Motor Speed Performance Research Articles

75 STATUS OF HYPOTHTROID PATIENTS AT 6 YEARS

Fifty-six hypothyroid children diagnosed on neonatal screening were examined at 6 years with appropriate school achievement tests, tests of neuropsychologic functions, and the WISC-R. Controls were 31 sibs of hypothyroid patients and 29 euthyroid children with deficient T4 binding. The 56 patients,as well as other younger patients, had been examined at ages 3-5 for gross neurologic abnormalities including ataxia, nystagmus, and strabismus, and tested with the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test, the Vineland Social Maturity Scales, and the Beery-Buktenica Test of Visual-motor Integration. They did not differ in any of these examinations from suitable controls. At 6 years, the patients and controls did not differ in overall WISC scores nor in any of the WISC subtests. More importantly, they did not differ in results of tests of school achievement, of varying modalities of sensory perceotion, of spatial orientation, of concept formation or of accuracy of fine movements. The patients did not suffer from short attention span or hyperactivity. They did,however, lag behind the controls in developing speed of motor performance.The speed of motor performance in the patients did not correlate with their IQ. This was the only failure of correlation between any neuropsychologic test and IQ in either patients or controls. Determination of the practical significance of delayed development of motor speed as well as final evaluation of the patients' intellectual development awaits results of school achievement tests after completion of the second or third grades, but none of the studies to date suggests potential school problems.

Motor development of deaf children.

Comparisons between a group of deaf children and normal-hearing controls on an extensive test-battery revealed that the former group was clearly inferior both in general dynamic coordination and visual-motor coordination. An experimental study, focusing on speed of motor performance, confirmed the general impression that deaf children are relatively slow performers. In particular, the execution of movements is slower in deaf children: the processes involved in this difference require further experimental research.

Relationship between neurological dysfunction and a test of speed of motor performance

Abstract To assess the effect of brain damage and Borderline IQ on motor performance in five-to eight-year-old children, a sample of 39 brain-damaged subjects was compared with 38 control subjects on a test of speed of motor performance that had been standardized on a group of normal children. The groups were matched for IQ, age, and sex. Brain-damaged subjects were found to be slower than control subjects with each hand, and particularly with the non-preferred hand. Quite similar findings occurred when the children with IQs in the 71–90 range were contrasted with children with IQs in the 91–110 range. No significant interactions between brain-damage and level of intelligence were found. Thus, both brain damage and Borderline intelligence related independently to diminished motor efficiency. The task of differentiating diagnostically between these two effects awaits future study.

Prediction of supervisors' ratings of medical intern performance.

Supervisors' forced-choice ratings at the end of training were used as a performance criterion for 84 medical interns in the United States Public Health Service Hospitals. A predictive battery, consisting of both intellective and non-intellective measures, yielded a multiple correlation of .48 against this criterion. The study is considered only suggestive, but the predictable variance in the supervisory criterion appeared to involve speed of motor performance, deductive reasoning ability, and a measure of responsibility.

Experimental studies of the mental speed of schizophrenics. I. Effects of a stimulant and a depressant drug.

It has been clinically observed that psychiatric patients in general (6, 11) and schizophrenic patients in particular (1, 4) show abnormalities of mental speed, being “retarded” or slower than normals on many measures. Confirmatory evidence on this point is to be found but much of the early work on speed of schizophrenic reactivity used measures of speed of motor performance (12, 13) or of reaction time under various conditions (6), ignoring more fundamental slowness of thought processes. The present studies are concentrated on the recent finding that schizophrenics show abnormally slow mental speed measured in a problem-solving situation (4, 18, 19). The aim of the investigation was to discover the exact conditions under which this abnormality appears, and, thence, by manipulating the experimental conditions, to be able to bring speed of mental functioning under experimental control. This paper describes the attempt to bring speed under control by means of drugs. A second paper (2) deals with the effect of practice upon mental speed.