| A | B |
|---|
| Achievement Tests | ● Assess what a test taker has already learned. ● Example: AP Examinations. |
| Aptitude Tests | ● Assess person's capacity to learn, and predict future performance. ● Example: SAT. |
| Construct Validity | ● The extent to which the test actually measures the hypothetical construct or behavior it is designed to assess. ● Example: MMPI-2 has construct validity if its group of questions for schizophrenia discriminates people with schizophrenia from other subjects taking the MMPI-2. |
| Constructs | ● Hypothetical abstractions related to behavior and defined by groups of objects or events |
| Emotional Intelligence | ● The ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions. ● Similar to Gardner's interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences. ● Peter Salovey and John Mayer's construct is measured by the Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS). |
| Flynn Effect | ● Steady increase in performance on IQ tests over the last 80 years, possibly resulting from better nutrition, educational opportunities, and health care (favoring nurture). ● Both nature and nurture contribute to intelligence. |
| Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences | ● People process information differently and intelligence is composed of many different factors, including at least 8 intelligences: logical-mathematical, verbal-linguistic, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. |
| Horn and Cattell's Two Intelligence Factors | ● Crystallized intelligence--learned knowledge and skills, such as vocabulary, which tend to increase with age. ● Fluid intelligence--cognitive abilities requiring speed or rapid learning that tend to diminish with adult aging. |
| Intelligence | ● Aggregate or global capacity to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the environment. ● "g"--general factor underlying all intelligence determined by factor analysis by Spearman; "s"--specialized abilities. |
| Norms | ● Standards used to compare scores of test takers. ● Scores established from the test results of the representative sample who initially took the test. |
| Observational Tests | ● The person being tested does not have a single, well-defined task to perform, but rather is assessed on typical behavior or performance in a specific context. ● Example: Employment interviews and from on-the-job observation for evaluation. |
| Other Measures of Validity | ● Content validity--measure of the extent to which the content of the test measures all of the knowledge or skills that are supposed to be included within the domain being tested, according to expert judges . ● Face validity--similar to content validity, but according to the test takers. |
| Performance Tests | ● The test taker knows what he or she should do in response to questions or tasks, and it is assumed the test taker will do the best he or she can to succeed. ● Example: AP exams, Wechsler intelligence tests, road test for driver's license, and most classroom tests. |
| Psychometricians | ● Measurement psychologists--focus on methods for acquiring and analyzing psychological data; measure mental traits, abilities, and processes. |
| Self-Report Tests | ● The person being tested describes his or her feelings, attitudes, beliefs, values, opinions, physical state, or mental state on surveys, questionnaires, or polls |
| Standardization | ● Two-part test development procedure: first establishes test norms from the test results of the large representative sample, then ensures that the test is both administered and scored uniformly for all test takers. |
| Stereotype Threat | ● Steele's concept that anxiety influences achievement of members of a group concerned that their performance on a test will confirm a negative stereotype; may account for lower scores of blacks on intelligence tests or girls on math tests |
| Sternberg's Triarchic Intelligence Theory | 3 distinct types of intelligence: ● Analytical intelligence--what is tested by traditional IQ tests. ● Creative intelligence--adaptive reactions to novel situations, showing insight, and seeing multiple ways to solve a problem. ● Practical intelligence--"street smarts". |
| Twin Studies of Intelligence | ● Correlation of IQs of identical twins was much higher than fraternal twins or other siblings (favoring nature). |
| Validity | ● The extent to which an instrument accurately measures or predicts what it is supposed to measure or predict. ● Predictive validity is a measure of the extent to which the test accurately forecasts a specific future result. ● Ex: SAT predicts success in college. |
