The effect of age, sex, IQ, and functional grade level upon the performance of subjects on a measure of abstract learning ability

Parsons-Chatman, Sharon (1979) The effect of age, sex, IQ, and functional grade level upon the performance of subjects on a measure of abstract learning ability. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of age, sex, IQ, and functional grade level on the classification ability of adult and non-adult subjects. The theory presented suggested that age IQ, and. functional grade level would affect classification ability whereas sex would have no effect. -- The sample for testing these hypothesized relationships consisted of six groups (195 subjects); three groups of adults and three groups of non-adults categorized on the basis of their functional grade level. The non-adult subjects were selected from those subjects in attendance in educational institutions at the public school level, whereas adult subjects were chosen from adult education centers and a post-secondary institution. The age range for adult subjects was 16.5-51.1 years, with an age range of 9.4-17.6 years for non-adult subjects. -- The Test of Natural Phenomena, an instrument designed to measure classification ability was administered individually to all subjects included in the study. At that time information was also obtained on the independent variables, age, sex, IQ, and functional grade level. -- Regression analysis was conducted on the four predictor variables (age, sex, IQ, and functional grade level) to establish their effect on the classification ability of adult and non-adult subjects. It was found that the four predictor variables accounted for 55% of the variance in the classification ability of adults and 33.7% for non- adults. In the case of adult subjects functional grade level, and IQ were significant whereas age and sex were insignificant. For non-adult subjects functional grade level, IQ, and age were significant but sex was insignificant. These findings supported the original hypotheses with the only exception being the finding that the predictor variable age was insignificant in the case of adult subjects.

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