Lecture 9 Notes: Aptitude, Ability & Achievement Tests

Lecture 9: Tests of Aptitude, Ability & Achievement

Lecture Overview

• Alternative tests are needed to address limitations of standard intelligence tests like Wechsler and Stanford-Binet.
• Key topics include the distinction between achievement, aptitude, and intelligence, and various alternative tests and scales.
• Examples of tests to be discussed: WIAT (Achievement), WRAT-4 (Achievement), Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Lindamood Auditory Conceptualisation Test (LAC-III).
• Group testing in education, civil service, and the military will also be covered.

Achievement vs. Aptitude vs. Intelligence

• Achievement Tests
  • Assess what a person has learned from a specific course of instruction.
  • Content is curriculum-based.
  • Areas examined include reading, reading comprehension, writing, and math.
• Aptitude Tests
  • Evaluate a student’s potential for learning, rather than what has already been learned.
  • Predict more specific abilities like math, science, or music.
• Intelligence Tests
  • Attempt to predict future performance.
  • Predict abilities that are general and broad.

Ability

• Achievement, aptitude, and intelligence are highly interrelated.
• Implication: there is considerable overlap, all three concepts are encompassed by the term "human ability."
• Achievement, aptitude, and intelligence are distinguished as different types of ability.

Why not just use the Wechsler or the Stanford-Binet?

• Stanford-Binet-V: Suitable for ages 2 - 85+
• WPPSI-III: Suitable for ages 4 - 6 years
• WISC-IV: Suitable for ages 6 - 16 years
• WAIS-IV: Suitable for ages 16+ years
• Limitations of Binet/Wechsler Tests
  • No tests for infants under 2 years.
  • Not appropriate for individuals with physical, sensor, or language disabilities.
  • Not good for assessing learning disabilities/Specific Learning Disorders.
  • Not appropriate for non-members of the dominant culture.
  • Correlate strongly with scholastic achievement and reading ability.

Types of Alternative Tests

• Specialized tests limited to a specific:
  • Age range (e.g., infancy or early childhood).
  • Area of cognitive ability (e.g., nonverbal ability).
• Often used for screening, follow-up evaluations, and assessing children with or without disabilities.
• Many tests require considerable training (e.g., Bayley Scales of Infant Development –III).
• Every assessment requires skill in establishing rapport, recognizing signs of developmental conditions, and interpretation of assessment findings.
• These tests are often used in conjunction with other tests (e.g., standardized batteries).
• Be ALWAYS mindful and ethical in your interpretation and recommendations.

Purpose of Academic Assessments

• Can answer the following questions:
  • Can their academic difficulties be better explained by their intellectual abilities?
  • Are they under/over performing?
  • Better understanding of client and their mix of strengths and weaknesses.
  • Hypothesis generation / testing.
    • E.g. Factors contributing to “problem behavior” (acting out in class, not completing homework, disengaging from school).
  • Intervention.
  • Test for a learning disorder / other learning problems.

Achievement/Ability Tests – Individually Administered

• Purposes of individually administered achievement/ability tests include:
  • Assessing how well a student is learning.
  • Assessing how well a class, grade, school, school system or state is learning.
  • Identifying learning problems.
  • Determining whether a child is ready to proceed to the next grade.
  • Evaluating teacher effectiveness.
  • Determining readiness/suitability for tertiary programs.
  • Determining if an individual has mastered knowledge for professional advancement (bar exam).

Infant Scales: Achievement of Developmental Milestones

Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 4th Edition

• Domains
  • Cognitive
    • Example Questions: attention to familiar and unfamiliar objects, looking for a fallen object, and pretend play.
  • Language
    • Example Questions: recognition of objects and people, following directions, and naming objects and pictures.
  • Motor
    • Example Questions: grasping, sitting, stacking blocks, and climbing stairs.
  • Socioemotional (Parent Report)
  • Adaptive (Parent Report)
• Scaled Scores
• Composite Scores
• Percentile ranks
• Growth Scores
• High reliability
• Good construct validity
• Publication date: 2020
• Completion time: 30 to 70 minutes
• Administration: Paper-and-pencil or online administration (Parent report)
• Age range: 16 days to 42 months
• Need specific training for use of test

Purpose of Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 4th Edition

• Employed to determine children's developmental functioning and plan management for kids with developmental delays.
• BSID helps in the following ways:
  • Early identification of intellectual delay. Re-assessments can help to monitor progress over time.
  • To individualize the management and to accommodate a child's developmental and learning needs.
  • To assess individual domains of development: for example, cognitive delay.
  • To help researchers as a research tool.
• Early diagnosis of developmental delay or intellectual developmental delay is a critical responsibility of health and educational professionals (particularly psychologists).
• BSID helps in detecting developmental delay early and in initiating early developmental intervention.

Children & Adolescents

Ability in Populations with a disability

Learning disability/Specific Learning Disorder

Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-III (WIAT-III)

• WIAT-III: Australian Language Adapted Edition but US norms
• A&NZ norm referenced for Pre-School to 18 years
• 19 to 50 years 11 months = Adult norms are from USA
• WIAT-II Australian:
  • Modifications of Subtests (reflect curriculum standards & classroom practices).
  • Strengthening the link between assessment and intervention.
  • Inclusion of Ability-Achievement Discrepancy Tables (WISC-IV FSIQ and Factor Scores).
• Administration time: 45 minutes to 2 hours.

