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Four measures have been developed from the Tomkins-Horn Picture Arrangement Test which can provide reliable information regarding the level of conformity in various groups. The present paper deals with the upper strata of the business and academic worlds. Evidence is presented which bears directly on assertions that top executives have remained relatively uninfluenced by pressures to conformity, while university professors have succumbed to these pressures. The author finds that conformity and deviance occur in both occupational groups, and that both are on the average less conforming than the typical college graduate. This relative nonconformity appears, however, to be an artifact associated with age differences. Professors and executives are, in general, no less conforming than others when age is held constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients manifest not only memory impairment but also deficit of social judgment. However, contrary to frequently recognized deficit, only two neuropsychological tests have been established for assessing “judgment” : the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument domain Abstraction & judgment and the Picture Arrangement subscale of WAIS-III. For the former, we previously reported an association with decreased regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the left parietal lobe. Herein, we analyzed the scores of the Picture Arrangement test. Forty-nine AD patients were classified into two groups, i.e., the high and low PA score groups. The 99m Tc-ECD SPECT investigation was performed with the voxel-based analysis using SPM5. The Mini-Mental State Examination subscores of “place orientation” showed a correlation with the PA scores. The low PA score group exhibited significantly decreased rCBFs in the Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (LIFG), Left Superior Frontal Gyrus (LSFG) and Right Occipital Lobe (ROL), compared with the high PA score group. The ability of PA may be associated with the place orientation, which may be necessary to re-arrange the pictures. The ROL was related to visual recognition. The LSFG may be involved in executive function or “frontal reasoning.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to determine WISC-III index or subtest profiles which could be used to separate children with learning disabilities from those without disabilities. Subjects: 51 children (29,4 % female, 70,6 % male) who had received the diagnosis of learning disability; age range from 7 to 15 years (mean age 10 years). Results indicate that analysis of statistically significant differences between subtest and index scores fails to provide clinically significant information about children with learning disorders: statistically significant score differences occur as often as in general population. Among other indices, Freedom from Distractibility Index score was the lowest On the subtest level: Picture Arrangement and Block Design scores were higher than the mean of subtest scores, whereas, Digit Span score was lower. Subtests profile analysis suggests that intellectual abilities of children with learning disabilities exhibit strengths of perceptual organization and psychomotor speed, while short-term auditory memoly is the weakest ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychometric AI is a type of AI distinguished by the pursuit of intelligent systems able to excel on psychometrically validated human-level tests of cognitive abilities. We seek to build a system that solves a specific sub-test within Psychometric AI: the story arrangment test. Items in this test confront the test-taker with a set of jumbed snapshots (whether diagrammatic or otherwise) which must be ordered to tell a coherent story. We propose a dual-process system that combines bottom-up non- or sub-symbolic processing (e.g. neural network-based modelling) with top-down symbolic processing (e.g. deductive reasoning over declarative information represented as formulae in a logical system) for solving these tests of cognitive ability. The top-down process provides the benefits of a traceable proof, but requires a large amount of pre-existing knowledge. The bottom-up technique sacrifices provability and certainty on some problems for speed, but always yields some level of an answer to a given problem. This demonstrates a natural marriage between the two: the bottom-up approach seems especially powerful when used as a form of pre-processing in conjunction with a logic-based approach, because the latter approach would only need to consider a small number of possible orderings of snapshots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the order of item difficulty on picture arrangement using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III). Measurement of adult and adolescent intelligence; Suggestion that the order of items may not be in order of increasing difficulty; Discussion of the clinical relevance of findings and research on the order of item difficulty.

Four adults with mild mental retardation were taught to sort based on what two pictures had in common and to name each object and common features of two pairs as well as to comply with a series of instructions to sort the pictures selectively. The criterion task was to inspect a sample pair, sort through a deck of 15 pictures to find those showing what the sample pair had in common, and to repeat a series of pairs. They failed this task and continued to fail even after a supposedly relevant self-instruction. After being taught to act on what they told themselves, they self-instructed correctly and sorted accordingly. Imperfect generalization by 2 participants was remediated by re-evoking self-instructions. They were taught to act on what they told themselves; thereafter, they self-instructed correctly and sorted accordingly. Imperfect generalization by 2 participants was remediated by re-evoking the relevant self-instructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study which reexamines and extends previous research on the psychometric characteristics of the Halstead Category Test (HCT), one part of the Halstead Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery (HNTB). Subjects were 102 persons who were administered the HNTB. In this study, a formula was found to predict optimally HCT errors from Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) scaled subscale scores for Picture Arrangement, Block Design and Object Assembly. In spite of the high correlation between HCT and WAIS-R performance subtests, these measures clearly have different components and capture different phenomena.

