PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT BLEPP 2025 — Practice Flashcards

150 practice Q&A flashcards covering concepts from the psychological assessment BLEPP 2025 notes, including assessment types, psychometrics, reliability, validity, test construction, ethics, statistics, and test usage.

Gathering and integration of psychology-related data for the purpose of making psychological evaluation using tools such as tests, interviews, case studies, behavioral observation, and specially designed apparatuses.

What is psychological assessment?

What is dynamic psychological assessment?

An interactive approach; evaluation-intervention-evaluation (sandwich method).

What is collaborative psychological assessment?

Assessor and assessee may work as partners from the initial contact to final feedback.

What is therapeutic psychological assessment?

Therapeutic self-discovery and new understandings throughout the process.

Name one variety of assessment.

Educational Assessment (others include Retrospective, Remote, Ecological Momentary).

What isEducational Assessment?

Use of tests and other tools to evaluate abilities and skills relevant to success or failure in a pre-/school context.

What is Retrospective Assessment?

Use evaluative tools to draw conclusions about psychological aspects as they existed at some point in time before the assessment.

What is Remote Assessment?

Use of tools to gather data about subjects not in physical proximity to the evaluator.

What is Ecological Momentary Assessment?

In-the-moment evaluation of specific problems and related cognitive/behavioral variables at the time and place they occur.

What is PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING?

Process of measuring psychological-related variables by devices or procedures designed to obtain a sample of behavior.

What is a Psychological Test?

A device or procedure designed to measure variables related to psychology.

List one Variable of Testing.

Content, Format, Item, Administration Procedure, Score.

What does Reliability mean in testing?

Consistency in measurement.

What is a Reliability Coefficient?

An index indicating the ratio of true score variance to total score variance.

What does Classical Test Theory assume?

Observed score X equals True score T plus Error E (X = T + E).

What is Measurement Error?

All factors associated with the process of measuring variables other than the variables being measured.

Name a Source of Error in testing.

Test Construction (item sampling) or Test Administration (environment, test-taker variables, examiner variables).

What is Internal Reliability?

Consistency of items within a test.

What is External Consistency?

Consistency of results across time and different scorers/participants.

What is Test-Retest Reliability?

Reliability obtained by correlating scores from the same individuals on two administrations.

What is the Coefficient of Stability?

Interpretation that the longer the time between tests, the lower the reliability may become.

What is Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) used for in reliability?

Typically calculated between scores from two administrations of a test.

What are Carryover Effects?

When a short retest interval causes the second test to be influenced by the first.

What is Practice Effect?

Scores on the second session are higher due to experience in the first session.

What is Test Sophistication?

Items are remembered by the test takers, especially difficult ones.

What is Test Wiseness?

May inflate perceived abilities due to test-taking strategies.

What is Mortality in reliability terms?

Problems due to absences in the second testing session.

What are Parallel-Forms Reliability and Alternate-Forms Reliability?

Reliability estimates across different forms of the same test or different forms of a test.

What is Parallel Forms Reliability?

Means and variances of observed scores are equal across forms.

What is Alternate Forms Reliability?

Different but equivalent forms of the same test; evaluated for equivalence.

What is Counterbalancing in parallel forms?

Using different item sequences to avoid carryover effects across forms.

What is Inter-Item Consistency (Internal Consistency)?

Degree of correlation among all items on a scale.

What is Homogeneity in testing?

A single-factor test measure.

What is Heterogeneity in testing?

A multi-factor test measure.

What is KR-20?

Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 for dichotomously scored items.

What is Cronbach’s Alpha (α)?

A widely used measure of internal consistency for tests with continuous scoring.

What is McDonald’s Omega (ω)?

An internal consistency reliability measure often preferred for complex factor structures.

What is Split-Half Reliability?

Correlating two equivalent halves of a single test administered once.

What is Spearman-Brown Formula?

Adjusts split-half reliability to estimate full-test reliability.

What is Spearman-Brown Prophecy Formula?

Estimates how many more items are needed to reach target reliability.

What is Rulon’s Formula?

A method for assessing consistency by comparing two halves of a test.

What is Odd-Even Reliability?

Assign odd items to one half and even items to the other to assess reliability.

What is Interrater Reliability?

Degree of agreement between two or more scorers.

What is a Kappa Statistic?

A measure of agreement for nominal data (Cohen’s or Fleiss Kappa).

What is Kendall’s W?

A statistic for agreement among raters on rankings.

What is the difference between Homogeneous and Heterogeneous tests?

Homogeneous tests measure a single factor; heterogeneous tests measure multiple factors.

What are Dynamic Characteristics vs Static Characteristics?

