ABSTRACT
The multidimensionality of intelligence has become commonly accepted among psychologists. As a result, the question "How intelligent is an individual?" has been replaced by the question "In ...what ways is an individual intelligent?" The construction of modern intelligence tests has followed suit and most intelligence tests today provide scores for some general intellectual attribute as well as multiple specific types of intellectual attributes. This has led to the common practice of interpreting profiles of intellectual strengths and weaknesses, with the subsequent conclusion that these profiles represent real differences in individuals' underlying intellectual attributes. These conclusions are premature, however, because they assume intelligence tests measure these specific intellectual attributes well. A necessary condition for interpreting score profiles is consistency-an individual's profile should be relatively similar across time. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the consistency of intelligence test score profiles on a sample of children who were given a widely used intelligence test two times. We found that strengths and weaknesses of specific types of intelligence were not measured consistently. Thus, although "In what ways is an individual intelligent?" may be the question psychologists want to answer, results of this study suggest that we are currently able to answer only the question, "How intelligent is an individual?"
SCIENTIFIC ABSTRACT
Clinical profile analysis of intelligence test subscores remains a popular practice among psychologists who work in applied settings, despite decades of accumulating evidence indicating that IQ subscores have poor psychometric properties. Bulut, Davison, and Rodriguez (2017) recently developed a method to estimate the within-person (profile pattern) and between-person (profile level) reliability of subscores. Given that reliability is a necessary, albeit insufficient, condition for score interpretation, the purpose of the present investigation was to estimate the within-person and between-person profile reliability for intelligence test subscores using a contemporary version of the Wechsler intelligence scales using a sample of children (N = 296) twice assessed for special education eligibility. Results indicated that between-person reliability estimates were higher than within-person reliability estimates at both the subtest (.79 vs. .37) and index score (.78 vs. .53) levels of interpretation, indicating that the profiles were not very reliable. Moreover, this pattern of results remained consistent even when evaluating a subsample of students diagnosed with specific learning disabilities. These findings contribute to the empirical literature base that indicates the interpretation of intelligence test subscore profiles is not psychometrically defensible.
Development of the Woodcock-Johnson (3rd ed.; WJ-III; Woodcock, McGrew & Mather, 2001a) was guided in part by Carroll's (1993) 3-stratum theory of cognitive abilities and based on confirmatory factor ...analysis (CFA), even though Carroll used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to derive his theory. Using CFA, McGrew and Woodcock (2001) found a 9-factor model across all age ranges. To determine if the 9-factor structure holds for the full WJ-III battery, we applied currently recognized best practices in EFA to 2 school-aged 42-subtest correlation matrices (ages 9-13 and 14-19 years). Six factors emerged at the 9-13 age range, while 5 factors were indicated at the 14-19 age range. The resulting 1st-order factors displayed patterns of both convergence with and divergence from the WJ-III results presented in the Technical Manual. These results also revealed a robust manifestation of general intelligence (g) that dwarfed the variance attributed to the lower order factors. It is surprising that this study represents the first time the WJ-III full battery was subjected to EFA analyses given the instrument's significant use by practitioners and that it served as the initial evidentiary basis for Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory. The lack of confirmation of CFA results with EFA methods in the current study permits questioning of the structure of the WJ-III and its relationship with CHC theory. Additional independent, structural analyses are clearly indicated for the WJ-III full test battery before we can be confident in its structure.
Franz Samelson (1923-2015) Harris, Ben
The American psychologist,
01/2016, Letnik:
71, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Franz Samelson, social psychologist and historian of psychology, died in Manhattan, Kansas, on March 16, 2015. Franz joined the Psychology Department at Kansas State University (KSU) in 1957 and rose ...through the ranks to retire as Professor in 1990. At KSU he taught social psychology informed by his dislike of narrow empiricism and a growing interest in historical topics. The history of social psychology, Franz believed, was distorted by post-World War II desires for value-free empiricism. Gordon Allport, he showed, created an origin myth for the field that suited his values, obscuring the ideological diversity of his predecessors. Turning to intelligence and intelligence testing, Franz's research again altered the scholarly landscape. Although it was long believed that psychologists' testing in World War I demonstrated the usefulness of their young science, Franz revealed this to be another disciplinary myth. Next, Franz showed that a popular history of IQ testing (Stephen Jay Gould's Mismeasure of Man) was distorted by the author's liberal enthusiasm-again showing his willingness to take on the political left as well as the right.
