Intellectual and Motoric Correlates of Benton's Visual Retention Test

Abstract

A clinical sample of 84 predominantly psychotic patients were administered Benton's Visual Retention Test, a reduced version of WAIS ( W I P ) , Raven's Progressive Matrices, and Schoppe's Motoric Performance Task Series (IMLS) in an attempt to relate visual retention and form reproduction to intellectual aptitude. Cut-off points of 0.5 SD ebove or below the mean correct responses emitted on the Benton were used to form equal groups of extreme highand low-scoring subjects. Discrimination analysis between groups showed that high-scorers yielded superior performance on all four Wechsler intelligence subtests ( A = .53, x3' = 41.31, Rc = .68, f i < .001). Bivariate correlations between both full-scale W I P I Q and Matrices scores, and performance on the Benton substantiated that these domains share much common variance ( r = .Gl and .49, respectively; 9 < ,001). Similarly, subjects who had performed inferiorly o n the Benton displayed significantly lower scores on Schoppe's subscales ( A = .78, x32 = 41.31, Rc = .68, @ < .001) than those who had exhibited superior performance on the Benton (Table 1 ) . Error frequency in form reproduction (Benton) was negatively correlated with nonverbal intelligence ( r = . 7 1 , n = 75. P < ,001) and positively with Schoppe's motor coordinative errors ( T = .33, f i < .01). The effect of partialling out differential motor aptitudes brought negligible change in the magnitude of correlation between IQ and error frequency o n Benton's test (s = -.65, f i < .001). The combination of Progressive Matrices and motor co-ordination indicated ( R = .72) that I Q was the best single predictor of visual retention (F3.10 = 61.43, f i < .001), accounting for 41 % of the variance but only 2% for the motor variable. Ability in form perception and reproduction appears predominantly cognitive rather than motoric in character.