Haptic visual discrimination and intelligence

Investigated the relationship between tactual-visual discrimination and intelligence from a neuropsychological perspective. Parieto-occipital areas were conceptualized as mediating centers for the integration of tactile and visual information, as well as for the processing of higher cortical functions. A recently designed test of tactual-visual information processing, the Haptic Visual Discrimination Test (HVDT), was administered to a group of 39 first-grade school children. Standard tests of intelligence (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, WISC-R), academic potential (Metropolitan Readiness Test, MRT), and spatial integration (Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test, BVMGT) also were given. The obtained correlation coefficients revealed consistently significant associations between the importance of parieto-occipital areas of the cortex for organizing sensory data as well as for the processing of intellectual information.