Perceptilal and Motor Skills, 1967, 25, 639-640.

@ Southern Universities Press 1967

TEACHER RATINGS OF IQ A N D PORTEUS MAZE SCORES OF

PITJANDJARA CHILDREN

KENNETH H. D A V I D AND STEPHEN BOCHNER

Univerri;y of Hawaii University of NHUSouth \Vales

Szlmm~ary.-This study investigated the Maze as a measure of general intelli-

gence ( g ) among central Australian aboriginal children. 26 Ss ( 7 to 1 2 yr.)
were ranked o n g by their teacher and given the Maze Test. A significant rho
of .39 ( p < .05) indicated a moderare relationship between teacher racings of g
and test quotients of the Maze. The importance of the relationship is increased
when one considers the difficulty of the ranking task, e.g., cultural differences be-
tween teacher and children, large class-size, and wide age range of the children.
T h e resulrs give further evidence for the use of the Maze as a cross-cultural meas-
ure of g.

I n a review of the Porceus Maze Test, Schwesinger (1953) stated that cor-
relations between the Maze and numerous tests of intelligence have been posi-
tive, which indicates that the Maze has a high loading on a factor of general in-
telligence ( g ) . Vernon (1965a, 1965b), using several samples of West Indian
and English boys, factor analyzed a battery of perceptual, performance, educa-
tional, and verbal tests, and assessments of environmental variables. He reported
that the Maze loaded .60 and .50on a g factor for the West Indian and English
samples, respectively. Of the non-performance tests used, Vernon concluded that
the Maze and Draw-a-Man tests were the most suitable for testing the educational
potential of West Indian immigrant children living in England.
The present study further investigated the Maze as a measure of g, in a sam-
ple of children living in a non-Western culture. If the Maze is a cross-culcural
measure of g, the ratings by teachers of the general intelligence of their pupils
should show a positive correlation with the children's Maze scores.
The Maze was administered to 26 aboriginal school children ( 15 females,
11 males), ranging in age from 7 to 12 yr. Porteus' (1965) instrucrrons for the
administration and scoring of the Maze were used. Ss were tested at Areyonga
aboriginal settlemenc, which is located in central Ai~stralia,approximately 160
miles south-west of Alice Springs. The settlemenc is populated by members of
the Pitjandjara tribe, who have managed to maintain most of their original cul-
tural norms and behavioral patterns. Ss appeared to be highly motivated to per-
form well on the Maze, and the teachers commented on the generally well-be-
hnved conduct of the children during the days of testing.
The head teacher1 of the school was requested to rank the children in his
class on the dimension of "general intelligence," which was described in terms
of their global intellectual functioning. E did not observe the ratings, and the
'The authors express their appreciation to Greg Miles for his assistance.
640 K. H. DAVID & S. BOCHNER

teacher was not informed of the results, until after the testing had been com-
pleted.
A rank-order correlation of the teacher's ratings and the test quotients of
the Maze yielded a significant relationship (rho = .39, N = 26, p < .05).
These results indicated that the teacher had a moderate degree of success in rank-
ing the students on g. However, the importance of this relationship seems in-
creased when one takes into consideration the ( a ) cultural difference~between
the teacher and his pupils, ( b ) the relatively large size of the class, and ( c ) the
wide age distribution of Ss, 7 to 15 yr., which made it necessary for the teacher
implicitly to take into account the chronological age of the pupils when judging
g.
T h e results give further support for the use of the Maze as a cross-cultural
measure of g. Also, the Maze may be of value in assisting teachers who work in
a cross-cultural setting. The application of the Maze would permit the discov-
ery of students considered to be intellectually dull but who are actually high in g.
For example, i n the present stitdy one pupil with a test quotient of 135 was
ranked 21st in g by the teacher. However, the changing of teachers' expectan-
cies about students should be dealt with cautiously, in the light of Rosenthal and
Jacobsons' ( 1966) finding that children whose teachers expected them to gain
in performance showed a significantly greater gain in IQ than control Ss.
REFERENCES
PORTEUS,S. D. Porteus Maze Test: fifty years' application. Palo Alto: Pacific Books,
1965.
ROSENTHAL,
R., & JACOBSON,
L. Teachers' expectancies: determinants of pupils' IQ
gains. Psychol. Rep., 1966, 19, 115-118.
SCHWESINGER,G. C. Review of the Porteus Maze Test. In 0.K. Buros (Ed.), T h e
fourth mental measurements yearbook. New Jersey: Gryphon Press, 1953. Pp.
458-459.
VERNON,P. E. Environmental handicaps and intellectual development: Part I. Brit. I .
educ. Psychol., 1965, 35, 9-20. ( a )
VERNON, P. E. Environmental handicaps and intellectual development: Part 11. Brit.
I . educ. Psychol., 1965, 35, 117-126. ( b )
Accepted November 6, 1967