A comparison of Leiter and Wechsler tests of intelligence with Indian and white children
Abstract
A study was conducted to determine whether the Leiter International Performance Scale (LIPS) provided a more adequate estimate of intelligence for Indian children than the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). 4 groups of 10 children (urban white, rural white, urban Indian and rural Indian) matched on age, sex and socioeconomic status were tested on the LIPS, WISC and Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT). Subjects ranged in age from 6 years 5 months to 8 years 11 months with a mean age of 7 years 8 months. A 2x2 factorial analysis was done for both subscale and full scale measures of the three tests used. Factors used in the analysis of variance were cuIture (Indian-white) and locale (urban-rural). An intercorrelation matrix on all variables was also prepared, and correlation coefficients among subsamples were compared for statistical significance.
The results indicated that Indian subjects did as well as white subjects on IQ tests except on the verbal tests in which the white subjects were superior. The LIPS did not prove to be more culture-fair to the English Indian child than the WISC-Performance (WISC-P) scale or the WISC-Full (WISC-F) scale but it was fairer to the Indian child than the WISC-Verbal (WISC-V) scale which underestimated the intelligence of the Indian child. The LIPS correlated significantly with WISC scores indicating that the LIPS is a valid measure of intelligence. The results indicated that the LIPS was as good a predictor of achievement as the WISC-F and WISC-V. Correlation coefficients did not differ among subsamples, IQ scores correlated highest with Arithmetic achievement.
Considering individual subsamples, IQ scores did not predict achievement for three of the subsamples, i.e., urban Indian, urban white and rural white. For the rural Indian the WISC-F and WISC-V were good predictors of Arithmetic achievement.
The study indicated that rural children were as intelligent and were as high achievers as urban children. An incidental aspect of the study was the difficulty in matching subjects on the SES factor in the rural community which led to the hypothesis that the socioeconomic factor is an important variable in intelligence testing.