INSPECTION TIME AND INTELLIGENCE IN 7-YR-OLD CHILDREN - A FOLLOW-UP

Remeasures of inspection time (IT) were obtained from 30 of the 47 children reported in Nettelbeck and Young (Personality and Individual Differences, 10, 605-614, 1989). Ages ranged from 7 yr-0 months to 7-11 and Full Scale IQ (WISC-R) ranged from 93 to 142 (mean = 116.5 SD = 12.2). Correlations between IT and the WISC-R subtests, scales and factors used in the earlier study were generally statistically significant: and similar to those found earlier. The correlation between IT and Full Scale IQ was - 0.49, with those children whose IQs were below the median score of 116 again contributing more to this outcome. Similarly, the IT-IQ correlation was higher among children showing less well-directed attention in the IT task. Once again IT correlated better with Verbal IQ, supporting the hypothesis that IT is better associated with more general intellectual functioning than with specific cognitive abilities. Cross-lagged panel correlations between IT and IQ were -0.40, whether predicting IQ from IT or the reverse. Thus, there was no evidence for a causal relationship between these variables, although both may reflect a common cognitive ability factor. © 1990.