Nonverbal Intelligence Test Research Articles

Association Between Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Cognitive Performance Among Adolescent Students From Underdeveloped Cities in Brazil: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The association between ultra-processed foods (UPF) consumption and cognitive performance needs to be better characterized in adolescents, especially in low-income settings, where the cost of human capital is high. This study investigated the association between cognitive performance and UPF in adolescents from the countryside of the Brazilian Northeast. Adolescents (15-18years old) from three public high schools were included. Food intake was assessed using three 24-hour dietary recalls. The classification of foods as UPF was determined according to the Nova classification. Cognitive performance was evaluated using the Non-Verbal General Intelligence Test. 116 adolescents were included, of which 50 (43.1%) showed low cognitive performance. The average energy intake was 1973.5 kcal, with 24.2% coming from UPF. Participants with low cognitive performance consumed 26.5% (95% CI: [22.2; 30.7]%) of daily energy intake from UPF compared to 22.5% ([18.8; 26.2]%) of those with medium-high cognitive performance (P = 0.17), without differences in energy and macronutrient intake. Despite similar UPF consumption compared to the Brazilian average, no association was found between UPF consumption and cognitive performance in this low-income adolescent sample.

Cognitive, Social, and Emotional-Behavioral Outcomes in Children and Adolescents With Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome.

Although Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome spectrum (BWSp) is not usually associated with intellectual disability, recent evidences calls for further investigation of cognitive development and academic skills in children with BWSp. Moreover, research has documented social difficulties and emotional-behavioral problems associated with BWSp. Nevertheless, a full characterization of socio-emotional development in BWSp is still lacking. In the current study, cognitive and socio-emotional development was assessed in 29 children with BWSp aged 5-18 years, using a test of nonverbal intelligence, a neuropsychological battery covering multiple domains, academic skills tests, and questionnaires evaluating autistic traits and emotional-behavioral problems. As expected, most participants showed adequate performance in cognitive tests. However, the findings also highlighted greater difficulties in language than visuospatial processing, strengths in social perception, as well as slowness in reading and mental calculation. The assessment of emotional-behavioral difficulties indicated a prevalent phenotype characterized by increased anxiety, low self-esteem, social withdrawal and a tendency to control externalizing reactions, but no associations with autistic traits, cognitive outcomes, and the clinical score proposed by the recent Consensus statement. Increased social perception and internalization problems likely result from coping strategies with social and care-related stress. Overall, the findings of this study inform clinical management and genetic counseling for children and adolescents with BWSp.

Objective and subjective experiences of childhood maltreatment and their relationships with cognitive deficits: a cohort study in the USA