The article examines the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) profiles of learning-disabled children from the Papago culture. The sample consisted of 26 male and 20 female Papago students who were attending third through fifth grades at an elementary school situated on the Papago reservation. Subjects initially were referred by classroom teachers to school psychologists for the diagnosis of learning disabilities and were diagnosed as learning disabled by the district's certified school psychologists. When subtest scores were rank ordered, the easiest subtests for the children were found to be Picture Completion, Picture Arrangement and Block Design, which constitute the Spatial category as suggested by Bannatyne and involve the ability to manipulate objects in multi-dimensional space.

The article examines the generalizability of the Bannatyne Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) profile of learning-disabled children to a sample of children from Mexican-American culture. Subjects were 64 Mexican-American children, who ranged in age from 9 through 12 years. All were given the WISC-R as a part of an assessment battery used in the diagnostic process. The findings reveal that the characteristic Bannatyne profile does not seem to generalize to learning-disabled Mexican-American subjects. It was observed that when the subtest scores were rank ordered, the easiest subtests for these children were found to be Picture Completion, Picture Arrangement, Block Design and Object Assembly.

This article is concerned with the test-retest reliability of the Wechsler battery as a measure of the dimensions and levels of the Personality Assessment System (PAS). For the sample of 70 normal males and 259 children as a whole, a satisfactory level of stability was observed for all subtests except Picture Arrangement, but Independent samples demonstrated stability only for the three measures of initial response style and for Activity Level. It is suggested that PAS methodology be applied only to scores obtained during original testing, since retest PAS formulations may be quite different.

For many years clinicians have supplemented the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R; Wechsler, 1981) Picture Arrangement (PA) subtest by asking subjects to "tell the story" made by the sequence of cards. Doing so allows assessment of the underlying reasoning behind the subject's response and adds a projective element to the task. This article describes a method for systematically assessing several dimensions of object relations and social cognition from the stories subjects tell to the PA subtest. Six scales, which have been validated in several studies, are described: Episode Integration, Accuracy of Causal Attributions, Affect-Tone of Relationship Paradigms, Capacity for Emotional Investment in Relationships and Moral Standards, Complexity of Representations, and Accuracy of Character Ascriptions. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity is presented by comparing PA scale scores of reliably diagnosed borderline inpatients, depressed inpatients, and normal comparison subjects, with scores from self-report instruments measuring symptomatology and social adjustment. Clinical use of the scales is then illustrated by applying them to PA story texts of a borderline patient and a normal subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Sixty-four fifth-grade boys and girls were administered a two-choice discrimination learning task. The two major factors were (a) high versus low picture arrangement scores and (b) two treatment conditions: neutral and cue. Contrary to prediction, children scoring high in picture arrangement demonstrated significantly poorer discrimination learning ability across conditions than children with low picture arrangement scores. The need for further research on the factors underlying picture arrangement performance was stressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite Wechsler's (1958, 1969) apparent intent, clinicians persist in interpreting the subtest scores of his scales according to traditional assumptions of their personality and behavioral implications. Personality descriptions and prognostications based on those assumtions are incorporated into test reports and computer-generated analyses. The present research examined the relationship between Picture Arrangement scores and the skills and behaviors presented in the literature as related to the subtest. Undergraduates (N = 46) enrolled in two classes in communication techniques were the subjects. Relationships between variables were few, but Picture Arrangement scores correlated highly with general intelligence (g). When intelligence was held out as a source of variance, any relationships between Picture Arrangement scores and other variables (impulsivity, time spent in large group activities, extracurricular participation in high school and college, concern for social convention, and social skill evaluations by peers and professors) became nonsignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extracting the maximum amount of qualitative information of cognitive functioning from tests is one of the major goals, of the process approach to neuropsychological assessment. This study examined whether there is a difference in score in the Picture Arrangement (PA) test of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised for participants who completed the standardized versus a process-oriented administration (i.e., asking the person to "tell the story" immediately following each item). Eighteen traumatic brain injury patients and 20 control participants (i. e., non-brain-injury volunteers) were randomly assigned to the standardized administration or the process-oriented administration of the PA test. A 2 × 2 (Group × Type of Administration) analysis of variance revealed no statistically significant interaction effect or main effect for type of administration. Therefore, the process of maximizing the elicitation of qualitative information does not appear to affect the quantitative outcome of the PA test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seventy-five subjects from Grades 2 and 4 were given two tasks to deter- mine their developmental friendship expectation (FE) levels. The first task employed a semistructured FE interview and the second was a picture sequence task similar in format to the Picture Arrangement (PA) subtest of the WISC-R. To control for sequencing ability on the pictorial task, a modification of PA was also administered. Nine FE picture sequences, corresponding to an extant eight-level developmental sequence, were administered to the children. Interviews were coded along the same dimensions. FE levels based on the interview task were marginally snore advanced for both grades: FE subjects were markedly competent and 8 markedly better on the interview; 11 subjects were markedly competent and 10 markedly better on the visual task. Interview FEs showed no significant relationship to age, whereas picture sequence FEs did. This difference was due to the Type II errors on the visual task at Grade 2 and the interview task at Grade 4. Picture sequencing was unrelated to PA or to task difficulty. The visual task was an apparent underestimate of FE level for 65 subjects who scored ≤ FE level 2 on the visual task. However, sole use of the interview created a large underestimate for 10 of 11 subjects who scored > FE level 2 on the visual index. The risk of underestimation was eliminated by additional use of the visual index, and the more advanced the performance on the visual task, the higher the risk of false negative errors on the interview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt to obtain a visual assessment of a five-year-old girl with severe learning difficulties using a picture test of visual acuity failed because the girl was unable to name or match any of the pictures. A teaching programme was then undertaken by the girl's class teacher, after which the girl was successfully retested some 4 months later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study to examine the stimulus trace dimensionality in the performance of retarded subjects on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children in the U.S. The study employed mentally retarded children from a comprehensive study of educational, social and emotional factors in the education of mentally retarded children in public schools. It was found that normal and mentally retarded children have factors in common including verbal, numerical, perceptual organization, picture arrangement, picture completion and similarities.

