Operant test battery performance in children: Correlation with IQ

The relationship between intelligence and money-(nickel-)reinforced operant behaviors were compared in 115 six year old children. The Operant Test Bat tery (OTB) consists of tasks thought to engender responses dependent upon s pecific brain functions that include motivation, color and position discrim ination, learning, short-term memory, and time estimation. OTB endpoints we re compared with Full Scale, Verbal and Performance IQ scores. Highly signi ficant correlations were noted between several OTB measures (e.g., color an d position discrimination accuracy) and IQ scores, but not in others (e.g., motivation task response rate). The results demonstrate the relevance of t hese measures as metrics of important brain functions. Additionally, since laboratory animals can readily perform these same tasks, these kinds of beh aviors in laboratory animals should be useful in studying the effects of ne uroactive/neurotoxic compounds on aspects of cognitive function in animals and in predicting adverse effects of such agents on related brain functions in humans. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.