Year: 2008
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The system theory of intelligence (Detterman, 1987) predicts that mental retardation is the result of a deficit in a central component of intelligence.Complex cognitive tasks should show little to no between-syndrome differences, while tasks that tap that tap few central cognitive components, known as elementary cognitive tasks, may show differences.The aim of the current study is to test the system theory of intelligence by identifying differences in elementary cognitive task performance and on WAIS-III subtest performance between two genetic syndromes that cause mild and moderate mental retardation.Participants were administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III) and a portion of the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT), a computer-based assessment measuring performance on a variety of simple cognitive tasks (Detterman, 1988).A discriminant analysis showed that several subtests of the WAIS-III and one of the CAT measures were able to predict group membership.Overall, the WAIS-III did a better job of predicting performance than the CAT.While the current results do not go against the general predictions of the system theory, they do suggest that complex cognitive tasks are able to discriminate between genetic syndromes, challenging the hypothesis that mental retardation is the result of a 1. Loadings from the first unrotated principal component for age groups 16-89 (Reddon, de Brito, & Nicholls, 2003).
Author: Katherine Koenig
Institution: Case Western Reserve University
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1773701465