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Intelligence Testing

Definitions

  • Intelligence Test

    • A method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes.
    • Compares individual scores with those of others using numerical values.

  • Achievement Test

    • A test designed to assess what a person has learned.

  • Aptitude Test

    • A test designed to predict a person's future performance.
    • Aptitude: The capacity to learn.

Key Concepts

Mental Age
  • Mental Age
    • A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet.
    • Represents the level of performance typically associated with children of a certain chronological age.
    • Example: A child performing at the level of an average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8.
Stanford-Binet Test
  • Stanford-Binet
    • The widely used American revision of Binet's original intelligence test, revised by Terman at Stanford University.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
  • Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
    • Originally defined as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100.
    • Formula: IQ=maca×100IQ = \frac{ma}{ca} \times 100
    • On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
  • WAIS
    • The WAIS and its companion versions for children are the most widely used intelligence tests.
    • The tests contain verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests.

Testing Standards

Standardization
  • Defines uniform testing procedures.
  • Establishes meaningful scores through comparison with the performance of a pretested group.
Normal Curve
  • Describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes.
  • Bell-shaped curve where most scores fall near the average.
  • Fewer and fewer scores lie closer to the extremes.

Test Assessment Criteria

Reliability
  • The extent to which a test yields consistent results.
  • Assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternative forms of the test, or through retesting.
Validity
  • The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to measure or predict.
  • Includes the following types:
    • Content Validity
    • Measures the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest.
    • Predictive Validity
    • The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict.
    • Assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior.
    • Also known as criterion-related validity.