The relationships among two experimental and four psychometric assessments of abnormal children

Two experimental assessments are described that have specific foci: discrimination learning ability and the capacity to maintain adaptive responding even when extrinsic feedback and/or reinforcement are not consistent. The intercorrelations of the two experimental assessments are reported. Further, as an initial step in establishing their relationships with variables established to be important prognostically and diagnostically, their correlations are reported with the following; measures of intelligence, social competence, language functioning, and the extent to which children approximate Kanner's syndrome, classical autism. Assessments with specific foci and global indices are discussed with regard to their relative utility in identifying and ameliorating important cognitive-behavioral deficits. The dimensions assessed by the two experimental assessments, i.e., discrimination learning ability and maintenance of adapative responding, are clearly important in the study of abnormal children, and are not specifically and quantitatively assessed by existing measures.