Classificatory Ability and Verbal Intelligence among High-Contact Aboriginal and Low Socioeconomic White Australian Children

Abstract

Two tests of classificatory ability based on Piaget's theory of cognitive development, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), were administered to 40 full-blood urban Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory of Australia. The PPVT was also given to 80 white urban children of similar low-socioeconomic status. A trend in an earlier study for high-contact Aboriginals to perform on classification tests at about the same level as white children in a similar environment was confirmed, despite the markedly lower verbal IQ scores of Aboriginal children.