The article presents a study on a test involving the arrangement of pictures to tell a story among tests of intellectual ability. In connection with studies of patients with localized cerebral lesions, performance on a picture arrangement task has been reported as unexpected specificity. Researchers found that patients with frontal lobe lesions showed significant impairment on a single picture-arrangement item. On the other hand, study shows that the Picture Arrangement subtest among adult patients of the Wechsler scales shows significantly lower means for those with right-hemisphere lesions.

We compared the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition Picture Arrangement (PA) scores via standard administration (SA) or vertical administration (VA). Fifty-seven college students were assigned to one of two conditions. Thirty SAs had means for age, education, and American College Testing (ACT) of 19.47 (SD = 1.14), 13.60 (SD = 1.16), and 22.27 (SD = 2.65), respectively. Twenty-seven VAs had means for age, education, and ACT of 21.26 years (SD = 2.99), 14.44 years (SD = .93), and 22.63 years (SD = 3.79), respectively. An analysis of covariance revealed nonsignificant results for age and education, Fs<1, but a significant difference emerged for type of administration, F(1, 53) = 4.42, p<.05. SA (M = 10.33, SD = 2.97) yielded a significantly higher mean PA score than did VA (M = 8.30, SD = 2.84). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to compare the accuracy of six short forms of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) for estimating full scale Intelligence Quotients in a mentally retarded population. It enumerates the short forms of WAIS that include Doppelt's WAIS which uses two verbal subtests including Arithmetic and Vocabulary and two performance subtests including Block Design and Picture Arrangement, and Satz-Mogel WAIS that uses every third item on Information,Vocabulary and Picture Completion.

The article focuses on a study that investigated the effects of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Psychopathic Deviance (PD) on the relationship between the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) Picture Arrangement (PA) and MMPI Social Introversion (SI). These results indicate that high PD extraverts are more socially intelligent than low PD extraverts. Perhaps the former are accustomed to sizing up a social situation so that it can be manipulated and exploited for selfish ends. These data further indicate that high PD introverts are less socially intelligent than low PD introverts, perhaps reflecting a tendency for the former to be reclusive, secretive, and socially retarded.

The article presents information on Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children's (WISC) comprehension and picture arrangement subtests as measures of social competence. The usefulness of WISC Comprehension and Picture Arrangement as measures of social competence was investigated in this study. 53 elementary school boys were administered the WISC and the Mental Health Analysis. Vineland Social Age (SA) and Social Quotient were determined through interviews with the subjects (Ss') mothers. Paternal occupational level and Ss' chronological age were also recorded. None of the measures involving social competence correlated significantly with WISC Picture Arrangement. WISC Comprehension correlated significantly with Vineland SA, suggesting the value of more research in this area.

The article presents a discussion violation of standard procedure on Wechsler scales. It states that a three-way analysis of variance design with repeated measures on the last factor was utilized separately for both Picture Arrangement (PA) and Block Design (BD) raw scores and scaled scores. No significant differences existed when BD and PA raw scores were analyzed, except for intelligence quotient levels. This was also the case for PA scaled scores. However, analysis of BD scaled scores found significant differences between Phases as well as a significant heterogeneous first-order.

The article examines the testing limits of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Picture Arrangement Subtest (PA). In a review of 397 WAIS records of mentally retarded, 11 percent and 26 percent did not complete PA because of patient resistance. Evidence of patient refusal, resistance and confusion were noted in 17 cases.