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INTELLIGENCE A S A FACTOR 19 children who were still using their aids were told t o wear them during administration of the test. In addition, with the approval of Dr. Wechsler, the author of the test, cards were used with some r.hildren instead of the spoken stimulus. Instead of asking the sub ject a question, a card containing the question was pl�ced before him. The subject was told to read the question aloud in order to be sure that he was reading it correctly. The card was then re moved, and the response recorded in the usual manner. The test was given in this fashion to ten subjects who had appeared to have difficulty in understanding the worker during previous interviews. Inasmuch as testing procedure required it, the repeating digits test was always given verbally. The other tests were given in routine manner. The Wechsler-Bellevue Scales consist of eleven sub-tests, one of which, the Vocabulary Alternate in the verbal scale, was not used. The five verbal sub-tests primarily involve abstractual, conceptual, and generalizing mental abilities. According to Wechsler each test . has the following specific function : I. The Information Test consists of questions formulated to measure the subject's range of information. In general, the items call for the sort of knowledge that an average individual with average opportunity may be able to acquire for himself. 2. The Comprehension Test might be termed a test of common sense. Success on the test seemingly depends on the possession of a certain amount of practical information and a general ·ability to evaluate past experience. 3. The Arithmetical Reasoning Test measures mental alertness as well as ability to handle practical calculations. The knowledge required to solve most of the problems is not beyond that taught in the first seven grades of school. 4. The Memory Span Test for Digits is used as a test of retentiveness. It involves repeating digits forward and backward. 5 . The Similarities Test measures the ability to discriminate between essential and superficial likenesses, to generalize, and to think in abstract terms. The five performance sub-tests require the subject to manipulate concrete materials and to perform certain tasks involving the visu alization of spatial relations and utilization of new associations. 6. The Picture Arrangement Test consists of a series of pictures which, when placed in the right sequence, tell a story. It effectively measures a subject's ability to comprehend and "size up" a total situation.
20 LEARNING TO U SE HEARING AIDS 7. The Picture Completion Test requires the subject to discover and name the missing part of an incompletely drawn picture. It is said to measure the individual's basic perceptual and conceptual abilities in so far as these are involved in the visual recognition and identification of fa miliar objects and forms. The subject must be able to realize that the missing part is in some way essential to either the form or the function of the object or picture. In a broad way the test measures the ability of the individual to differentiate essential from unessential details. 8. The Object Assembly Test consists of three form-boards, a Manikin, a Feature Profile, and a Hand. It is said to reveal something about the subject's mode of perception, the degree to which he relies on trial and error methods, and the manner in which he reacts to mistakes. 9. The Block Design Test seems to be a good general measure of in tellectual functioning. The subject reproduces with multi-colored blocks a design on a card. The reproduction of the design involves both synthe tic and analytical ability. 1 0. The Digit Symbol Test requires the subject to associate certain symbols with certain other symbols. The speed and accuracy he uses in the new learning situation serves as a measure of his intellectual ability. Scores on sub-tests are converted into weighted scores which may be summated and separate verbal and performance I Q's obtained. These I Q's in turn may be combined to secure a measure of the full I Q. Table IV presents the means and standard deviations of ( 1) the group as a whole ; ( 2 ) the aid wearing group ; ( 3 ) the no-aid group. From this table it is evident that the mean estimate of in telligence of the group is slightly above the norm of the standard ization population. This is to be expected since the group is a selected sample with better than average educational opportunities. The I Q's for the total group ranged from 68 to 1 3 0 . The aid group had an I Q range from 77 to 13 0, with six subjects having I Q's over 1 10. The no-aid group had an I Q range from 68 to 1 1 9, with only one subject testing over 1 1 0. Comparing the intelligence of the aid wearers with the no-aid wearers, the results tend to indicate that the more intelligent sub jects accept the hearing aid more readily than do the less intelligent subjects. The mean estimate of intelligence of the aid wearers is nine I Q points higher than that of the group who have discarded their aids. These data suggest that there is a greater tendency for the more
INTELLIGENCE A S A FACTOR 21 intelligent hard-of-hearing person to use a hearing aid than for the individual of lesser intelligence. TABLE IV: WECHSLER-BELLEVUE SCORES OF CHILDREN WHO ARE AID AND NO-AID WEARERS Verbal iQ Performtmce IQ Total iQ N X s.J. X s.J. X s.J. Aid wearers . . . . . . . 2 5 99.7 H.1 1 09.2 1 1.5 10S.1 12.8 No-aid wearers . . . . 1 3 93.1 H .4 99.6 14.4 96. 1 14.3 Total group . . . . . . . 38 97.6 1 S.8 1 06. 1 1 3 .3 1 02 . 1 1 3 .9 The results of the present investigation shbw that on the whole the hard-of-hearing subjects perform to better advantage with non-verbal than with verbal materials. Pintner and Lev⢠have pointed out that hard-of-hearing subjects are slightly below the normal I Q on verbal intelligence tests, but that such differences disappear when hard-of-hearing and normal-hearing children are compared on non-language intelligence tests. Both the aid and the no-aid group have higher performance I Q's than verbal I Q's. There is a greater d�fference, however, between verbal and per  formance I Q for the aid wearers than for no-aid children. For those who may contend that the no-aid children might have been penalized by their inability to comprehend the directions or to hear the examiner, inspection of Table IV shows that the performance I Q, involving no language ability, is ten I Q points higher for the aid wearers than for the no-aid pupils. A study of the discriminatory features of the specific abilities tested by the Wechsler-Bellevue Scales was also made. First, the deviations from the norm on each of the ten sub-test scores ac cording to each age group were computed. Then the average devi ation" for each sub-test was computed for both the aid and the no-aid group. Table V presents the average deviations. Both groups performed most competently on the Picture Completion Test and thus demonstrated an unusual facility in differentiating ⢠R. Pintner and J. Lev. "The Intelligence of the Hard of Hearing School Child." Journal of Genetic Psychology, LV ( 1 9 3 9 ) , 3 1 --4 8 . ⢠This method was used in order t o secure comparable meas.ures of scatter on the sub tests as the norms for each sub-test are not the same for each age group.