Cognitive deficits might contribute to the elevated risk of life-course psychopathology observed in maltreated children. Leading theories about the links between childhood maltreatment and cognitive deficits focus on documented exposures (objective experience), but empirical research has largely relied on retrospective self-reports of these experiences (subjective experience), and the two measures identify largely non-overlapping groups. We aimed to test the associations of objective and subjective measures of maltreatment with cognitive abilities within the same individuals. We studied a cohort of individuals from the US Midwest with both objective, court-documented evidence of childhood maltreatment and subjective self-reports of individuals' histories at age 29 years. Between the ages of 29 years and 41 years, participants were assessed with a comprehensive set of cognitive tests, including tests of general verbal intelligence (Quick Test and Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised [WRAT]), non-verbal intelligence (Matrix Reasoning Test [MRT]), executive function (Stroop Test and Trail Making Test Part B [TMT-B]), and processing speed (Trail Making Test Part A [TMT-A]). Participants were also assessed for psychopathology (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and Beck Anxiety Inventory). We tested the associations between objective or subjective measures of childhood maltreatment with cognitive functions using ordinary least squares regression. To test whether cognitive deficits could explain previously described associations between different measures of maltreatment and subsequent psychopathology, we re-ran the analyses accounting for group differences in the Quick Test. People with lived experience were not involved in the research or writing process. The cohort included 1196 individuals (582 [48·7%] female, 614 [51·3%] male; 752 [62·9%] White, 417 [34·9%] Black, 36 [3·8%] Hispanic) who were assessed between 1989 and 2005. Of the 1179 participants with available data, 173 had objective-only measures of childhood maltreatment, 492 had objective and subjective measures, 252 had subjective-only measures, and 262 had no measures of childhood maltreatment. Participants with objective measures of childhood maltreatment showed pervasive cognitive deficits compared with those without objective measures (Quick Test: β=-7·97 [95% CI -9·63 to -6·30]; WRAT: β=-7·41 [-9·09 to -5·74]; MRT: β=-3·86 [-5·86 to -1·87]; Stroop Test: β=-1·69 [-3·57 to 0·20]; TMT-B: β=3·66 [1·67 to 5·66]; TMT-A: β=2·92 [0·86 to 4·98]). The associations with cognitive deficits were specific to objective measures of neglect. In contrast, participants with subjective measures of childhood maltreatment did not differ from those without subjective measures (Quick Test: β=1·73 [95% CI -0·05 to 3·50]; WRAT: β=1·62 [-0·17 to 3·40]; MRT: β=0·19 [-1·87 to 2·24]; Stroop Test: β=-1·41 [-3·35 to 0·52]; TMT-B: β=-0·57 [-2·69 to 1·55]; TMT-A: β=-0·36 [-2·38 to 1·67]). Furthermore, cognitive deficits did not explain associations between different measures of maltreatment and subsequent psychopathology. Previous studies based on retrospective reports of childhood maltreatment have probably grossly underestimated the extent of cognitive deficits in individuals with documented experiences of childhood maltreatment, particularly neglect. Psychopathology associated with maltreatment is unlikely to emerge because of cognitive deficits, but might instead be driven by individual appraisals, autobiographical memories, and associated schemas. National Institute of Justice, National Institute of Mental Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Aging, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Voicing discrimination as a diagnostic marker of developmental language disorder

This study examines how children with developmental language disorder (DLD) discriminate voiced and voiceless consonants and their processing speed. It also explores the contribution of factors like age, nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary, morphosyntactic skills, and sentence repetition in explaining speech perception abilities. Fourteen Cypriot Greek children with DLD and 14 peers with typical development (TD) aged 7; 10–10; 4 were recruited. Children were divided into four groups based on age and condition: young-DLD, young-TD, old-DLD, and old-TD. All children participated in an AX task, which measured their ability to discriminate sounds and their processing speed. They also completed a nonverbal intelligence test and a DVIQ test, which provided measures of various language abilities. The results demonstrated that the young-DLD group exhibited lower performance in discriminating consonants compared to the young-TD group, while such differences were not observed between the old-DLD and old-TD groups. Furthermore, while no significant differences in processing time were found between the DLD and TD groups, both young DLD and TD groups displayed longer processing times compared to their older counterparts. Age was the best-contributing factor to speech perception abilities in children with DLD in contrast to morphosyntax and vocabulary for children with TD. These findings highlight the role of voicing discrimination as a diagnostic marker of DLD as opposed to reaction time. Moreover, they underscore the crucial role of age in detecting DLD. The language developmental trajectories of children with TD appear distinct from those with DLD, as evidenced by variations in contributing factors between the two groups. These disparities can be attributed to the diverse nature of the DLD population, the therapies they receive, the compensatory strategies they employ, and the potential impact of other contributing factors.