Emotional Intelligence Davies, Michaela; Stankov, Lazar; Roberts, Richard D
Journal of personality and social psychology,
10/1998, Letnik:
75, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The view that emotional intelligence should be included within the traditional cognitive abilities framework was explored in 3 studies (total
N
= 530) by investigating the relations among measures of ...emotional intelligence, traditional human cognitive abilities, and personality. The studies suggest that the status of the emotional intelligence construct is limited by measurement properties of its tests. Measures based on consensual scoring exhibited low reliability. Self-report measures had salient loadings on well-established personality factors, indicating a lack of divergent validity. These data provide controvertible evidence for the existence of a separate Emotion Perception factor that (perhaps) represents the ability to monitor another individual's emotions. This factor is narrower than that postulated within current models of emotional intelligence.
Reports an error in "Exploratory and Higher Order Factor Analysis of the WJ-III Full Test Battery: A School-Aged Analysis" by Stefan C. Dombrowski and Marley W. Watkins ( Psychological Assessment, ...Advanced Online Publication, Jan 28, 2013, np). In Table 4 the last column heading appears as F1. It should appear as F6. The captions for Tables 2, 4, 6, and 8 include the language F1-F5 Factor 1-5. The captions should read F1-F6 Factor 1-6. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2013-02688-001.) Development of the Woodcock-Johnson (3rd ed.; WJ-III; Woodcock, McGrew & Mather, 2001a) was guided in part by Carroll's (1993) 3-stratum theory of cognitive abilities and based on confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), even though Carroll used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to derive his theory. Using CFA, McGrew and Woodcock (2001) found a 9-factor model across all age ranges. To determine if the 9-factor structure holds for the full WJ-III battery, we applied currently recognized best practices in EFA to 2 school-aged 42-subtest correlation matrices (ages 9–13 and 14–19 years). Six factors emerged at the 9–13 age range, while 5 factors were indicated at the 14–19 age range. The resulting 1st-order factors displayed patterns of both convergence with and divergence from the WJ-III results presented in the Technical Manual. These results also revealed a robust manifestation of general intelligence (g) that dwarfed the variance attributed to the lower order factors. It is surprising that this study represents the first time the WJ-III full battery was subjected to EFA analyses given the instrument's significant use by practitioners and that it served as the initial evidentiary basis for Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory. The lack of confirmation of CFA results with EFA methods in the current study permits questioning of the structure of the WJ-III and its relationship with CHC theory. Additional independent, structural analyses are clearly indicated for the WJ-III full test battery before we can be confident in its structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
This article deals with intelligence testing conducted at Santiago's Juvenile Court, in Chile, between 1929 and 1942. It is based on an analysis of 56 court records containing psychological or ...psychopedagogical reports filed by the Section for Observation and Classification at Santiago's House of Juveniles, an institution created in 1929 as part of the Juvenile Protection Law. To understand the purposes for juvenile intelligence testing in this field, several articles published at the time by the key actors involved in these institutions will also be analyzed. The results of this research signal, first, that psychology did indeed play a role in the juvenile justice system by laying the groundwork for the idea that it was necessary to measure and diagnose intelligence. The Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale, developed in France between 1904 and 1911 and adapted for Chile between 1922 and 1925, was systematically administered to juveniles in Santiago's Juvenile Court; the results were deployed as technical-scientific recommendations at the service of the presiding juvenile judge. On the one hand, this instrument, supposedly scientific and objective, helped legitimize the nascent field of psychology. On the other, it emerged as a useful tool in its own right to assess children. Second, the notions of intelligence underpinning these practices, while certainly in debt to the American approaches from which they were appropriated, managed to forge a more balanced stance between nature and nurture, positioning intelligence testing as a way of conceiving of and planning to prevent crime and reeducate juveniles.