WIAT-III Application

• Used for:
  • Assessment of reading, spelling, mathematics, written expression, comprehension – can identify academic strengths and weaknesses.
  • Provide information to assist with diagnosis of specific learning disorder or eligibility for educational service.
  • Can provide information to assist with planning interventions.

WIAT-III

• 16 subtests
• Can use subtests by themselves, or obtain a total achievement score, and/or seven composite scores
• Subtests used for total achievement score differs across age groups
• Seven domain composites:
  • Oral Language, Total Reading, Basic Reading, Reading comprehension and Fluency, Written Expression, Mathematics, Maths Fluency

WIAT-III Composite and Subtest

WIAT-III Composite and Subtest Scores

• Status Scores
  • Standard Score
  • Composite Scores
  • Percentile Rank
  • Normal Curve Equivalent
  • Stanines
  • Growth Scores
    • Grade Equivalent
    • Age Equivalent
    • Growth Scale Values
  • Statistical Significance of Score Differences
  • Frequency of score differences
  • Qualitative evaluation of subtest component score differences
  • Out-of-level item set performance.

Descriptive Classifications of Scores Ranges

WIAT-III Subtests

WIAT-III Subtests

WIAT-III Subtests

Achievement tests WRAT-4

Psychometric properties

• Extensive information in the manual.
• Reliability: alternate forms (immediate & delayed), internal consistency.
• Validity: Content, Concurrent (WIAT-II, Woodcock- Johnson III Tests of Achievement, Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement II)
• Correlation with Test of General Cognitive Ability (WISC-IV, WAIS-III).

LINDAMOOD AUDITORY CONCEPTUALISATION TEST (LAC-3)

• Assessment of reading-related abilities.
• Assessment of phoneme awareness/auditory conceptualization skills.
  • Essential for adequate reading ability.
  • Phoneme awareness/auditory conceptualization play a central role in specific reading disabilities (dyslexia).
• Purposes:
  • Identification
  • Quantification of strengths & weaknesses
  • Tracking progress
  • Research

Model of Language and Literacy Skills

• Comprehension
  • Auditory
    • Phonetic processing
  • Visual
    • Sight words
  • Language
    • Oral Vocabulary
    • Use of context

LAC-3 Components

• Precheck
  • Discontinue testing only if the person is unable to do any of the items.
  • Sameness vs. different, number concept to 4, left-to-right order, first vs. last.
• Category 1: Isolated Phoneme Patterns
  • Develop familiarity with colored blocks to represent speech sounds.
  • Requires discrimination of number of phonemes in a sequence, same or different, order of same and different.
  • Persons 8 yrs and older usually have no difficulties
• Category 2: Tracking Phonemes
  • Ability to discriminate the identity and number of phonemes, as well as their order within a syllable.
  • Single phoneme is added, substituted, omitted, shifted, or repeated.

LAC-3 Components

• Category 3: Counting Syllables (NEW)
  • Ability to perceive the number of syllables within pseudowords.
  • Use of felt squares instead of blocks.
• Category 4: Tracking Syllables (Multisyllables) (NEW)
  • Ability to perceive a change in the identity, number, or order of syllables in a spoken pseudoword.
  • Use of felt squares.
• Category 5: Tracking Syllables and Phonemes (Multisyllables) (NEW)
  • Ability to discriminate syllables and phonemes and perceive their identity, number, and order within a pseudoword.
  • Use of felt squares AND blocks.

Psychometric Properties

• Norms (N = 1003) for persons between 5.0 to 18 years 11 months.
• Reliability
  • Internal consistency .91 to .95
  • Test-retest (2 weeks) .96 to .97
• Validity
  • Criterion prediction: correlated well with other tests of phonological awareness.
  • Measures of Reading and Spelling: WRAT-3

LAC-3 Standard Scores

Benefits of Achievement tests

• Allow the identification of children, classrooms, schools, and systems that are performing poorly – implement interventions.
• Facilitate the diagnosis of learning difficulties – implement interventions.
• Allows accurate placement of students in appropriate learning environment – beneficial for all students.
• Identifies areas of strength and weakness – target weak areas.

Revisiting: Individual or group testing

Using group tests

• Group Tests have good reliability & good norms
• Validity can be scant, weak, or contradictory
• Tests should be used with other data
• Use the tests with caution & seek confirming alternative sources of information
• Be wary of low scores – there are a multiplicity of alternative factors that produce low scores
• Discrepancies among test scores and other data are a warning signal
• When in doubt, use individual testing

Recap: Achievement versus Aptitude Tests

• To summarize, achievement tests assess what you have learned, while aptitude tests assess potential for learning.
• Achievement tests
  • Easier and more reliable administration and scoring
  • Validity determined by content-related evidence
• Aptitude tests
  • Assess a wide range of experiences in a variety of ways
  • Evaluate effects of unknown/uncontrolled experiences
  • Validity is based on ability to predict future performance

Recap: Achievement vs Aptitude Tests