Reviews the book,
The measurement of adult intelligence
by David Wechsler . Not only does this book make a practical contribution by introducing an intelligence test designed for adults, but it makes ...a theoretical contribution as well. In his discussion of the nature of intelligence the author exposes implicit assumptions which, lying beneath current terminology, are misleading and inconvenient if not, indeed, theoretically incorrect. The book is divided into three sections. The first, which is theoretical, deals with the foundations of intelligence testing in children and adults. The second describes the standardization of the Bellevue Intelligence Scales developed at the Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in New York. The third is a manual of instructions for giving the test.
A recently compiled list of reading tests for college students shows 45 titles, not all of which have been adopted for general use. 14 tests may be used in either high school or college. In a survey ...of the improvement of reading in 82 colleges and universities, the three tests most frequently used for survey purposes were the revised Iowa silent reading tests (advanced test), the Nelson-Denny reading tests for colleges and senior high schools, and the Minnesota reading examination for college students. These tests have reported reliabilities ranging from .91 to .95. Generally the correlations between tests of speed and comprehension are low. The vocabulary sections of the above tests correlated with each other more highly than did the paragraph comprehension sections. Correlations between intelligence tests and reading tests are generally high. The correlations between measures of scholarship and reading-test scores are not high. "There is an insistent demand for a test that will accurately reveal the specific strengths and weaknesses in the reading of college students."
Reviews the book,
Nature and Development of Learning Capacity
by William Henry Pyle . Of recent years, there has been developed among students of mental life, an unusual interest in the measurement ...of children from year to year so that a carefully plotted curve of growth may be made. This little book by the author reports such measurements of children at various ages. It records in carefully worked out tables and graphs, the progress of learning of children from age to age. Moreover, the experiments are accurately described even to the photographing of apparatus. Experiments with marble sorting, substitution, mirror drawing, manthamometer, ideational learning, and with intelligence test (Pyle's Missouri Mental Tests) were reported in substantially the same way as was card sorting.
Reviews the book,
A critical study of certain measures of mental ability in school performance
by Inez May Neterer (1923). The reviewer suspects that this little book is a doctor's dissertation of ...the better type. It marches on to a certain conclusion, being aided by quotations from numerous sources and fairly bristling with references- evidences of knowledge-to other works on the subject. It begins by having an historical introduction which summarizes neatly the rise and growth of mental tests with due deference to the immortal Binet and to those other workers, Goddard, Terman, and others, who have standardized mental tests. In the same thorough but brief manner the history of educational measurement is treated quite adequately. One likes the references with quotations and explanatory notes at the foot of the page. The mental tests used were the Stanford Revision, and Otis Group Test; while the tests of educational achievement were Woody arithmetic scale, Courtis arithmetic, Starch arithmetic, and the Monroe silent reading test.
At the conference on vocational guidance held in Washington last year by the Committee on College Entrance Tests of the National Research Council, reports were made and views expressed on the ...advisability and possibility of extending the methods of intelligence testing and personality rating to the problems of vocational guidance in colleges, and it was agreed that colleges, would be in a position to render much more effective service to students by developing the machinery for collecting and utilizing the data which these methods yield. This article discusses the implications of this conclusion.
Reviews the book written by Melville, Norbert J. (published in 1917) which serves as a manual for the 1911 revision of the Binet-Simon tests. Part I of the book provides procedures for gathering and ...analyzing data, and the evaluation, classification and interpretation of scores; and Part II contains the actual material to be used in the tests.
Challenges the assumption that testing procedures which characteristically occur in a 1-to-1 setting and under optimal conditions offer valid information regarding current or actual functioning. ...Differences between testing situations and functioning situations are discussed and implications drawn concerning extrapolation of results from the former to the latter. Within this context, the use of labels such as learning disability and underachievement which are derived from data obtained under optimal testing conditions is attacked. The need for "psychosituational assessments" rather than psychological evaluations is stressed. Research is reviewed which supports the hypothesis that significant changes in behavior do occur when testing situations are constructed to conform more to reality. (15 ref.)
Demographic and family background factors were related to level and change in mental test performance of children assessed at 6, 12, and 17 years of age in five longitudinal studies. Children were ...from predominantly white, English-speaking families of relatively high SES. Average IQ was one standard deviation above the mean of the standardization population. Level and change in test scores were strongly related to SES. Birth order and sex and age of siblings also related to test behavior. Content and style of response to TAT cards showed consistent associations to the dependent variable. Most associations were stronger for boys than for girls. Results are discussed in terms of factors mediated by social class and sex role that might generate found differences.
Studied the generality of a conclusion that psychotherapy leads to a significantly greater increase in variability of posttest outcome measures within treatment groups than within control groups. ...Data from 5 research studies were analyzed for variance change from pre- to posttesting. Results suggest that, most commonly, therapy and control situations have little effect on changing variability in outcome measures.
Examined correlations between environment measures (press and status) and Science Research Associates Primary Mental Abilities subtests presented by K. Marjoribanks for the presence of a factor, or ...factors, common between the 2 sets of measures. A single latent common factor was found to account, by itself, for all but a small portion of the total variance. This finding supports the conclusion that the environment measures are not differentially related to test performance, but rather differ only in their correlations with the single latent factor.
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