04 Psychological Assessment Review

test bias

a characteristic of a test that produces different outcomes for different groups

rating error

a judgment resulting from the intentional or unintentional misuse of a rating scale

leniency error

error that occurs with raters who are unusually easy in their ratings

leniency error

occurs when ratings of all employees fall at the high end of the scale

central tendency error

Occurs when a rater gives all employees a score within a narrow range in the middle of the scale.

halo effect

the tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristic

fairness

the extent to which a test is used in an impartial, just, and equitable way

item analysis

The process of examining each question on a test to see how it is related to the objectives being tested.

item difficulty

The percentage of test takers who answer a question correctly

item difficulty analysis

Determines the degree to which an examinee could correctly answer an item by chance alone, in order to determine if the item discriminates adequately between those who truly know the answer and those who do not.

optimal item difficulty

Ideal difficulty around 50% to 70% correct responses.

high p value

means that most people are correct on the item

low p value

means that most people answered the item incorrectly

0.00-0.20

very difficult

0.21-0.80

moderately difficult

0.81-1.00

very easy

item discrimination

the degree to which a test item is able to correctly differentiate test-takers who vary according to the construct measured by the test.

discrimination index

A statistic that compares the performance of those who made very high test scores with the performance of those who made very low test scores on each item.

item-total correlation

a test for instrument reliability in which each item is correlated to the total score; reliable items have strong correlations with the total score

extreme group method

Compares people who have done well with those who have done poorly.

intelligence

the mental potential to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

intelligence

refers to the existence of systematic individual differences in the performance of a task that involve the manipulation, retrieval, evaluation or processing information

francis galton

interested in link between heredity and intelligence; founder of the eugenics movement

henry goddard

Advocated mental testing of all immigrants and the selective exclusion of those who were found to be "mentally defective"

jean piaget

Known for his theory of cognitive development in children

David Wechsler

define intelligence as the aggregate of global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment

lewis terman

believed that intelligence quotient or IQ meant to quantify intellectual functioning to allow comparison between individuals

charles spearman

creator of "g-factor", or general intelligence, concept

two-factor-theory of intelligence

Spearman's theory suggesting that every task requires a combination of a general ability (which he called g) and skills that are specific to the task (which he called s)

general ability

a measure of an individual's overall intelligence as opposed to specific abilities

special ability

required to performance on just one kind of mental test

louis leon thurstone

large contributor of factor analysis; approach to measurement was termed as the law of comparative judgment

raymond cattell

intelligence: fluid & crystal intelligence; personality testing: 16 Personality Factors (16PF personality test)

fluid intelligence

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood

crystallized intelligence

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

John L. Horn

Developed GV and GQ model of intelligence.

vulnerable abilities

cognitive abilities that decline with age and that do not return to pre-injury levels after brain damage

maintained abilities

tend not to decline with age and may return to pre injury levels following brain damage

John B. Carroll

Developed three-stratum theory of intelligence.

three-stratum theory

Differentiates cognitive abilities into three stratum, representing narrow, broad and general cognitive abilities.

third stratum

individualized factors linked to each of the 2nd stratum abilities

second stratum

includes: fluid intelligence; crystallized intelligence; memory & learning; visual perception; auditory perception; retrieval capacity; cognitive speediness; processing speed

first stratum

(g) General ability factor

CHC model

integrates the Cattell-Horn and Carroll models, featuring ten broad-stratum" abilities and over seventy narrow-stratum abilities

kevin mcgrew

CHC model, featuring 10 broad stratum abilities and over 72 narrow stratum; does not include g

joy paul guilford

formulated the structure of intellect model in 1962

identifying 180 different kinds of thinking, many of them divergent.

operation

what a person does

content

the materials on which the operation is performed

product

the form in which the information is stored and processed

Philip E. Vernon

hierarchical theory of intelligence

Edward Thorndike

believes that each mental activity requires an aggregate set of abilities

abstract intelligence

the ability to recognize patterns in shapes or symbols

abstract intelligence four attributes

level, range, area, speed

level

refers to the level of difficulty of a task that can be solved

range

refers to the number of tasks at any given degree or difficulty

area

means the total number of situations as each level to which the individual is able to respond

speed

the rapidity with which we can respond to the items

howard gardner

Alexandria Luria

developed the theory on information-processing; studies the mechanism by which information is processed - how information is processed rather than what is processed

simultaneous (parallel)

information is integrated all at one time

successive (sequential) processing

information is individually processed in a logical sequence

IQ score

Score on an intelligence test, determined by comparing a student's performance on the test with the performance of others in the same age group. For most tests, it is a standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.

50% of people

have IQ score between 90 to 100

normal distribution and IQ scores

Mean = 100 w/ SD of 15 points

IQ under 70

Child may qualify for intellectual disability

50-70

below average

40-35

mild mental retardation

35-30

moderate mental retardation

20-35

severe mental retardation

< 20

profound mental retardation

measuring intelligence

entails sampling an examinee's performance on different types of tests and tasks as a function of developmental level

infants

rely on information obtained from a structured interview with the examinee's parents

older children

shifts to verbal and performance abilities; designed to yield general information, vocabulary, social judgements

adults

usually for clinical use, career or vocational placement

mental age

the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance

preformationism

all organism structure including intelligence are preformed at birth and therefore cannot be improved

predeterminism

the doctrine that holds that one's abilities are predetermined by genetic inheritance and that no amount of learning or other intervention can enhance what has been genetically encoded to unfold in time

inheritance

The process by which physical and biological characteristics are transmitted from the parent (or parents) to the offspring

interactionism

the theory that behavior is determined jointly by situations and underlying dispositions

flynn effect

The rise in average IQ scores that has occurred over the decades in many nations

streetwise

having the knowledge and experience that is needed to deal with the difficulties and dangers of life in a big city

street efficacy

using one's wits to avoid violent confrontations and to feel safe

severity error

the tendency to give all workers very negative performance appraisals

ranking

Performance appraisal method in which all employees are listed from highest to lowest in performance.

test utility

the usefulness or practical value of testing to improve efficiency

psychometric soundness

the reliability and validity of a test are both high

costs

with respect to test utility decisions, costs can be interpreted in the traditional, economic sense; relating expenditures associated with testing or not testing

benefits

utility of a test may take into account whether the benefits of testing justify the costs of administering, scoring, and interpreting the test

utility analysis

a family of techniques that entail a cost-benefit analysis designed to yield information relevant to a decision about the usefulness and/or practical value of a tool of assessment

expectancy data

likelihood that a test taker will score within some interval of scores on a criterion measure

taylor-russel tables

provide an estimate of the extent to which inclusion of a particular test in the selection system will improve selection

test's validity

the computed validity coefficient

selection ratio

The number of applicants compared with the number of people to be hired

base rate

Percentage of people hired under the existing system for a particular position

Naylor-Shine Tables

Entails obtaining the difference between the means of the selected and unselected groups to derive an index of what the test is adding to already established procedures.

Brogden-Cronbach-Gleser Formula

used to calculate the dollar amount of a utility gain resulting from the use of a particular selection instrument under specified conditions

productivity gain

estimated increase in work output

decision theory and test utility

a test is of no value if the hit rate is higher without using it

hit

correct classification

miss

incorrect classification