Psychometrics, test design, and essential statistics Flashcards
When performance on a test is not normally distributed, but there is some variance, what is the best way to interpret the test result using normative data?
A) z score
B) T score
C) cut-off
D) percentile
D) percentile
An individual is given a battery of tests with at least three tests in each of five cognitive domains. He performs in the mildly impaired range on one test in each of two separate cognitive domains. How do you interpret this pattern of performance?
A) The patient is clearly impaired in two important cognitive domains; I diagnose accordingly and provide treatment recommendations in my report.
B) The patient is essentially intact in almost all cognitive domains; I make no diagnosis and clarify in my report that no treatment is deemed necessary.
C) The patient may be impaired in one or more domain; I need more tests to be sure and will send a request for that in a report to the insurance company.
D) This may be due to normal variability. Unless a disorder is otherwise indicated by history, I make no diagnosis but comment on the variability in my report
D) This may be due to normal variability. Unless a disorder is otherwise indicated by history, I make no diagnosis but comment on the variability in my report
On test 1, an individual obtains a T score of 65. On test 2, she obtains a scaled score of 115. On test 3 the individual scores in the 67th percentile. On test 4 the individual score is equivalent to a z-score of .5. Which of the following is the correct ordering of these scores from lowest to highest?
A) Test 4, Test 3, Test 2, Test 1
B) 3, 4, 2, 1
C) 4,2, 3, 1
D) 3, 2, 4, 1
B) percentile, z-score, scaled score, T score
The concept of regression to the mean is best expressed by which of the following?
A) The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree
B) Highly intelligent people have even smarter children
C) People of superior intelligence are likely to have high average children
D) People who are low average are at high risk of having impaired children
C) People of superior intelligence are likely to have high average children
You desire to calculate a confidence interval around an obtained test score to determine how confident you are that the obtained score reflects the person’s true abilities in this domain. For the most appropriate estimate of the confidence interval you should use the following in your calculation:
A) Validity coefficient for the test
B) Standard error of the mean
C) Standard error of the estimate
D) Standard error of the measurement
C) Standard error of the estimate
You have created a new test that you want to use clinically, but its psychometric properties are unknown. You want to know about the incremental validity of the test, and you have knowledge of the base rate of the condition that the test was designed to detect. To calculate the incremental validity if you are equally worried about false positives and false negatives, you need to know the tests____?
A) Overall hit rate
B) Sensitivity
C) Specificity
D) Positive Predictive value
A) Overall hit rate
Which of the following will NOT affect the reliability of an intraindividual difference score (i.e. the reliability of difference in performance between two tests within one individual).
A) Reliability of test 1
B) Correlation between the tests
C) Variance of the distribution of the difference scores
D) Actual difference between the two scores
D) Actual difference between the two scores
Which of the following is not a well validated clinical use of regression?
A) Prediction of premorbid ability level
B) Prediction of membership in a clinical group
C) Prediction of performance in one domain based upon performances in others
D) Prediction of future test performance based on past test performance
C) Prediction of performance in one domain based upon performances in others
Two individuals are administered the same test. Person 1 scores in the 48th percentile. Person 2 scores in the 93rd percentile. It is later found that there was an error in scoring of the test on these two administrations only, and three points are then added to each person’s score. Given this information, which of the following is true?
A) Both percentile ranks will increase by the same amount
B) Person 1’s percentile will increase more than person 2’s
C) Person 2’s percentile rank will increase more than person 1’s
D) Neither percentile rank will change
B) Person 1’s percentile will increase more than person 2’s
Assuming a normal distribution, how many people would score between a 600 and a 900 on a standardized test with a mean of 750 and a standard deviation of 150? (N=1000)
A) 840
B) 680
C) 640
D) 720
B) 680
