Selected and randomly assigned 5 1 institutionalized conduct disordered adolescent females to one of three treatment conditions. Ss' responses to a short form of the WISC-R were followed by examiner praise, neutral feedback, or token reinforcement. A series of Pearson product-moment correlations were calculated between the scaled scores of the three treatment groups and their GPAs. The results revealed that the identified subtests, regardless of treatment condition, were poor predictors of achievement. The correlations were discussed in view of the association between the selected subtests and the curricula of the special education classes, observed variations between the WISC-R treatment scores, and the special characteristics of the Ss.
Authorities in the field of psychological assessment traditionally have acknowledged the importance of obtaining accurate and consistent samples of behavior (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1978; Ash, 1949; Bersoff, 1973; Sattler, 1982). A time-tested and frequently used means to facilitate test performance has been "rapport." As early as 1916 Terman and Merrill drew attention to this construct by noting that "to elicit the Ss' best efforts and maintain both high motivation and optimal performance throughout the testing session are the sine qua non of good testing [1972, p. 501." These authors cautioned, however, that "the means by which these ends are accomplished are so varied as to defy specific formulation [p. 5 I]." In a similar spirit, Wechsler (1974) noted that a "friendly manner and judicious reinforcement [p. 5 I]" can be important sources of motivation. Wechsler did not, however, explain what he meant by this, and the recommended examiner behavior is left up to the examiner's discretion.
In recent years a number of investigators have examined the effects of various incentive conditions on the Wechsler performance of intellectually divergent groups. reported that the WISC Arithmatic, Digit Span, Picture Completion, and Block Design scaled scores of "normal" elementary and secondary school students varied as a function of the nature of their examiner's comments. The authors indicated that the students who received positive examiner verbal feedback achieved greater scaled scores than the students who received neutral or negative comments. Along this paradigm, Saigh and Payne (1976) observed that the WISC performance of EMR students were affected by the nature of their examiner's comments on the aforementioned subtests. Similar treatment effects were reported on the Full Scale WISC-R performance of institutionalized EMR students (Saigh, 198 la), and intellectually superior elementary and secondary school students (Saigh, 1981b).
Viewed from a more behavioral perspective, Saigh (Note 1) recently assigned an intellectually matched sample of conduct disordered adolescents to one of three treatment groups. The Ss in the first group received examiner praise i.e., "That was very good," contingent on the number of items that were attempted, while the second group was placed on a token economy according to the same contingency. The third group received neutral examiner feedback i.e., "Now try this." A short form of the WISC-R was used, viz., the Information,