Correlation between studying strategies, personal and psychological factors with academic achievement and intelligence in health sciences university students: a cross-sectional study

IntroductionTo date, there are no sufficient studies aimed to determine a correlation between personal, academic, and psychological variables with academic achievement, measured with the grade point average (GPA) and intelligence in university students according to each sex.Study aimTo determine the correlation between studying strategies, personal and psychological factors with GPA and intelligence in a sample of health sciences university students.MethodsHealth Sciences university students, were invited to participate, those who accepted were cited in a computer room where they signed an informed consent and filled an electronic questionnaire with sociodemographic, behavioral, psychological variables and studying strategies (from the MLSQ instrument) afterwards they performed a verbal and non-verbal intelligence test (Shipley-2).ResultsA total of 439 students were included, from which 297 (67.7%) were women. The mean of age was 20.34 ± 2.61 years old. We found that no differences in GPA where observed between sexes. We detected a higher correlation between combined intelligence and GPA in women than in men. In addition, most studying strategies showed a higher correlation with GPA than intelligence scores in men´s sample. All these findings coincide with the fact that preparatory GPA was the most correlated variable with university GPA in both sexes. Finally, women showed higher levels of the sum of diseases, somatization, anxiety, depression and academic stress than men, and all these variables showed low significant correlations with the combined intelligence score only in women´s sample.ConclusionVerbal and non-verbal intelligence scores show a lower association to GPA in men than in women, while studying strategies showed a higher association with GPA in men than in women.

Development and Validation of the Tablet-Based ERAL Nonverbal Intelligence Test 5-17 (ERAL-NIT)

Intelligence has been extensively explored across various disciplines such as psychology, cognitive science, and neurology. Countless scholars have delved into understanding why certain individuals exhibit higher mental acuity and knowledge. Consequently, numerous studies aim to unveil the essence of intelligence and gauge human cognitive capacity. This study introduces and validates the ERAL Nonverbal Intelligence Test (ERAL-NIT) for children aged 5 to 17. Unlike many existing tests, ERAL-NIT is nonverbal, accommodating diverse linguistic backgrounds. Moreover, it incorporates parental assessments, enhancing its holistic approach. Administered via tablet with specialized software, ERAL-NIT provides comprehensive reports to practitioners and families. Its development integrates analyses of hemispheric specialization and executive functions of different brain areas. Content validity is ensured through expert input, while criterion validity is established by comparing results with established assessments and medical diagnoses. ERAL-NIT yields insights into pervasive developmental disorders, specific learning disabilities, attention deficits, and language disorders, thereby enriching diagnostic practices.

The Effect of Word Decoding and Oral Language Skills on the Written Composition of Short Narratives

Purpose: This study examined the effect of decoding and oral language skills on the written composition of short narratives among first-grade children at the end of the academic year.Methods: A total of 55 first graders participated in the study. To qualify for the study, participants were required to score at or above 80 on a nonverbal intelligence test. All participants were administered assessment of written composition, word decoding, receptive vocabulary, semantic relation vocabulary, and sentence comprehension. Pearson correlation and multiple stepwise regression were conducted.Results: The results showed the written composition of short narratives was significantly correlated with word decoding, receptive vocabulary, semantic relation vocabulary, and sentence comprehension. In the multiple stepwise regression, word decoding and receptive vocabulary predicted a significant amount of variance in the written composition of short narratives.Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that word decoding and vocabulary knowledge have a significant effect on written composition of short narratives in the early stage of writing development. Word decoding and vocabulary should be considered for assessment and intervention for children in the early stage of writing.

Psychometric properties of a brief non-verbal test of g factor intelligence

Intelligence is the most studied construct in psychology and cognitive neuroscience. In Brazil, the administration of intelligence tests is needed for a number of social rights, including driving privileges. Such requirements have led to a large testing industry but the vast majority of intelligence tests require extended administration times and language skills. In this study, we sought to investigate the psychometric properties and normative results of a new non-verbal intelligence test, the General Matrix of Intelligence (GMI). The GMI is comprised of 28 matrix-based items and can be administered in as little as six-minutes. In this initial pilot test, the GMI was administered to 1,326 participants, ages 15-64 years old (M = 25.65 years, SD = 9.6 years), from all regions in Brazil. These data were analyzed using a 2PL Item Response Theory model, regression analyses were conducted to determine the role of sociodemographic factors, and preliminary norms were computed. Results indicated a unidimensional solution that reproduced the g factor theory, invariance across genders, evidence that cognitively demanding items involving movement or three-dimensional shapes were more difficult than items with less cognitive load, a normal distribution for results, and an interaction between education level and age group in predicting performance. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed and all data and codes are provided at https://osf.io/kvu42/

