Some of Babcock's early work focused on
schizophrenia in relation to
problem solving behavior. Babcock argued that schizophrenia was most accurately characterized as a slowness in intellectual speed. This characterizations was in contrast to other theories of schizophrenia in terms of split attention, or a failure to generate abstract ideas. Another arm of Babcock's work focused on concerns surrounding the
Stanford-Binet test. Specifically, scores between children discretely grouped based on intelligence failed to reveal any substantial differences. Furthermore, when the test was administered to patients with mental illness, scores on the vocabulary portion of the test were less affected compared to other subtests. This finding prompted Babcock to further investigate this finding in order to better understand intelligence deficiencies as a result of mental illness. The result of this investigation led to the design of the Babcock Deterioration Test, developed on the hypothesis that compared to newer associations in memory, older ones 1) are more accessible after they are retrieved, and 2) and becomes inaccessible more slowly over time.
Babcock Test of Mental Deterioration The Babcock Test of Mental Deterioration was developed to provide an estimate of a patient's
premorbid intelligence by way of evaluating vocabulary. However, some researchers commented that the premorbid measure may not be a valid measure of intelligence. For instance, vocabulary might suffer as a result of the patient's disorder; it may also be the case that patients may have difficulty with vocabulary in their premorbid condition. Other researchers noted its usefulness as an indicator in the context of other intelligence measures. ==References==