Exam 1 Flashcards
Vocational Tests
Tests that help predict how successful a person would be at an occupation before training or entering the occupation.
Tests of Maximal Performance
Tests that require test takers to perform a particular task on which their performance is measured.
Behavior Observation Tests
Tests that involve observing people’s behavior to learn how they typically respond in a particular contest.
Self-report Tests
Tests that rely on test takers’ reports or descriptions of their feelings, beliefs, the researcher’s expectations.
Standardized Tests
Tests that have been administered to a large group of individuals who are similar to the group for whom the test has been designed so as to develop norms; also implies a standardized procedure for administration.
Standardization Sample
People who are tested to obtain data to establish a frame of reference for interpreting individual test scores.
Nonstandardized Tests
Tests that do not have standardization samples; more common than standardized tests.
Objective Tests
Tests that are structured and require tests takers to respond to structured true/false questions, multiple-choice questions, or rating scales.
Projective Tests
Tests that are unstructured and require test takers to respond to ambiguous stimuli.
Achievement Tests
Tests that are designed to measure a persons previous learning in a specific academic area.
Aptitude Tests
Tests that are deigned to assess the test taker’s potential for learning or the individual’s ability to perform in an area in which he or she has not been specifically trained.
Intelligence Tests
Tests that assess the test taker’s ability to cope with the environment but at a broader level than do aptitude tests.
Interest Inventories
Tests that are designed to assess a person’s interests in educational programs for job settings and thereby to provide information for making career decisions.
Personality Tests
Tests that are designed to measure human character or disposition.
Measurement
Broadly defined, the assignment of numbers according to rules.
Psychological Tests
Instruments that require test taker to perform some behavior; the behavior performed is used to measure some personal attribute, trait, or characteristic that is thought to be important in describing or understanding behavior such as intelligence.
Behavior
An observable and measurable action.
Surveys
Instruments used for gathering information from a sample of the individuals of interest.
Absolute Decisions
Decisions that are made by seeing who has who has the minimum score needed to qualify.
Comparative Decisions
Decisions that are made by comparing test scores or ratings.
Individual Decisions
Decisions that are made by the person who takes the test using the test results.
Integrity Test
Tests that measure individual attitudes and experiences toward honesty, dependability, trustworthiness, reliability, and prosocial behavior.
Institutional Decisions
Decisions that are made by an institution based on the results from a particular test or tests.
Nature-versus-nurture Controversy
A debate that focuses on weather intelligence is determined by heredity or develops after birth based on environmental factors.
Within-group Norming
The practice of administering the same test to every test taker but scoring the test differently according to the race of the test taker.
Anonymity
The practice of administering tests or obtaining information without obtaining the identity of the participant.
Certification
A professional credential based on the holder meeting specific training objectives and passing a certification exam.
Cognitive Impairments
Mental disorders that include mental retardation, learning disabilities, and traumatic brain injuries.
Confidentiality
The assurance that all personal information will be kept private and not disclosed without explicit permission.
Ethical Dilemmas
Problems for which there are no clear or agreed-on moral solutions.
Ethical Standards
A set of professional practice guidelines or codes that are voted on and adopted by members of professional societies.
Ethics
Issues or practices that influence that decision-making process in terms of “doing the right thing.”
Informed Consent
Individuals’ right of self-determnation; means that individuals are entitled to full explanations of why they are being tested, how the test data will be used, and what the test results mean.
Learning Disability
A hidden handicap that hinders learning and does not have visible signs.
Motor Impairments
Disabilities that hinder physical movement, such as paralysis and missing limbs.
Multicultural Backgrounds
Experiences of those who belong to various minority groups based on race, cultural or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, family unit, primary language, and so on.
Sensory Impairments
Disabilities that hinder the function of the five senses, such as deafness and blindness.
Test Security
Steps taken to ensure that the content of a psychological test does not become public knowledge.
Test Taker
The person who responds to test questions or whose behavior is measured.
Test User
A person who participates in purchasing, administering, interpreting, or using the results of a psychological test.
User Qualifications
Standards that the test purchaser or test user must meet to purchase the test and use the test results, such as certification or experience.
Adaptive Testing
Using tests developed from a large test bank in which the test questions are chosen to match the skill and ability level of the test taker.
Computerized Adaptive Rating Scales (CARS)
Testing in which the computer software, as in computer adaptive testing, selects behavioral statements for rating based on the rater’s previous responses.
Computerized adaptive testing (CAT).
Testing in which the computer software chooses and presents the test taker with harder or easier questions as the test progresses, depending on how well the test taker answered previous questions.
E-learning
Any learning that occurs on a computer-providing individuals the opportunity to learn at any location and at any time.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
Programs provided as an individual in a category is based solely on the quantitative relationships between the predictor and the criterion.