Bilingualism and flexibility in task switching

Abstract This study aimed to closely replicate Wiseheart et al. (Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(1), 141–146, 2016) by investigating the transferability of language-switching skills to nonlinguistic task switching. Current evidence is mixed and there is a need to conduct robust replications in this area. Bilingual (n = 31) and monolingual (n = 47) young adults characterized stimuli by either colour or shape based on a given cue. Modifications include online data collection (as opposed to in-person) and adapting the nonverbal intelligence test used. All other aspects of the study mirror those by Wiseheart et al. Results indicate that the bilinguals exhibited better cognitive flexibility in task switching, as evidenced by a reduced global switch cost compared with monolinguals. In contrast, mixed evidence was found for local switch costs. Findings mirror those reported by Wiseheart et al. and suggest that by employing comparable task-switch paradigms and recruiting samples matched on several key variables, including age, gender, variety of languages spoken, and use of English, bilingualism does seem to confer broader executive function advantages. Findings are discussed in relation to theoretical implications to inform future replication studies and advance the bilingual advantage in the switching debate.

The long-term negative impact of childhood stroke on language.

This study aims to investigate the long-term language outcome in children with unilateral childhood stroke in comparison to those with perinatal strokes and typically developing individuals and to explore the impact of lesion-specific modifiers. We examined nine patients with childhood stroke, acquired between 0;2 and 16;1 years (CHILD; 3 female, median = 13.5 years, 6 left-sided), 23 patients with perinatal strokes (PERI; 11 female, median = 12.5 years, 16 left-sided), and 33 age-matched typically developing individuals (CONTROL; 15 female, median = 12.33 years). The language outcome was assessed using age-appropriate tasks of the Potsdam Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (P-ITPA) or the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). For group comparisons, study-specific language z-scores were calculated. Non-verbal intelligence was assessed using the Test of Non-verbal Intelligence (TONI-4), language lateralization with functional MRI, and lesion size with MRI-based volumetry. All four patients with childhood stroke who initially presented with aphasic symptoms recovered from aphasia. Patients with childhood stroke showed significantly lower language scores than those in the control group, but their scores were similar to those of the patients with perinatal stroke, after adjusting for general intelligence (ANCOVA, language z-score CHILD = -0.30, PERI = -0.38, CONTROL = 0.42). Among the patients with childhood stroke, none of the possible modifying factors, including lesion side, correlated significantly with the language outcome. Childhood stroke, regardless of the affected hemisphere, can lead to chronic language deficits, even though affected children show a "full recovery." The rehabilitation of children and adolescents with childhood stroke should address language abilities, even after the usually quick resolution of clear aphasic symptoms.

Особенности интеллектуального развития при расстройстве аутистического спектра (РАС)

<p style="text-align: justify;">The article presents an overview of the current understanding of the intellectual development of children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A review of research indicates a wide heterogeneity in the levels of intellectual development in autism (from severe intellectual disability to giftedness) and demonstrates a lack of specific cognitive and intellectual profiles. The assessment of "strengths" and "weaknesses" of individual cognitive abilities and/or subtests of the measures comes to the fore. At the same time, the incidence of ASD and intellectual disability is higher than in the general population (33% to 70% in the studies reported in this article), indicating that these conditions are comorbid. These rates vary according to the methodological design of the studies, especially the type of data used (administrative, medical, educational, etc.) and the instruments used to assess intellectual ability. For example, Wechsler tests may underestimate scores in children and adults with ASD because of the large number of verbal instructions that are difficult for people with severe communication difficulties. Comprehensive nonverbal intelligence tests (e.g., Leiter-3 or UNIT-2) are the most appropriate methods. Assessing the level of intellectual ability in people with autism spectrum disorders in Russia is complicated by the existing deficit of methods, the elimination of which is an important task that researchers face.</p>

