Picture Arrangement: A Measure of Frontal Lobe Function?

Abstract

Tests involving the arrangement of pictures to tell a story have long been included among tests of intellectual ability. First devised by De Croly (1914), one or more items of this type have appeared in a number of experiments and standardized tests; and the Wechsler intelligence scales (1944, 1955) include a Picture Arrangement subtest consisting of six or eight items ranging in length from three to six pictures. However, apart from its possible use for psychiatric interpretation (e.g. Wechsler, 1958; Ch. 10) its specific value as a component of the scale has not been established. Some critics, suggesting that the test has a low reliability, are inclined to omit it from short forms of the Wechsler scales; yet test-retest reliabilities of about 0.65 (Wechsler, 1958) are similar to those of Arithmetic and Object Assembly, which are rarely omitted. Perhaps a more cogent reason for its omission is uncertainty as to what ability the test measures. Wechsler (1958) suggests that it shows the subject's ability to ‘comprehend and size up a total situation’; and that, as all the stories concern human activities, it may be a measure of social intelligence and awareness. Identification of the ability or abilities involved by factor analysis is also inconclusive: the test does not show significant association with Picture Completion, the other pictorial subtest in the Wechsler scale; and in different analyses it has shown associations with a Memory factor or with a factor described as ‘freedom from distractibility’.