Dynamic: ever-changing traits; Static: relatively unchanging traits.

What is Restricted vs Inflated Range in correlation testing?

Restricted range lowers correlation; inflated range increases it.

What is a Power Test?

Long time limit allows all items to be attempted; some items may be impossible.

What is a Speed Test?

Items of uniform difficulty with generous time limits to complete quickly.

What is a Criterion-Referenced Test?

Indicates where a test-taker stands with respect to a criterion.

What is a Reliability Model?

Classical Test Theory, Domain Sampling Theory, Generalizability Theory, Item Response Theory.

What is Classical Test Theory (CTT) again?

Assumes a true score plus error; everyone has a true score on a test.

What is Domain Sampling Theory?

Estimates how much of a test score variation is due to defined sources of variation.

What is Generalizability Theory?

Scores vary across testing situations; examines universes and facets.

What is Universe Score?

The score that would be obtained under the same conditions of all facets in the universe.

What is a Universe in G Theory?

A description of the details of the test situation.

What is Item-Response Theory (Latent-Trait Theory)?

Models the probability of a person with a given ability achieving a certain score on an item.

What is a Latent Trait vs Manifestation Trait?

Latent trait is unobservable; manifestation trait is observable.

What is Discrimination in IRT?

An item’s ability to differentiate among individuals with different trait levels.

What is a Dichotomous Item?

An item with two possible responses.

What is a Polytomous Item?

An item with more than two responses.

What is a Standard Error of Measurement (SEM)?

Estimate of the amount of error inherent in an observed score.

What is a Confidence Interval in SEM terms?

A range likely to contain the true score (e.g., 68% ±1 SEM, 95% ±1.96 SEM).

What is a Standard Score?

A raw score converted to a common scale (e.g., Z, T, STANINE, IQ).

What is a Z-Score?

Standard score where Z = (X − μ)/σ.

What is a T-Score?

Standard score with mean 50 and SD 10.

What is IQ?

Intelligence Quotient; standard score with mean 100 and SD 15.

What is the Normal Curve (Gaussian Curve)?

Bell-shaped, mean = median = mode; 50% of scores around the mean.

What is a Z-Score Formula?

Z = (X − μ) / σ; X = Z·SD + mean.

What is a 68% Confidence Interval around a score?

Mean ± 1 SEM (e.g., 75 ± 3 if SEM = 3).

What is Content Validity?

The extent a measurement instrument represents all facets of the construct.

What is Construct Validity?

Extent scores reflect the theoretical construct and its relationships.

What is Face Validity?

Appears to measure what it purports to measure to the test-taker.

What is Criterion-Related Validity?

Shows how well test scores relate to external criteria.

What is Concurrent Validity?

Criterion validity established when criterion measures are collected about the same time.

What is Predictive Validity?

Criterion validity established when criterion measures are collected later.

What is Incremental Validity?

Additional predictive validity beyond existing predictors.

What is Construct-irrelevant Variance?

Variance in scores driven by factors unrelated to the construct.

What is Construct Underrepresentation?

Failure to capture important components of a construct.

What is Content Validity Index (CVI)?

A quantitative index evaluating item relevance for SME content validity.

What is Lawshe’s CVR?

Content validity ratio indicating essentiality of an item.

What is CVR formula?

CVR = Ne − (N/2) / (N/2) where Ne is number of experts deeming item essential.

What is Test Blueprint?

A plan detailing content, organization, and quantity of items.

What is SME Review?

Subject Matter Expert panel independently reviews each item against the content domain.

What is Pilot Testing in test development?

Trial of the instrument with a sample from the target population to identify issues.

What is Item Pool?

The reservoir from which items are drawn for the final version.

What is Item Banks?

A large collection of test questions.

What is Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT)?

Tests present items tailored to the test taker’s ability based on prior responses.

What is Item Branching in CAT?

Adaptive sequencing of items based on earlier responses.

What is Item Format?

The form, plan, structure, arrangement, and layout of items.

What is a Dichotomous Format item?

An item with two alternatives (e.g., true/false).

What is a Polychotomous Format item?

An item with more than two response options.

What is a Category Format item?

Items where respondents rate a construct (e.g., checklist, guttman scale).

What is a Selected-Response Format?

Items where a response is selected from a set of alternatives (e.g., multiple-choice).

What is a Completion item?

A constructed-response item where the test-taker completes a sentence.

What is an Essay item?

A constructed-response item requiring a lengthy written answer.

What is Scaling in test development?

Rules for assigning numbers to measurement.

What is Absolute Scaling?

Obtaining a measure of item difficulty across samples with varying ability.

What is Standardization?

Administering the test to a representative sample to establish norms.