Implementation in the Motek Caren system with virtual reality of an existing motor rehabilitation programme for people with Down’s syndrome in order to increase its effectiveness

IntroductionDown’s syndrome often requires specialized rehabilitation methods in order to effectively improve cognitive and motor functioning. The growing interest in technologies to support rehabilitation is opening up new and promising perspectives for improving the quality of life of people diagnosed with this syndrome. One of these technologies is the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) system from Motek.ObjectivesThe aim of the planned research project is to explore the potential of using the CAREN system in the rehabilitation of people with Down’s syndrome.MethodsThe study included 10 participants with Down’s syndrome (men and women aged 18 to 50 years) without the presence of organic musculoskeletal disease or other somatic causes impairing motor performance. Before the training test, the participants were assessed by two psychological tests: 1) ACE III - Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination III Scale (ACE-III), which assesses attention and orientation, memory, verbal fluency, language and visuospatial functions and 2) the TONI 4 Non-Verbal Intelligence Test, which is a test used to measure general intelligence. The tests were carried out using the MOTEK CAREN device, which consists of a treadmill for motor training and a virtual reality screen on which different scenes are displayed for the participant to see during the test. Integrated motion capture technology was used to assess movement capabilities of the patients.. The screen displayed different types of applications in the form of virtual reality, in which the participant had to cope with various tasks accommodating different psychomotor skills, for example:crossing a virtual bridge, walking through a forest. The test took about 45 minutes per person. Two training sessions were conducted for each of the 10 patients with a one-month interval between them.ResultsThe Motek Caren System has proven to be a promising rehabilitation method for people with Down’s syndrome, compared to previous experience with different rehabilitation methods and existing research in the field.ConclusionsResults emphasize the necessity for further investigations and future research should involve more participants. The project has the potential to integrate modern technology with traditional forms of therapy to improve the quality of life and functioning of people affected by this syndrome.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

근원적 인지 메커니즘을 통한 난독증 탐구

Objectives The purpose of this paper is to identify dyslexia among various types of learning disabilities, explain its manifestation mechanism, and demonstrate it clinically.
 Methods This paper shows that through the fundamental cognitive mechanism, not only can the characteristics of dyslexia be understood in the most fundamental, essential, and holistic way, but also a better understanding of how dyslexia is fundamentally manifested. For clinical proof, non-verbal intelligence test (K-CTONI-2), Korean version of Children's Visual Perception Development Test (K-DTVP-3), the Korean Reading Test (KOLRA), and speech hearing test were administered to 7 elementary school students who continued to experience difficulties despite receiving reading education.
 Results Dyslexia begins with an excessively imbalanced structure of the brain's large visual and small auditory cognitive spaces. Due to the imbalance between the two cognitive spaces, visual acuity and visual memory appear strong, while auditory acuity and auditory memory appear weak, resulting in auditory internal attention deficit, which is the most important cognitive condition for language development. Auditory internal attention deficit in turn interferes with auditory information processing, resulting in serious difficulties in written language development and various symptoms observed in dyslexic children. The test results showed a low auditory function score compared to a high visual function score.
 Conclusions Dyslexia occurs due to functional defects in hierarchical cognitive processes such as auditory sensation, memory, and thought processing caused by an imbalance between the brain's small auditory cognitive space and large visual cognitive space. This paper presents directions for effective dyslexia treatment based on research results.

Enhancing Cognitive Skills in Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder through Game-based Brain-Computer Interface Training

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neuro developmental disorder that involves a series of behavioral aspects. Individuals with ASD have atypical development in the areas of learning, communication, social interaction, detection and handling of emotions, motor coordination and concentration. They may also have difficulty thinking flexibly and dealing with changes. With the advancement of information and communication technologies, an alternative used to assist in treating these children is the brain-computer interface (BCI). In this context, this article aimed to create a mental game controlled via ICC that would enable the monitoring of brainwave behavior and promote an improvement in the cognitive performance of children with ASD. To this end, a mixed methods experimental study was carried out with a sample of 21 children aged 9 to 11 years. The study was carried out in schools in the city of Fortaleza -Brazil. The children in the Experimental Group (EG) were exposed to a game that involved memorizing images to develop and improve reasoning by creating relationships between the images and the sequence of arranged cards. We investigated the cognitive abilities using the SON-R 6-40 Nonverbal Intelligence Test. Cognitive gains were observed in the participants of the Experimental Group (EG), including greater concentration, improved attention, and enhanced logical reasoning. Additionally, changes in some aspects of personal hygiene were noted in these children.

