Test performance and imprisonment

Abstract

The suitability of administering a battery of tests to prisoners very soon after their arrival at Pentridge was examined by retesting a group of 45 prisoners at later stages in their sentences. For four out of the five tests in the battery it was found that retesting resulted in improved performance which was significant at very high levels of probability, and it was found that this improvement was not related to the length of time between testings. The tendency towards improvement for the fifth test was not statistically significant. Attempts to relate the improved test performance to other variables (age, participation in education programme and previous prison experience) were not successful. The implications of the present system of testing at Pentridge are discussed in the light of these findings.