The role of motivation-related variables in assessment of intelligence in severely involved quadriplegic children.

This study investigates relationships between intellectual level and behaviors reflecting effectance (i.e., an interest in and efforts toward acting upon the environment to produce or sustain desired effects) in a group of severely quadraplegic children. Five measures of intellectual level (IQ, MA, teachers' estimates of intelligence, level of object permanence, and representation of causality) were correlated with effectance variables and with each other. The results reveal some relationship between intellectual level and effectance. However, cognitive ability was not consistently associated with an effectance orientation. Effectance variables correlated with teachers' estimates of mental development better than did scores on standard intelligence tests. However, the best predictor of the teachers' estimates was level of object permanence.