Incidence of Basic Concepts in the Directions of New and Recently Revised American Intelligence Tests for Preschool Children

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to provide comparative data as a follow-up to Bruce A. Bracken (1986) regarding basic concepts contained in the test directions of five new or recently revised American intelligence tests for preschoolers. Two measures of basic concepts, the Bracken Basic Concept Scale (BBCS; Bracken, 1984) and the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts-Preschool Version (Boehm-Preschool; Boehm, 1986), were used to assess: (a) the presence of basic concepts in the directions of intelligence tests; (b) the percentage of preschool-age children who understand these terms; and (c) the frequency with which basic concepts occur throughout test administration procedures. Results indicated that use of the Boehm-Preschool alone or an examination of only the presence of basic concepts and the proportion of children who understand them provide limited information about the difficulty of test directions. It is not until one tabulates the total number of times (that is, frequency) that each basic concept occurs in test directions that their true complexity is realized. This review showed that all intelligence test directions contain excessive use of difficult basic concepts. Although data are not available to examine the extent to which children from countries other than America are likely to understand test directions, in light of the present results, it seems reasonable to assume that all young children may have difficulty comprehending intelligence test directions, regardless of country of origin.