Psychologv
in
the Schools
Volume
27,
April
1990
TO WHAT EXTENT DOES ATTENTION AFFECT K-ABC SCORES?
MICHAEL
GORDON
SUNY Health Science Center
Syracuse, New York
DAVID THOMASON
Children’s Psychological Clinic
Monroe, Louisiana
SHERMIE
COOPER
Woodland Hills Hospital
West Monroe, Louisiana
Although it has been assumed that
IQ
tests require a certain degree
of
attentiveness
for successful performance, the actual extent to which sustained attention plays
a
role has never been established. Particular concern about attentional issues has centered
upon
the K-ABC because it seems to place high demands
on
a child’s ability to main-
tain attention. This study analyzed the protocols of
52
clinic-referred children who
were administered the K-ABC as well as
a
version of the Continuous Performance
Test (CPT), a laboratory measure of attention. The results demonstrated significant
interrelationships among K-ABC and CPT scores. The data are discussed in terms
of the need to assess a child’s level of attentiveness when interpreting
IQ
data.
Strong arguments have been presented concerning the need to consider attentional
issues when interpreting psychological test data (Barkley,
1988).
Unless the degree to
which a child attends to task is evaluated, problems can arise in determining the extent
to which low scores represent actual skill weaknesses or, alternatively, deficits in atten-
tion. The interplay between competence and performance is largely hinged upon the
child’s ability to engage in the task.
Tests
of
intellectual ability seem to place high demands upon a child to maintain
attention. Sattler
(1988),
for example, has expressed concern about the role of atten-
tion in performance on tests such as the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children
(K-ABC; Kaufman
&
Kaufman,
1983).
Several
of
the subtests, especially Face Recogni-
tion and Photo Series, appear to require the child to exhibit relatively high levels
of
attentiveness over time. As such, children with variable attention may encounter par-
ticular problems performing successfully on the K-ABC.
Because evaluations of attention have traditionally relied upon clinical judgment,
analysis
of
the relationship between IQ test scores and attention has been limited. With
the advent
of
standardized measures of attention, however, opportunities
for
accurate
assessment
of
this domain have emerged. Most measures of attention represent a ver-
sion
of
the Continuous Performance Test (CPT; Rosvold, Mirsky, Sarason, Bransone,
&
Beck,
1956),
which requires the subject to respond to a target combination
of
digits
embedded in
a
series of irrelevant digits. This paradigm has been used extensively in
research on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (American Psychiatric Associa-
tion,
1987),
as a diagnostic measure (e.g., Gordon,
1983;
Klee
&
Garfinkel,
1983),
and
also as a means of assessing response to pharmacotherapy (Greenberg,
1987).
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Barbara Bilinski Mettelman for her assistance in analyzing
Requests
for
reprints should be addressed to Michael Gordon,
SUNY
Health Science Center, Dept.
of
these data.
Psychiatry,
750
East Adams Street, Syracuse,
NY
13210.
144
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