Chapter 1

Question 1

what is Apgar score?

Answer 1

method of evaluating health of newborn infants

based on 5 signs of healthy baby: appearance, grimace, pulse, activity, respiration

signs assessed within 1 min of birth

Question 2

psychometrics

Answer 2

field of psychology associated with measurements of aspects of people (skills, abilities, characteristics, etc.)

Question 3

what tools of measurement are associated with psychometrics?

Answer 3

questionnaires and instruments (to assess qualities of people)

statistical/mathematical tools (to assess efficacy of instruments)

Question 4

who were the founders of psychometrics?

Answer 4

Alfred Binet and Francis Galton

both addressed issues in how we define and operationalize concepts + quantitative tools

Question 5

describe desire bourneville’s overall idea of proposal for education requirements in france

Answer 5

advocated special classes for “abnormal children”

Question 6

what effects would desire bourneville’s proposal have on France education?

Answer 6

proposal would result in complete medicalization of all school learning difficulties

educational infrastructure would be needed in medical system to locate educationally untreatable children in asylums

special schools would be required

Question 7

describe the 3 main approaches for Binet’s proposal for France education

Answer 7

medical = examines anatomical, physiological, and pathological signs of difficulty

pedagogical = evaluates intelligence based on acquired knowledge

psychological = examines intelligence based on observation and measurement

Question 8

describe the final resolution for Binet’s proposal for French education

Answer 8

• children experiencing difficulty wouldn’t be expelled without medical/pathological examination

-children identified as abnormal, but treatable, will to go to special class/school

• special class was opened in Paris

Question 9

what was the main challenge of Binet’s proposal for French education?

Answer 9

no set way to identify/classify students with difficulties

were referred to as idiots, imbeciles, etc.

unclear and rude

Question 10

what was the solution for the challenge associated with Binet’s proposal for French education?

Answer 10

Binet + Simon proposed psychological classification system based on observation of student’s abilities = Binet and Simon Test

1st time that a concept was operationalized with concrete tasks based on inferences

Question 11

describe the first version of the Binet Simon test

Answer 11

involved classifying people based on responses to Q’s (easy to hard)

identified abilities of students

1st of kind

Question 12

describe the questions involved on Binet Simon test

Answer 12

variety of Q’s created based on Binet’s observation of children

identifying explaining objects, repeating things from memory, finding rhymes, etc.

questions would get harder - test stopped when child could no longer answer correctly

child would be grouped w students at same level and receive corresponding education

Question 13

what did the Binet Simon test use to compare children?

Answer 13

normative comparison groups

used results of 50 “average” students

if students didn’t match up with the normative groups, they were judged as being behind

Question 14

what was the mental age component of Binet Simon test?

Answer 14

students who performed test were given a mental age

if student all average/expected questions = chronological age = mental age

if exceeded/got below = mental age would go up or down accordingly

Question 15

describe Binet’s ideas of intelligence

Answer 15

intellectual development progresses at variable rates and can be influenced by environment

intelligence not based 100% on genetics

intelligence is malleable + can be improved/acquired

Question 16

what were Binet’s concerns about his own test?

Answer 16

worried about misuse

was designed to identify students who needed extra help in school, not to rank students or impose permanent labels

believed scale couldn’t measure intelligence (lots of other factors are involved in that)

Question 17

who published the English version of the Binet Simon test?

Answer 17

Henry Goddard

Binet and Simon Tests of intellectual Capacity

Question 18

who was Thomas Salmon and what did he believe?

Answer 18

studied psychiatric disorders associated with war

wanted to implement screening war recruits, and prevent people with mental health issues from joining army

Question 19

what was involved with army screening?

Answer 19

surgeon general implemented recruit screening to exclude those with lower intelligence + assess abilities/potential for mental illness

involved army alpha (text based test) and army beta (image based test)

Question 20

what were the results of army screening? why was it a failure?

Answer 20

less than 1% unfit for army, and mental age of recruits very low

3181 still sent overseas despite failing screening + 4039 discharged from war with disorders (despite screening)

no attempt made to determine what part of that 3181 was part of 4039

screening failed to predict how soldiers would perform in battle

Question 21

why was Binet important?

Answer 21

• one of first to operationalize a construct
• allowed for formal classification of students w learning issues
• pioneered use of normative groups
• recognized test scores as tied to goal of test
• viewed intelligence as partially innate/partially acquired
• successful proposal to French government allowing students intellectual ability to be linked to psychology, not medicine only

Question 22

what is operationalization?

Answer 22

process of taking an idea (construct) and definition a set of operations (Q’s/activities) to measure that construct

Question 23

describe Galton’s fair discovery

Answer 23

observed weight guessing contest

believed that median of guesses would be most accurate

but mean ended up being the most accurate

Question 24

why was the mean the most accurate guess at Galton’s fair discovery?

Answer 24

mean score was almost real weight

errors balanced out = for every person that guessed too high, there was someone who guessed equally as low

due to nature/distribution of errors = every dataset displays similar devotions, each with same general properties

Question 25

what is normal distribution

Answer 25

refers to shape of graph that characterizes a set of observations/scores/measurements where the number of each of these at specific values is counted

Question 26

what is the line of probability in a normal distribution graph?

Answer 26

looks like a bell (bell curve)

shows if normal distribution is achieved (will outline graph if so)

as number of obs/meas/scores gets larger, shape of graph will get closer to line of probability

Question 27

are normal distribution graphs symmetrical or unsymmetrical?

Answer 27

should be symmetrical (about mean score)

most observations/scores should fall in the middle

less observations/scores should fall at the left/right extremes

Question 28

what does it means when scores/measurements are normally distributed?

Answer 28

deviations from the mean will cancel out/sum to 0

this means that there is an equal # of scores above and below the mean

Question 29

what is the law of error?

Answer 29

describes the regularity of the distribution of scores, regardless of the source of data

Question 30

are most data sets normally distributed?

Answer 30

yes

meaning they are bell shaped and symmetrical

Question 31

what is a quincunx?

Answer 31

invented by Galton to demonstrate normal distribution and law of error

balls dropped inside through funnel - would strike pins which would strike other pins

no matter how many pins/balls, machine would create a normal distribution at bottom of box

Question 32

what is regression of the mean?

Answer 32

phenomenon of extreme scores being associated with scores closer to the population average

Question 33

what is the correlation coefficient and who discovered it?

Answer 33

galton - number between -1 and 1 to represent linear dependence of two variables/sets of data

Question 34

what is anthropometry

Answer 34

measurement of human characteristics

Question 35

why was Galton important?

Answer 35

• described phenomenon of variance/central tendency/normal distribution
• founded coefficient
• developed quincunx
• founded anthropometry