The role of affective assessment in intelligence testing

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Logical learning theory posits that positive attitudes towards tasks enhance performance.
• Previous research supports the link between affect and cognitive outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether students perform better on liked versus disliked subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC).
• To examine if racial and social class moderate the effect of task preference on WISC performance.

Main Methods:

• Eighty-seven seventh and eighth graders completed subtests of the WISC.
• Subjects indicated their preference (liked vs. disliked) for each subtest.
• Performance on liked and disliked subtests was compared, with analyses considering race and social class.

Main Results:

• Students scored significantly higher on subtests they liked compared to those they disliked (p < .01).
• The effect of task preference on performance did not differ between Black and White students.
• No significant differences in the preference-performance effect were found between lower and middle-class students.

Conclusions:

• Findings support logical learning theory's emphasis on the telic human image, where positive attitudes facilitate cognitive performance.
• Task preference is a significant factor in intellectual assessment, independent of race and social class in this sample.