Psychological Assessment in Education

Psychological Assessment in Education Contexts

• Cognitive ability is assessed using various tests, which can be thought of as a continuum from ability to achievement.
• Tests of achievement measure learning in specific areas, based on instruction.
• Tests of ability/aptitude estimate learning capacity, often in specific skill areas (e.g., clerical or mechanical).
• Tests of intelligence measure the general ability for learning, problem-solving adaptation, and knowledge application.

Defining Intelligence

• Intelligence is the tendency to maintain a specific direction when striving towards a particular goal or outcome.
• Purposive behavioral orientation, ability to sustain effort, flexible response to feedback, and critical evaluation of one's strategies are key cognitive factors in intelligence.
• The aggregate global capacity of purposeful action, rational thinking, and effective interaction with the environment, along with non-intellective factors like drive and values, defines intelligence.

Intelligence Testing: Historical Approaches

• Early perspectives on intelligence included sensory abilities and mental processing capabilities.
• Alfred Binet defined intelligence as the capacity for adaptation and autocriticism, involving goal-oriented behavior, initiating/sustaining actions, and adapting to feedback.
• Wechsler (1958) defined intelligence as the aggregate and global capacity to act purposefully, think rationally, and effectively interact with the environment.

Factor Analytic Theories

• Factor analysis identifies the correlations between various measures/tests to determine common underlying traits.
• Spearman proposed "g," a general intelligence factor, which underlies all intelligent behavior, along with specific "s" abilities and error "e."
• Thurstone argued for a collection of independent intelligences (primary mental abilities) instead of a single "g" factor.
• Cattell proposed fluid (Gf) and crystallized (Gc) intelligences as sub-components of general intelligence.
• Horn, a colleague of Cattell, identified additional distinctions within intellectual abilities.
• Carroll's three-stratum theory posits a general intelligence factor ("g") at the top, with sub-abilities and processes in the second stratum, and more specific abilities and processes in the third.
• The Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model integrates various theories to represent the structure and function of intelligence, and are used in current intelligence tests.

Intelligence Testing (Cont.)

• The Stanford-Binet intelligence scales aimed to identify children with learning disabilities in the Paris school system based on age-related differences in cognitive skills.
• The original Stanford-Binet emphasized age differentiation, using progressively more challenging tasks to assess cognitive abilities. The concept of mental age helped measure cognitive development in comparison to chronological age and generate an IQ measure.
• Subsequent revisions of the Stanford-Binet included the conceptualisation of general intelligence and normalised scores, and incorporated the concept of 'deviation IQ,' using standard scores.

Psychometric Properties of Intelligence Tests

• Standardization involves a large, representative sample to ensure the test accurately reflects the population.
• Reliability refers to the test's consistency and accuracy of measurement across different testing times/assessments.
• Validity reflects the test's ability to accurately measure what it intends to measure (content-related and criterion-related).
• Tests of intelligence typically employ age norms, where items are grouped on developmental levels of cognitive skills.

Wechsler Intelligence Scales (WAIS)

• The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) assesses intelligence in adults.
• It uses a scaled score system that includes specific cognitive domains and employs non-verbal and performance-based measures, which were originally a response to issues raised by the Stanford-Binet.
• Different factors of intelligence are measured by various components, including verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.
• The Wechsler scales have been standardised and validated for use across contexts and age groups.

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

WISC assessments focus on children's cognitive skills using a variety of tasks and measurement categories.

Additional Testing

• The CCAT 7 (Canadian Cognitive Ability Test), measures specific reasoning skills across various contexts.
• The GRE (Graduate Record Exam), while often used for graduate admissions, assesses verbal, quantitative, and analytical skills alongside specific knowledge of certain academic topics.

Aptitude Tests

• Aptitude/ability tests estimate the potential for learning in specific or broader areas, including primary education, school-age, and post-secondary settings. -These tests differ from intelligence tests in their focus on specific skills, rather than broader cognitive abilities.