Effects of working memory and visual search skill on Chinese reading comprehension: examining the simple view of reading

AbstractTo investigate the longitudinal effects of two domain-general cognitive abilities, namely verbal working memory and visual search skill, on Chinese reading comprehension. To evaluate whether decoding and linguistic comprehension mediate such effects. A total of 202 first-grade Chinese-speaking children from mainland China (Mage = 86 months, SD = 4.9 months; 126 boys) completed tasks that measured verbal working memory, visual search, expressive vocabulary, morphological awareness, Chinese character recognition, and word reading fluency. One year later, they completed a passage comprehension task and a nonverbal intelligence test. Structural equation modeling was conducted with decoding and linguistic comprehension being included as latent variables and mediating factors explaining the effects of working memory and visual search. The children with better verbal working memory and visual search skill exhibited better reading comprehension performance. The effect of working memory on reading comprehension was fully mediated by linguistic comprehension (captured by vocabulary and morphological awareness) but not decoding (measured by word reading accuracy and fluency). However, decoding fully mediated the impact of visual search skill. Our findings suggest that the reading comprehension ability of beginning Chinese readers is associated with verbal working memory and visual search ability. These general cognitive abilities influence reading comprehension through distinct pathways. In line with the simple view of reading theory, decoding and linguistic comprehension skills explain such impacts. This research underlines the value of simultaneously examining general cognitive abilities and exploring their interconnectedness with linguistic skills in the context of reading comprehension.

Standarization of Raven's test of non-verbal intelligence to select athletes for sports teams from high school students in Damascus


 This study aims to codify the Raven test for non-verbal intelligence on secondary school students in Damascus for the purpose of selecting athletes for sports teams. The sample consisted of (2300) male and female students from the secondary stage in Damascus, who were chosen in a simple random manner from the secondary schools in Damascus. The results indicated that the test has high stability indicators using the Alpha Cronbach coefficient. The results of persistence by midterm and segmentation were high, and internal correlations between items and the overall score were high. The results indicated the presence of statistically significant differences between the highest scores, and the lowest on this test. This indicates good discriminatory ability of the test items. In total, the results of the study demonstrated that the Raven test for non-verbal intelligence has acceptable psychometric properties. Preliminary criteria have been extracted for secondary school students, and thus the scale has become valid for use with secondary school students for the purpose of mathematical selection in the Syrian Arab Republic.
 

Anodal transcranial direct-current stimulation and non-verbal intelligence in autism spectrum disorder: A randomized controlled trial.

To understand the impact of anodal transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) on non-verbal intelligence in high-functioning young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Thirty individuals with ASD were randomly divided into three groups receiving 2 mA, 20 minutes daily anodal tDCS for 10 sessions. Group A received 10 sham tDCS sessions, group B five real followed by five sham sessions, and group C received 10 real tDCS sessions. The total score of non-verbal intelligence was measured using the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence, Fourth Edition. The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (LDLPFC) was targeted using the International 10-20electroencephalography system, and concurrent cognitive training was avoided. Group C demonstrated a mean difference of 4.10 (95% confidence interval 1.41-6.79; p = 0.005) in Test of Nonverbal Intelligence scores compared with group A, with an effect size of 0.47. No significant differences were observed between groups A and B (p = 0.296), or between groups B and C (p = 0.140). Ten sessions of anodal tDCS to the LDLPFC led to improved non-verbal intelligence among individuals with ASD. These results emphasize the potential of tDCS as a discrete method for boosting cognitive abilities in the high-functioning population with ASD. Future studies with larger groups of participants and extended observation periods are necessary to validate these findings.

