth found that the correlation of grade points with the test scores of Form I was .29, which was significant at the .05 level, while the correlation of grade point averages with Form II was .26, which was almost significant at the .05 level of confidence. In another study, Arden Frandsen found that both the Wechsler -Bellevue Full Scale and Verbal Scale IQs predict three year average grade point ratios very efficiently for high school achievement. The correlation is .69 for both the Full Scale and t he Verbal Scale while the Performance Scale is less significantly related to academic achievement. For the Wechsler Full Scale, the mean IQ was 119.8 (SD: 11.86), and the correlation was .685 with school grades. For the Verbal Scale the mean IQ was 115.7 (SD: 12.96), and the correlation was .69. For the Performance Scale, the mean IQ was 119.6 (SD: 10.08), and the correlation was .48. Frandsen concludes that, even though his data are limited to high school seniors, these conclusions would apply to college freshmen when conditions were equally favorable. This conclusion was reached in the light of the results obtained by Anderson and Sartain. Anderson and his co-workers made a study of the re1ationship between the scores on the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale and grade point averages of 112 college women students in various curricula. With a mean IQ of 118.5 for the Wechsler Scales, they found a correlation of .41 for the Full Scale and grade point averages. Correlations of .50 and .19 were found for the Verbal Scale and the Performance Scale, respectively. Anderson and his co-workers are of the opinion that the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale has provided a long-needed individual intelligence test standardized upon adult subjects and that these tests should be of value in student personnel work. However, they maintain that the usefulness of the Wechsler-Bellevue Scale with college students would be limited unless its relation to grade averages compares favorably with that of other tests. Sartain, in another article, compared the Revised Stanford- Binet, the Wechsler -Bellevue Scale, and certain group tests of intelligence: the Revised Alpha Examination, Form 5, the Otis Self Administering Test of Mental Ability, Form A, and the ACE Psychological Examination, 1942 Edition. He found that although there was no significant difference in amounts by which each test correlated with grades, the ACE Psychological Examination yielded a lower coefficient than any other test score, while the IQs of the Stanford-Binet were significantly higher than those on the Wechsler-Bellevue Scales and the group tests. He obtained the following data for the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale. The mean IQ and standard deviation for the Full Scale were 117.48 and 10.47. For the Verbal Scale and the Performance Scale, the mean IQs and standard deviations were 115.44 and 10.65; 115. 12 and 10 .38, respectively. Correlations between mean grades and the Wechsler Full, Verbal, and Performance Scales, were .53, .58, and .35, respectively. The se results were obtained from a group of fifty college freshmen. Herrill and Heathers, in an experiment designed to establish centile scores for the Wechsler -Bellevue Intelligence Scale on a university counseling-center group, found that mean s cores on the Wechsler scales did not differ significantly for different groups. They list mean scores and standard deviations for three different groups of college students: a group of veterans, a group of non-veterans, and a group of volunteer subjects. The means and standard deviations were as follows: On the Wechsler Verbal Scale, the mean score for the veterans was 118.60 (SD: 8 .75); on the Performance Scale, 119.83 (SD: 9.43); and on the Full Scale, 121.03 (SD: 8 .31). For the non-veteran group, the mean score on t he Verbal Scale was 118 .99 (SD: 8 .64); on the Performance Scale, 118.30 (SD: 10.04); and on the Full Scale, 121.06 (SD: 8 .75). With the volunteer group, Merrill and Heathers found that the mean score on the Wechsler Verbal Scale was 121.66 (SD: 8.85); on the Performance Scale, 119.65 (SD: 8.91); and on the Full Scale, 122.74 (SD: 7.74). Merrill and Heathers conclude that in spite of age and educational differences the groups do not differ significantly in either means or standard deviations on any of the three scales of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale. Trygg Engen, in the study referred to earlier, found that there was a dependable relationship between the scores on the Wechsler -Bellevue Intelligence Scale, Form II, and grades earned in the first semester by freshman students in the College of Engineering at the University of Detroit. He found mean scores for his group to be 124.10 (SD: 6.98) for the Wechsler Full Scale, 120.14 (SD: 7.73) for the Verbal Scale, and 120.98 (SD: 8.00) for the Performance Scale. The correlation between the Wechsler Full Scale and mean grades for the first semester was .556 (SE: .144). The correlations of the Verbal Scale and the Performance Scale with the mean grades for the first semester were .594 (SE: .144), and .417 (SE: .144), respectively. Engen concludes that “the validity coefficients are relatively high for this type of study, and hence this scale seems to be of practical usefulness for this purpose.”