Differences between American and Arabic Children in Performance on Measuresof Pictorial Depth Perception: Implications for Valid Interpretation of Test Scores Based on Items Reflecting Dissimilar Cultural Content

Abstract

For each of two samples of 33 American children and 30 Arabic children (all subjects being 6 or 7 years of age) comparisons were made of the level of performance on each of two individually administered 3-item experimental test forms requiring pictorial depth perception of three representative scenes from the American and from the Arabic cultures, respectively. Higher mean scores were obtained for (a) the American than for the Arabic sample on the American version, (b) the Arabic than for the American group on the Arabic form, (c) the American sample on the American than on the parallel Arabic version, and (d) the Arabic group on the Arabic than on the American form. For the American sample, internal-consistency reliability estimates were .90 and .86 for scores on the American and Arabic versions, respectively; for the Arabic sample, the corresponding estimates were .85 and .80. The statistical results lent support to the conclusion that differences in the cultural backgrounds of the subjects relative to their familiarity with pictorial content of test items incorporating size and distance cues contributed to significant differences in average level of test performance on the two forms. Implications for valid interpretation of test scores derived from pictorial items portraying objects specific to a given culture are discussed.