Discrimination of Second Language Vowel Contrasts and the Role of Phonological Short-Term Memory and Nonverbal Intelligence

Although extensive research has focused on the perceptual abilities of second language (L2) learners, a significant gap persists in understanding how cognitive functions like phonological short-term memory (PSTM) and nonverbal intelligence (IQ) impact L2 speech perception. This study sets out to investigate the discrimination of L2 English monophthongal vowel contrasts and to assess the effect of PSTM and nonverbal IQ on L2 speech perception. The participants consisted of adult monolingually-raised Greek speakers, who completed an AX discrimination test, a digit span test, and a nonverbal intelligence test. A control group of English speakers also completed the AX test. Data were analyzed using Bayesian regression models. The results revealed that Greek speakers exhibited below chance discrimination for the majority of L2 vowel contrasts, consistently underperforming in comparison to the control group. Intriguingly, the study did not provide substantial evidence in favor of more accurate discrimination of L2 contrasts by Greek participants with high PSTM compared to those with low PSTM. However, the study yielded compelling evidence indicating that Greek participants with higher IQ demonstrated superior accuracy in discriminating most L2 contrasts compared to their lower IQ counterparts. The limited influence of PSTM on speech perception suggests the need for further exploration, considering the potential impact of test methodologies and the intricate interplay of other confounding factors. Furthermore, the study uncovers a noteworthy relationship between nonverbal IQ and L2 speech perception, likely linked with the association of high IQ with enhanced attentional capacities, information processing abilities, and learning skills—all of which are pivotal for accurate speech perception.

Assessing Intelligence in Deaf and Hard of Hearing: A Narrative Review

Abstract People with deafness or hard of hearing (DHH) are mistaken to be less intelligent, due to their poor spoken language skills. In the past, the expression “deaf-and-dumb” denoted that there was no difference between mentally challenged people and those who are deaf. This false impression was caused by earlier verbally heavy intelligence quotient tests, which were later fully corrected or fixed with the invention and usage of a large number of nonverbal or performance-based intelligence tests. This narrative review, which is based on secondary sources including 76 published studies in indexed journals, textbooks, book chapters, and doctoral dissertations that can be accessed online, is solely concerned with a systematic compilation of tools or tests for measuring intelligence in people who are DHH. This compilation, created following PRISMA principles, is presented and discussed in terms of themes, timelines, and format of the publications along with their implications for contemporary clinical practice and directions for future research.

A profile of spatial abilities in people with Down syndrome.

Spatial abilities are fundamental cognitive abilities, have direct applications in daily life, serve as a cognitive foundation for many other complex skills and are used in many specialty jobs. The current study aimed to systematically and comprehensively evaluate the spatial abilities of individuals with Down syndrome (DS) relative to mental ability-matched typically developing (TD) children based on Newcombe and Shipley's double-dimension theoretical framework for classifying spatial abilities. Forty adolescents and young adults with DS and 40 TD children completed a nonverbal intelligence test (Raven's), two measures of static-extrinsic skills (water-level task and cart task), two measures of static-intrinsic skills (figure ground and form completion), two measures of dynamic-extrinsic skills (three mountains task and dog task) and two measures of dynamic-intrinsic spatial skills (mental rotation task and block design task). Participants with DS showed reduced performance on two dynamic-intrinsic tasks and one static-extrinsic task (i.e. cart task) relative to TD children. Performances were similar in two dynamic-extrinsic tasks and two static-intrinsic tasks. Analyses of composite accuracy for each spatial category further confirmed deficits in dynamic-intrinsic and static-extrinsic categories for people with DS relative to TD children. Our results showed an uneven profile of spatial abilities in people with DS relative to ability-matched TD children with particular weaknesses in comprehending and manipulating dynamic-intrinsic and static-extrinsic spatial relations. Furthermore, our research has important clinical implications for more targeted interventions to improve spatial abilities in people with DS.