Comparison of verbal and nonverbal intelligence among hafiz and non-hafiz female adolescents

ABSTRACT

The present research was conducted to compare verbal and nonverbal intelligence among hafiz-e-Quran [the person who commits the entire Qur'an to memory] and non-hafiz female adolescents. The sample consisted of 200 females including hafiz-e-Quran females [N= 100], and non-hafiz females [N = 100]. The two groups were matched on age, education level, medium of education, and elementary subjects and socioeconomic status. The Haflz female sample was taken from madrasahs [religious institutions] of Islamabad and Karachi. The non hafiz female sample was recruited from Government colleges of the same cities. Two indigenously developed intelligence tests were used. Indigenous non-verbal test of intelligence [INTI] and Sajjad Verbal intelligence test in Urdu [SVITU] were used to assess non-verbal and verbal intelligence respectively. The INTI has five subtests including series, matrices, analogies, odd one out and similarities. SVITU include 4 subtests including words meaning, oral reasoning, numerical reasoning and information, t-test was used to analyse the data. Results indicated significant mean differences between hafiz and non-hafiz female adolescents on total score of INTI [non-verbal intelligence test] and its subscales including series, analogies, and odd one out, whereas non-significant differences were found on subscales of matrices and similarities. On verbal intelligence test, significant differences were found between hafiz and non-hqfiz females adolescents on subscales of words meaning, numerical reasoning and information, while oral reasoning subscale and total score of SVITU showed non-significant difference. It is concluded that Non-hafiz females studying in educational institutions performed better on numerical ability, information, series, analogies and odd one out and also showed significantly better performance on total score of lNTI. However, Hafiz females studying in madrasahs out performed only on vocabulary