Introduction to Psychological Testing

Galton's 1869 book proposing that some individuals are naturally more 'fit' than others due to inherited traits.

Variability in characteristics like sensory function, reaction time, and motor skills among individuals.

A test designed to measure mental capacities, coined by James McKeen Cattell.

A branch of psychology that uses experiments to study mental processes and behavior.

A 19th-century mathematician who created mathematical models of the mind, influencing educational theories and practices.

The law showing sensation strength increases logarithmically with stimulus intensity.

Founder of experimental psychology, establishing a lab at the University of Leipzig in 1879.

Key psychological tests developed from a Carnegie Institute seminar, assessing vocational interests.

Tests with multiple-choice questions, standardized on a large group to compare results, easier to administer and score than essay tests.

An early intelligence test, initially criticized for focusing on verbal skills.

An intelligence test used during war to evaluate recruits.

An intelligence test developed by Wechsler, improved on older tests by including nonverbal components.

Early structured paper and pencil tests, including multiple choice and True/False questions to assess personality.

Tests using written responses, often considered less objective and reliable than standardized multiple-choice tests.

A redesigned Stanford-Binet test to improve its assessment. It introduced performance subtests.

Tests with clear, right or wrong answers, easier to score consistently and objectively.

A scale of measurement that only classifies items into categories without any order or numerical value. It's simply naming or describing things.

A scale of measurement that classifies and orders items according to their magnitude. The difference between ranks may not be equal.

A scale of measurement with equal intervals between values, but no true zero point. Differences between values can be compared.

A scale of measurement with equal intervals and a true zero point. Ratios between values are meaningful.

A property of a scale where the relationship between measured units and an outcome can be described by a straight line or linear equation.

The point on a scale where nothing of the property being measured exists.

A property of a scale where, if one thing is greater than another, then the relationships between them can be described by quantifiable values

Measurement in psychology must consider the limitations in the meaning of numbers and inferential analysis.

A distribution with two peaks, indicating two distinct groups within the data.

A distribution with more than two peaks, suggesting multiple distinct groups within the data.

The middle value in an ordered dataset; divides the data in half.

The amount of spread or dispersion in a set of data.

The average of the squared deviations from the mean, indicating the average variability.

A measure of the average spread of data points around the mean, in the same units as the data.

The total amount of variability in a score distribution.

Variability, along with measures of central tendency, helps us understand how a specific value fits within a distribution and provides a more complete picture of the data.

A standardized way to represent scores on a test, where each sten represents a range of scores and corresponds to a specific percentage of the population.

Tests that compare an individual's performance to a group of people (the norm group) who have already taken the test.

Tests that measure an individual's performance against a pre-defined standard or criterion.

A type of IQ score based on the standard deviation of IQ scores in a population.

How well a test measures what it claims to measure.

Variables outside the test itself that can affect a test taker's performance.

The specific area of knowledge or skill that a criterion-referenced test focuses on.

The ability to perform a task or skill successfully.

A score that indicates the percentage of individuals in a reference group who scored at or below a particular score on a test.

A score that reflects the number of correct responses a person gets out of the total possible number of correct responses on a test.

The highest score attainable on a standardized test, suggesting that the test's difficulty level is insufficient for those scoring at the top.

The lowest possible score on a standardized test, indicating that the test may not adequately measure the abilities of those scoring very low.

A transformed raw score that expresses a person's position relative to the mean in standard deviation units.

A transformed score from one scale to another with a specific mean and standard deviation, making it easier to interpret than raw scores.

A change in units of a score that preserves the relationship between the original raw scores and the transformed scores.

Converting raw scores to standard scores allows us to easily interpret a person's performance relative to others in a reference group, making comparisons more meaningful.