THE FAGAN TEST OF INFANT INTELLIGENCE - PREDICTIVE-VALIDITY IN A RANDOM SAMPLE

The predictive validity of The Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence was i nvestigated in a random sample of 100 boys and 96 girls from two Norwe gian cities. Infants were assessed on the Fagan test between the ages of 7 to 9 months. A followup at 5 years included the Wechsler Preschoo l and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R) and three subtes ts from the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA). Low in ternal consistency of the Fagan test was found, with alphas of .10 and .02 for the two study sites. Fagan test-score correlated significantl y with WPPSI-Verbal IQ and with scores on ITPA Auditory Reception for both samples, but the mean correlation was as low as .22. The predicti on was not significantly higher for infants tested before 8 months of age than for those tested later. The study raises questions about use of the Fagan test as a screening tool in a nonrisk population.