Enterprise Services
Online standardized tests offered by companies for large numbers of test takers at multiple sites.
Hosted Services
Server space, web design, and maintenance provided by companies for the purpose of instruction and assessment.
Nonhosted Services
Instructional and assessment services that run on local area networks or private websites.
Proctor
A person who supervises a testing location; similar to a test administrator.
Survey Research Firms
Companies that specialize in thee construction and administration of surveys and analysis of survey data for purposes such as marketing, political opinion assessment, and employee organization.
Test Bank
A large number of multple-choice, true/false, and short-answer questions that assess knowledge of a subject or group of subjects.
Virtual Time
The time that a computer records elapsing during a test, which might not be equal to the actual time passed during test administration.
Age Norms
Norms that allow test users to compare an individual’s test score with scores of people n the same age group.
Area Transformations
A method for changing scores for interpretation purposes that changes the unit of measurement and the unit of reference, such as percentile ranks.
Categorical Data
Data grouped according to a common property. .
Class Intervals
A way of grouping adjacent scores to display them in a table or graph.
Correlation Coefficient
A statistic that provide an index of thee strength and relationship between two sets of scores; a statistic that describes the relationship between two distributions of scores.
Descriptive Statistics
Numbers calculated from a distribution that describe or summarize the properties of the distribution of test cores, such as the mean, median, mode, and standard deviation.
Equal Interval Scales
Level of measurement in which numbers are assigned with the assumption that each number represents a point that is an equal distance from the points adjacent to it.
Frequency Distribution
An orderly arrangement of a group of numbers (or test scores) showing the number of times each score occurred in a distribution.
Grade Norms
Norms that allow test users to compare a student’s test score with scores of other students in the same grade.
Histogram
A bar graph used to represent frequency data in statistics.
Levels of Measurement
The properties of the numbers used in a test- nominal, ordinal, equal interval, or ratio.
Linear Transformations
A method for changing raw scores for interpretation purposes that does not change the characteristics of the raw data in any way, such as z scores and T scores.
Mean
The arithmetic average of a group of test scores in a distribution.
Measures of Central Tendency
The mean (arithmetic average), median, and mode that provide information about the middle of a set of test scores.
Measures of Relationship
Statistics that describe the relationship between two sets of scores, such as correlation coefficient.
Measures of Variability
Numbers that represent the spread of thee scores in the distribution, such as range, variance, and standard deviation.
Median
The middle score in a distribution.
Mode
The most frequently occurring score in a distribution.
Nominal Scale
The most basic level of measurement, in which numbers are assigned to groups or categories of information.
Norm-based Interpretation
The process of comparing an individual’s core with the scores of another group of people who took the same test.
Norm Group
A previously tested group of individuals whose scores are used for comparison purposes.
Normal Curve
A symmetrical distribution of scores that, when graphed, is bell-shaped.
Normal Probability Distribution
A theoretical distribution that exits in our imagination as a perfect and symmetrical distribution; also referred to as the normal curve.
Ordinal Scales
The second level of measurement, in which numbers are assigned to order or rank individuals or objects from greatest to least (or vice versa) or the attribute being measured.
Outliers
Scores that are exceptionally higher or lower than other scores in a distribution.
Pearson Product-moment Correlation Coefficient
Represented by r, a correlation coefficient that measures the linear association between two variables, or sets of test scores, that have been measured on interval or ratio scales,
Percentages
A linear transformation of raw scores obtained by dividing the number of correctly answered items by the total number of items.
Percentile Rank
An area transformation that indicates the percentages of people who scored above and below the transformed score.
Range
A measure of variability calculated by subtracting the lowest number in a distribution from the highest number in the distribution.
Ratio Scale
The level of measurement in which numbmers are assigned to points with the assumption that each point is equal distance from the numbers adjacent to it and there is a point that represents an absolute absence of the property being measured, called zero (0).
Raw Score
The basic score calculated when an individual completes a psychological test.
Standard Deviation
A measure of variability that represents the degree to which scores vary from the mean.
Standard Scores
Universally understood units in testing, such as z scores and T scores, that allow the test user to evaluate a person’s performance in comparison with other persons who took the same test or a similar test.
Stanine
A standard score scale with nine points that allows us to describe a distribution in words instead of numbers (from 1= very poor, to 9= very superior).
T Scores
Standard scores, which have a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10, that are used to compare test scores from two tests that have different characteristics.
Variance
A measure of variability that indicates whether individual scores in a distribution tend to be similar to or substantially different from the mean of the distribution.
Z Scores
Standard scores, which have a mean of zero (0) and a standard deviation of 1, that are used to compare test scores from two tests that have different characteristics.
