Intelligence Assessment Final Flashcards
One of the ethical principles is…
You don’t do excess testing.
o Some kids need advocacy, not more assessment.
What is intelligence?
The ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, and to overcome obstacles.
You just evaluated a 14yo child who speaks English fluently and was born in the US. He was cooperative, motivated, and testing conditions were good. You subsequently interviewed his parents and learn that his mother speaks Hungarian and his father speaks both English and Hungarian. Hungarian is spoken at home. PRI 108 VCI 112.
- The issue is: is there an impact on his assessment results because of the bilingual background.
- Can report FSIQ.
- If he had done poorly on VCI, we might want to use a non-culture bound test.
- You want to look at the subtest scores within VCI.
- You want to look at the subtests that have high cultural and linguistic loading and compare them with the scores on the subtests that have low cultural and linguistic loading.
- There is a cultural language matrix that Ortiz has worked on. And Dr. Flanagan. Look at the subtests that have high cultural loading like information and high language loading like vocabulary. See if there is a clear pattern emerging.
- These results should be interpreted with caution because the child’s background was not part of the normalization sample.
Historically the development and use of psychometric tests was important because…
• Objective system of measurement based on normed data.
• To take the subjectivity out of it.
• Larry P. v. Riles: Problem verified by court decision was that the test had not been validated on an appropriate population. RESULT: disproportionate # of minority students placed in special education. Court said couldn’t place students until retested with unbiased assessments
California directed to retest all students in special education.
• Now we look at the child in context. Interpret the objective data in the broader context of who this child/adult is given their cultural and educational background and context.
You administer an intelligence test to twin girls ages 6 years 9 months. On one of the subtests twin A obtains a raw score of 0, twin B obtains a raw score of 9. They both obtain an SS of 1.
This is an example of the floor effect. There is obviously a difference between them but this test is not sensitive enough to pick up the difference between these two individuals.
An 18yo HS senior was evaluated in December 2007. FSIQ of 102 on WAIS 3. He struggled in college. WAIS 4 December 2008. FSIQ of 94 on the WAIS 4. This is most likely due to…
- The Flynn effect! Because they have to correct for the global increase in IQ.
- People do much better in the older test. There is definitely a shift upward in IQ scores.
- Like a just noticeable difference.
When the difference between two index scores is statistically significant it indicates what?
- There is likely to be a true difference in ability. That difference in scores is not likely to be due to chance.
- Note: If this difference was uncommonly large, then the difference is often clinically significant. You look at the base rate comparison.
The best assessment takes into consideration…
- Multiple sources
- Multiple modalities/methods
- So use interviews, assessment, behavioral observations, etc. All of these are means of gathering information and they are different methods.
Some theories of intelligence include a g factor, and some don’t. And the number of factors varies from theory to theory. The WAIS-IV can be interpreted by at least two different approaches. How tests are interpreted are influenced by…
- The methods of factor analysis. Influenced by the model of factor analysis.
- Keith’s (more Lurian based) five factor model, CHC five factor model are examples of methods. There is also the four factor method.
When assessing someone who has an interest in looking impaired, the assessment should include…
An assessment of malingering
Alex, age 11, was evaluated with the WISC IV and the WIAT 3 and scored within the average range in all measures. His mother consults with you because HW is a nighty torture. It takes him exceedingly long, takes a lot of parent support, often doesn’t have the books and materials. What would you want to assess?
Want to assess executive skills executive skills and attention
When assessing verbal or visual memory why is it important to have a recognition task.
Because we want the test to compare immediate and delayed recall, for example. You want to look at what part of their memory is being impaired. Is it an encoding issue, a retrieval issue, or a memory decay issue.
Which of the following is not true of ethical psychologists…
• They obtain informed consent
• They practice outside their area of confidence
• Select appropriate and valid test instruments
• Maintain test security
o Which of the following is not true of ethical psychologists…
• Yes–They obtain informed consent
• No–They practice outside their area of confidence
• Yes–Select appropriate and valid test instruments
• Yes–Maintain test security (and be careful about the examples that you give in your report; very rarely do I put an actual item)
In an episode of Seinfeld, George asks Elaine to secretly take a test for him so that his gf will be impressed with his high IQ. What should you tell George?
- IQ is predictive of academic performance/ school performance
- Perform higher on tests, get better grades, and stay in school longer.
- Other factors can effect this. Such as work ethic, ext.
- Does not predict success in life as highly. Lots of other factors contribute to life success.
Penelope, Age 9, obtained SS of 5 on the coding subtest of the WISC-IV. How would you interpret this?
- Indicates that she may have processing difficulties. Or it may not mean that.
- And that’s why you don’t interpret based on scores alone. Could be graphomotor or inattention.
