Comparison of the Pintner and Otis-Lennon Scores of Caucasian Boys in First Grade
The Pintner-Cunningham Primary Test-Revised Edition (Pintner, Cunningham, & Durost, 1965 ) and the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test, Primary I1 Level (Otis & Lennon, 1967) are two tests of general mental ability for young children. The Pintner is designed to be used with children from the second half of kindergarten through Grade 2 whereas the Primary I1 Level of the Otis-Lennon is designed to assess the mental abilities of pupils enrolled in the first half of the first grade. Both instruments are entirely pictorial in content. Directions for both instruments ate given orally. Administration times for the Pintner and Otis-Lemon are 25 and 30 to 35 min., respectively. Data were collected from 41 6-yr.-old Caucasian boys (mean age = 76 mo., SD = 1.2) who were enrolled in an integrated public school system in South Central Alabama. These first grade children were from upper-lower class socioeconomic background. The Pintner and Otis-Lennon were administered in randomized order by a white female school counselor unfamiliar to the examinees approximately 3 wk. after the initial enrollment in the first grade and within one week of each other. The purpose was to identify boys who might benefi't from further psychometric testing. Mean IQs for the Pintner and Otis-Lennon were 81.11 and 84.44, respectively, with standard deviations of 11.90 and 12.95, respectively. The mean IQ on the Pintner was lower than the mean IQ on the Otis-Lemon (t = -1.49). A Pearson r of .56 was computed between the Pintner and Otis-Lemon IQs. As, for these 6-yr.-old white boys, the Otis-Lennon mean IQs were higher than those on the Pintner and the correlation between the rwo instruments was .56 suggests that the tests are not directly comparable although both the Pintner and Otis-Lennon purport to measure general mental ability.