Socioeconomic Background and Cognitive Functioning in Preschool Children

32 advantaged and 32 disadvantaged 4-year-old children were administered a battery of tests including measures of general intellectual functioning, learning performance, impulsivity-reflectivity, ability to inhibit motor behavior upon request, and object exploratory behavior. The results supported the hypotheses that culturally disadvantaged preschool children would be less efficient in intellectual performance than advantaged children of the same age. The anticipated relation between Binet performance and paired associate learning was found. Only tentative support was found for the hypothesis that disadvantaged Ss would be more impulsive in response disposition. The data did not support the hypotheses that the culturally disadvantaged would inhibit their motor responses less upon verbal request or manifest less object curiosity than the advantaged children.