The Identification of Caution, A Correlate of Achievement Functioning

Abstract

A construct of “caution” was posited on the basis of differences in performance of good and poor school achievers on ten variables from several devices. These differences showed the good achievers to be more careful and deliberate in cognitive functioning than the poor achievers. Clinical ratings of caution also differentiated between the two groups in the same direction.

A matrix of rank order correlations of ratings based on the ten scores and three clinical ratings yielded 30 significant correlations. The variable most often correlated with other variables was reaction time to the Rorschach. Long reaction time was positively correlated with few Rorschach responses, long response time on the Rorschach, few words to both Rorschach and Uses of Objects, few uses for objects and frequent use of the neutral position on the Semantic Differential, as well as with high clinical ratings on caution based on Rorschach and Story Telling protocols. Clinicians may find it useful to give greater consideration to reaction time as a measure of caution.