Prompted by the rapid development of Pearson's iPad-based Q-interactive platform for administering individual tests of cognitive ability (Pearson, 2016c), this article speculates about what it would ...take for a computer to administer the current versions of the Wechsler individual intelligence tests without the involvement of a psychologist or psychometrist. We consider the mechanics of administering and scoring each subtest and the more general clinical skills of motivating the client to perform, making observations of verbal and nonverbal behavior, and responding to the client's off-task comments, questions, and nonverbal cues. It is concluded that we are very close to the point, given current hardware and artificial intelligence capabilities, at which administration of all subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (PsychCorp, 2008) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth Edition (PsychCorp, 2014), and all assessment functions of the human examiner, could be performed by a computer. Potential acceptability of computer administration by clients and the psychological community are considered.
The structure of the Woodcock-Johnson Cognitive Battery-Third Edition (WJ Cog) has been extensively explored via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with its normative sample, but there has been ...little research to verify that the same structure holds for students referred for special education services. Likewise, research on the structure of the WJ Cog with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) methods has been rare. Consequently, this study applied both EFA and CFA methods to the scores of 529 elementary school students referred for special education services (95.5% eligible) on the 14 tests of the WJ Cog extended battery. EFA results suggested only 2 or 3 factors, whereas CFA results favored the theoretical 7 factors posited by McGrew and Woodcock. In this theoretical model, a strong general factor accounted for 27% of the total variance and 57% of the common variance, whereas the 7 group factors combined accounted for 21% of the total variance and 43% of the common variance. Reliability, as quantified by ωH, was good for the general factor, marginal for the Gs factor, and poor for the other group factors. Nine of the 14 WJ Cog tests displayed uniqueness values that exceeded their communality. On the basis of this evidence from a referral sample, interpretation of the WJ Cog should be restricted to the Gs and g factors: the Gs factor because it exhibited considerable independence and precision of measurement and the g factor because it has emerged in all investigations of the WJ Cog.
D. Wechsler (2008b) reported confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) with standardization data (ages 16-69 years) for 10 core and 5 supplemental subtests from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth ...Edition (WAIS-IV). Analyses of the 15 subtests supported 4 hypothesized oblique factors (Verbal Comprehension, Working Memory, Perceptual Reasoning, and Processing Speed) but also revealed unexplained covariance between Block Design and Visual Puzzles (Perceptual Reasoning subtests). That covariance was not included in the final models. Instead, a path was added from Working Memory to Figure Weights (Perceptual Reasoning subtest) to improve fit and achieve a desired factor pattern. The present research with the same data (N = 1,800) showed that the path from Working Memory to Figure Weights increases the association between Working Memory and Matrix Reasoning. Specifying both paths improves model fit and largely eliminates unexplained covariance between Block Design and Visual Puzzles but with the undesirable consequence that Figure Weights and Matrix Reasoning are equally determined by Perceptual Reasoning and Working Memory. An alternative 4-factor model was proposed that explained theory-implied covariance between Block Design and Visual Puzzles and between Arithmetic and Figure Weights while maintaining compatibility with WAIS-IV Index structure. The proposed model compared favorably with a 5-factor model based on Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory. The present findings emphasize that covariance model comparisons should involve considerations of conceptual coherence and theoretical adherence in addition to statistical fit.
Tests of Scholastic Aptitude Cover Reasoning Facets Sufficiently Schult, Johannes; Fischer, Franziska T.; Hell, Benedikt
European journal of psychological assessment : official organ of the European Association of Psychological Assessment,
07/2016, Letnik:
32, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This study explores how reasoning facets relate to tests
of scholastic aptitude and to academic performance. Intelligence test scores and
academic aptitude test scores from freshman students in ...science
(n = 284) and economics
(n = 359) as well as subsequent grades from their
first year in college were used to analyze structural equation models. The
direct influence of reasoning facets on academic performance is fully mediated
by academic aptitude test scores. Numeric abilities dominate the aptitude
tests' predictive power. Verbal reasoning explains a significant amount
of aptitude test score variance in science but not in economics. The mediation
analysis suggests that verbal, numeric, and figural reasoning are covered
sufficiently by the aptitude tests.
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