S. D. Porteus

Studies in Intercultural Testing

Comparative intellectual and social adjustment data for males and females of various primitive groups are described.

NEW APPLICATIONS OF THE PORTEUS MAZE TESTS

A review of recent studies which suggest new applications of the Mazes is presented.

Age as a factor in Australid mentality.

The article reviews briefly work done previously in the Central and Kimberley regions of the Australian interior. Investigations since 1962 had the initial purpose of comparing recent data with those obtained in 1929 and the secondary aim of attempting to demonstrate the effect of age on Maze performance. Difficulties met with in carrying out this program are outlined. What evidence is available indicates a comparative early decline in the mean scores, beginning in the age decade 41 to 50 yr. This was apparent in the work reported by Porteus and Gregor in 1963, by Porteus and David in 1966, and in the present study. These investigations agree in showing that the tempo of the deficiency increases in the next decade (51 to 60 yr. of age), followed by a drastic loss in still older Ss. It appears that among Australids resistance to the inroads of advancing age is less than among more civilized peoples and that this may be an important factor in the matter of inventiveness and technological advance. If these trends are confirmed by further studies, a most significant racial difference will have been uncovered, one that should be of great importance in any program of cultural development. The incidence of trachoma, the most prevalent Australid eye disease, has been demonstrated by Elphinstone and Mann in desert and semi-arid regions. Its possible effect on Maze performance is discussed.

Maze Test Reports

Two studies, one not previously reported, have been based on similarities existing between the details of execution of two Porteus Maze designs (for Year XI) as performed by the same individual but with various intervals of time intervening between the two performances. As the individual is unaware of his perseverative tendencies, the scores are considered by the author to be measures of subconscious memory (Porteus, et al., 1960). Two groups of mental defectives, one of controls ( N = 2 4 ) and the other experimental cases (Porteus & Ching, 1954), had repeated Maze XI designs scored for similarities with an interval of two months between trials. The experimental group had been given daily 150 mg. of chlorpromazine. The controls lost 3.73 points, indicating increased flexibility during two months, considered a normal drop because of lapse of time; but the experimentals gained 1.36 points in the direction of increased conformity, the net change being 5.09 points, significant at the .001 level ( t test). Apparently the drug had the effect of strengthening the effect of subconscious memory on performance. In the second study, Chinese high school female students were compared with males. The former ( N = 4 2 ) had mean Conformity-Flexibility scores of 12.77 (SD, 5.28), while males ( N = 35) had a mean score of 10.06 (SD, 3.98 ) , the difference of 2.71 points being significant ( t test) at the .02 level. O n the other hand, part-Hawaiian females were less rigid in their conformity standards than males (Porteus & Kleman, 1960). Two recent investigations point u p the sensitivity of the maze. Smith ( 1960) reported that schizophrenics who had suffered psychosurgery 8 yr. previously showed increased Maze Test impairment and that 94% of superior topectomy cases declined. N o other test was as sensitive. Also, Loranger and Misiak (1960) found that in 50 women, 74 to 80 yr. of age, the Maze was most resistant to age deterioration and discriminated their intelligence better than other tests, 16% reaching the 15-yr. level or above. Hence, increased deficits found by Smith are not wholly attributable to age deterioration.

POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF RATE OF GLOBAL SPIN

Technological retardation among certain ethnic groups has been commonly ascribed to the mental inertia associated with prolonged residence in tropical climates. However, in every direction except human resourcefulness tropical conditions favor the most rapid development. There were exceptional civilizations in tropical regions, but their decline was hastened by the failure of peoples in the New World to invent and use the wheel and the onset of the debilitating diseases of malaria, hookworm, etc. Another factor may be that the equatorial bulge happens also to be the region of greatest velocity of diurnal rotation. A device that could possibly assist in gathering data on the effect of extremes of spin is described. Its use might also reverse the trend toward overdomestication of the albino rat which threatens its continued usefulness for research. Present-day progress in space travel could favor such study.