The MRC National Survey of Health of Development (NSHD) assessed their cohort members (CMs) during the study’s age 8 sweep using the Picture Intelligence measure.
Details on this measure and the data collected from the CMs are outlined in the table below.
| Year of data collection: | 1954 | |
| Domain: | Non-verbal (reasoning) | |
| Measures: | Non-verbal ability |
|
| Induction | ||
| General sequential reasoning | ||
| CHC: | Gf (Fluid intelligence) | |
| CLOSER source: | Explore this sweep in CLOSER Discovery: NSHD 1954 (Age 8) (opens in a new tab) | |
| Administration method: | Teacher/psychologist/trained individual; face to face; pen and paper | |
| Procedure: | This test was comprised of three sections. In section 1, participants were presented with 15 series, each consisting of 5 images (4 of which were conceptually similar), and were asked to select the ‘odd one out’. Section 2 consisted of 20 incomplete picture series, and participants were instructed to select, from 5 different options, the correct picture to complete each series. Section 3 included 25 conceptual similarity tasks. Participants were asked to choose, from 5 options, a picture that corresponded with an established rule, e.g. “foot is to shoe as head is to hat”. Each section was preceded by a practice trial. The overall testing session at age 8 lasted under 2 hours. | |
| Link to questionnaire: | https://skylark.ucl.ac.uk/NSHD/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=questionnaires:1954_sm_nf2.pdf (opens in new tab) | |
| Scoring: | One point awarded per correct answer (0 - 60) | |
| Item-level variable(s): | Not currently available | |
| Total score/derived variable(s): | PI8R, PI8R54, PI854, PI8N | |
| Descriptives: | Raw score | Normalised score |
| N = 4,266 | N = 4,266 | |
| Range = 0 - 60 | Range = 54 - 152 | |
| Mean = 40.20 | Mean = 101.64 | |
| SD = 9.48 | SD = 15.02 | |
(click image to enlarge) | (click image to enlarge) |
|
| Age of participants: | 8 years 6 months | |
| Other sweep and/or cohort: | None | |
| Source: | Pigeon DA. Tests used in the 1954 and 1957 surveys. In: Douglas JWB, ed. The home and the school. London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1964. (Appendix 1.) | |
| Technical resources: | None | |
| Example articles: | Richards, M., Hardy, R., Kuh, D., & Wadsworth, M. E. (2001). Birth weight and cognitive function in the British 1946 birth cohort: longitudinal population based study. BMJ, 322(7280), 199-203. | |
| Kuh, D., Richards, M., Hardy, R., Butterworth, S., & Wadsworth, M. E. (2004). Childhood cognitive ability and deaths up until middle age: a post-war birth cohort study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 33(2), 408-413. | ||
Go to:
- Overview of all cognitive measures in NSHD
- Overview of childhood cognitive measures across all studies
This page is part of CLOSER’s ‘A guide to the cognitive measures in five British birth cohort studies’.