Effects of pictures in testing preschool children

In intelligence and performance tests pictures are often used as test items or solutions. Additionally, pictures can also be used to illustrate or fac ilitate instructions. However, recent studies suggest that picture represen tations, besides being illustrative, facilitate the solution process. This study aims to examine, based on sound blending as an example, whether the s olutions of preschool children, prior to acquiring reading and spelling ski lls, depend largely on the information conveyed by pictures, Apparently, pr eschool children select the prominent sound unit of the sound sequence and try to assign them to the word sound of the picture material. This indicate s that the solutions largely depend on whether the pictures are unequivocal and on the sound similarity of the words. Results stress the necessity to examine the function of picture information in tests.