22 LEARNING TO U SE HEARING AIDS essential from unessential details in visual material. On the Object Assembly Test both groups did better than average. In this test the ability to analyze a given pattern into its parts in order to be able to reconstruct it was shown to be above aver age. Anticipation of a visual-spatial configuration of parts allowing for an organization TABLE V: AVERAGE DEVIATIONS FROM THE NORM ON WECHSLER BELLEVUE SCALES FOR AID AND NO-AID USERS Deviations . Deviations Deviations Sub-test Aid Group No-Aid Group Aid Group Minus N = 25 N = 13 No-Aid Group Infonnation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - 1 . 9 . -1 1 .6 9.7 Comprehension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 - 5 .7 6.8 Arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -5 .9 -12.1 6.2 Memory Span . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -2 . 2 - 8. 5 6.3 Similarities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . �3 .4 - 6. 0 2.6 Picture Completion . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1 3.8 5.3 Picture Arrangement . . . . . . . . . . 5.5 - 3 .4 8.9 Object Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .4 3.1 2.3 Block Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - . 5 - 7. 1 6.6 Digit Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - .7 - 6. 3 5.6 of these parts into a whole is required for good performance. Ap parently these children who have been dependent on visual and kinesthetic perception for comprehension and communication tend to have developed these skills to a higher degree than normal-hear ing individuals within the same age range. The Picture Arrangement Test shows comprehension of a total situation and ability to arrange in a sequentially coherent order a set of pictures that tell a story. According to results of this test, the group wearing aids has the ability to understand situations in a manner that has been referred to as "social intelligence." On the other hand, the group who has rejected aids performs slightly be low the norm. Whether social competence as demonstrated by this test may be a factor in the use of a hearing aid is open to question ; nevertheless, this possibility is suggested. Similarly, on the Comprehension Test involving a measure of "common sense,'' the aid group is slightly better than average,. while the no-aid group deviates -5.7 points from the norm.
INTELLIGE N CE A S A FACTOR 23 The aid group appears to have a much larger fund of general information than does the no-aid group. In fact, the greatest dif ference between the two groups appears on this sub-test. The aid group is slightly below the norm, with a deviation of -1.9 points, while the no-aid group deviates -1 1.6 points from the norm. Both groups receive their lowest scores ort the Arithmetic Test with the resultant lowest deviations. It is interesting to note that on the Memory Span Test for Digits, which had to be given orally, the aid group shows a relatively small deviation from the norm as compared with the no-aid group. Sev eral points may be made in regard to such group differences. First, the no-aid users might not have heard 'the digits. Second, if the no-aid users depended on lip reading to comprehend the spoken word, either they were poor lip-readers or else they had poor powers of concentration. Third, they might be exerting their powers of concentration on their effort to read lips, and hence their per formance of a mental function requiring close attention might be expended on physical tension. Wechsler states that low scores on the Memory Span Test are frequently associated with attention de fects. He points out, however, that in cases of special defects an exception must be made. The results of this test, therefore, must be considered in the light of the group to which it was administered. On the Block Design Test, which correlates more highly with total score than does any other test in the battery, the aid group deviates very slightly from the norm. The low scores of the no-aid group, on the other hand, show lack of synthesizing ability or loss of the "abstract approach." The Digit Symbol Test, which involves a new learning proced ure, shows interestingly enough that the aid group is more flexible than the no-aid group. In a new situation the aid group's per formance is very close to the established norms in rate of speed and in accuracy, while that of the no-aid group is nearly six deviation · points lower. To summarize, these data clearly point to several conclusions concerning the intelligence of these subjects. First, the group as a whole are slightly above average in intellectual status as meas ured by the Wechsler-Bellevue Scales. Second, they do better on the performance part of the test than on the verbal part. Third, the
24 L E A R NING TO US E H E A R ING AID S subjects perform to greatest advantage on those tests involving basic perceptual and conceptual skills. Fourth, those individuals who are wearing aids are superior in general intelligence, in verbal intelligence, and in performance intelligence to the individuals who have discontined the use of aids. Last, the :findings suggest that intelligence tends to be a factor in influencing hard-of-hearing adolescent mdividuals in making their decisions to wear hearing aids . . On the whole, the more intelligent the individual the more likely he is to use an aid. IV. Personality as a Factor The appraisal of the personality of the subjects was made from parents' descriptions, teachers' evaluations, and the worker's ob servations. Supplementary data were secured from the Bernreuter Personality Inventory. The study of human behavior shows that all persons, whether suffering from some physical handicap ar not, experience frustrations in one form or another. Consequently some mechanisms of adjustment must be set up in order to resolve their tensions. Release from emotional stress by means of some form of behavior that is satisfying to the individual may not al ways be socially acceptable and therefore may be considered mal adjustive. Such behavior may be overt and easily recognizable ; but in a group afflicted with a hearing loss there is likelihood that adjustment may assume the form of withdrawal or submission. While such adjustment may appear outwardly to be desirable, the conflicts created within the individual can have serious conse quences in the ultimate development of the personality. Variation in personality structure is the result of so many dif ferent environmental factors that no specific cause can be credited . with effecting a change. In addition, personalities differ as to type and structure in their elements of stability. Consequently, a radi cal environmental change brought about by wearing a hearing device may modify basic personality structure in different direc tions. Study of dynamics of personality development must also
