Abstract:
This study reports an analysts of the performance of 449 non-clinical individuals
on the Multidimensiona1 Aptitude Battery (MAB). These were students ranging
between the ages of sixteen (16) and thirty-four (34) years drawn from selected
secondary and tertiary Institutions in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The
purpose of undertaking this work was first to provide Ghanaian norms for the
Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB). Further. to Investigate the possible
influence of age, and sex on each of the ten subtests of the MAB, the Verbal
Scale, the Performance Scale and Full Scale. The results revealed that age and
sex had an effect on performance on the MAB. Older subjects obtained
significantly higher scores on Vocabulary. Comprehension, Verbal Scale and Full
Scale. These are tests which relied more on experience and 8 vast store of
knowledge. The findings support Cattel's theory that on tasks requiring fluid
intelligence as opposed to crystallized Intelligence, older people are at an
advantage. Overall, the females obtained significantly higher scores than males
Males performed significantly better than females on the Spatial subtest,
supporting previous findings. The observed difference between the performance
of the Ghanaian and normative sample on the MAB confirm the fact that cultural
issues affect psychological testing to a large extent. The general overall
improvement in performance on the modified MAB and the subsequent
formulation and generation of Ghanaian norms for the MAB have tremendous
implications for clinical psychological practice in Ghana, and also in prediction of
performance on the job and also for research in Ghana
