| Abstract: | Purpose: This study was designed and undertaken to determine if the trait qualities of intelligence and logic as they are revealed by handwriting are reliable indicators of verbal, mathematical, and broad academic abilities of the writer. Procedure: Subjects for the investigation were 184 tenth grade students from two high schools in Victoria, Texas. The Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) were administered to each of the subjects during the routine annual administration of the tests at each school in November of 1972. The Total Reading, Mathematics, and Composite sub-test standard scores were used as indexes of verbal, mathematical, and broad academic ability. A handwriting sample consisting of approximately one-half page of handwritten extemporaneous prose on unruled paper was taken from each subject on the same day the ITED was administered. These samples were evaluated by three handwriting analysts to derive the degree of intelligence and logic of the writers. The determination of the correlations of abilities and traits consisted essentially of a comparison of the degrees of intelligence and logic (Rated High, Medium, and Low) with the standard scores achieved in the pertinent areas of the ITED. The comparison was accomplished by correlation coefficient computations from the data, i.e., the High, Medium, or Low trait considered as one set of variables and the ITED scores as the other. The correlation coefficients were considered a measure of the capacity of the achievement test to discriminate between the degrees of the trait ratings. The .05 level of significance was required in order to reject the null hypothesis of no relation between indicated traits and achievement. ... |
|---|