Other Individual Tests of Ability in Education and Special Education

Psychological Measurements

Lecture, Chapter 11

Other Individual Tests of Ability

•Most individual intelligence tests are newer and less well-established than the Binet and Wechsler scales

•Though usually weaker in psychometric properties many of the alternatives to the major scales do not rely on verbal response as much as the Binet and Wechsler verbal scales do

•Many of these tests were designed for specific populations or specific purposes and are therefore justifiable

Advantages

•Can be used for specific populations and special purposes and as such is useful for:

–Sensory limitations

–Physical limitations

–Language limitations

–Culturally deprived people

–Foreign born individuals

–Non-English-speaking people

–Not as reliant on verbal responses

–Less variability due to a scholastic achievement

Disadvantages

•Weaker standardization sample

•Less stable

•Less documentation on validity

•Limitations in test manual

•Not as psychometrically sound.

•IQ scores not interchangeable with Binet or Wechsler

What Individual Tests Measure

•Age range – different tests designed for specific age groups

•What is measured – verbal intelligence, nonverbal intelligence, etc.

•Type of score – single vs. multiple scores

•Type of skill – simple motor, complex motor, etc.

•Range of abilities sampled – single ability vs. range of abilities

•Target population – deaf, blind, learning disabled, etc.

•Timing – timed vs. not timed

•Personality vs. ability – some constructed for clinical diagnosis, others for ability

•Examiner skill and experience – degree of training and skill needed to administer and interpret

Infant Scales

•Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale

–For infants between three days and four weeks of  age to provide an index of the newborn’s competence

•Gesell Developmental Scales

–An appraisal of the developmental status of children from 2 and 1/2 to 6 years of age

•Bayley Scales of Infant Development

–Designed for infants between one and 42 months of age it provides two main scores (mental and motor ) and numerous other ratings of behavior

•Cattell Infant Intelligence Scale

–For infants and preschoolers between two and 30 months of age

Scales for Young Children

•McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities

–For children between 2 ½ and 8 ½ years old.  It is a carefully constructed test of human ability.

•Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children

–Individual ability tests for children between 2 ½ and 12 ½ years of age. The K-ABC consists of 16 sub tests combined into five global scales.

Tests for Handicap And Special Populations

•Columbia Mental Maturity Scale – Third Edition

–The Columbia scale is a reliable instrument useful in assessing ability in many people with sensory, physical, or language handicaps.

•Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – Revised

–Measures receptive vocabulary, presumably providing a nonverbal estimate of verbal intelligence

•Leiter International Performance Scale – Revised

–Strictly a performance scale, aimed at providing a nonverbal alternative to the Stanford-Binet

•Porteus Maze Test

–Popular but poorly standardized nonverbal performance measure of intelligence

Learning Disabilities

Interpreted through Information Processing Theory; holistic approach

Assumes:
failure to respond correctly to a stimulus can result not only from defective output (response) but also from defective input or information-processing system

Human response to outside stimulus can be viewed in terms of discrete stages or processes
Stage 1: senses receive input; incoming environmental information
Stage 2: information is analyzed or processed
Stage 3: individual makes a response

Tests of Ability for Specific Purposes

•Learning Disabilities

–Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities

–Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery –revised

•Visiographic Tests

–Benton Visual Retention Test

–Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test

–Memory-for-Designs Test

•Creativity

–Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

Wide-Range Achievement Test-3 (WRAT-3)
Learning disabilities =
    Discrepancies between IQ and achievement
    Discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal scores

WRAT-3 measures grade-level functioning in reading, spelling, and arithmetic in children 5 years and older.
    Easy to administer
    Widely used
    Lacking in validity; inaccurate measure of grade-level reading ability
    Thus, use as screening tool but not in place of a comprehensive assessment to evaluate reading level.