Validation research for educational achievement tests is often limited to an examination of intended test score interpretations. This article calls for an expansion of validation research in three dimensions. First, validation must attend to actual test use and its consequences, not just score meaning. Second, validation must attend to unintended…

Investigated the utility of considering Digits Forward (DF) and Digits Backward (DB) as separate components of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) through correlations with other intelligence tests. The findings of significant correlations indicate that although DF and DB tasks are related, the combination of these tasks into a…

Results of profile analysis via multidimensional scaling (PAMS), a technique for studying the most prominent profiles in a battery of measures, are reported for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised (WAIS) and the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB). PAMS profiles and the methodological features of the PAMS approach are discussed. (SLD)

Interviewed 90 elementary school teachers on how they used the results of group IQ tests. Data indicated 30 percent of teachers reported making "little or no use" of the test scores. However, 84 percent of teachers stated that they used the test scores for one or more purposes. Discusses four most frequently mentioned uses. (Author/RC)

Much of the debate on testing over the last two decades has centered on issues of equity. In this review of testing and the minority child, the ways in which schools can test and use test results to help all children learn are explained. (Author)

Data on the magnitude of significant Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised Verbal-Performance Intelligence Quotient (IQ) discrepancies (specifically the nondirectional aspect of significant frequencies) within the normal population are often misunderstood by clinicians. Suggestions for remedying inaccuracies in reporting discrepancies…

The verbal overshadowing paradigm was used with 167 undergraduates to determine whether performance across all items on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices was dependent on the same cognitive processes. Results clearly indicated that a subset of items was dependent on visuospatial processes, while another subset required verbal-analytic…

Aptitude tests are defined in contrast to intelligence and achievement tests. Although aptitude tests, like intelligence tests, measure a student's overall performance across a broad range of mental capabilities, the former also often include items that measure more specialized abilities (such as verbal and numerical skills) that predict…

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) has a long history, dating back to the 1930s, when it was devised specifically for measuring the intelligence of children through verbal and performance subtests. Intelligence quotients (IQs) are developed for verbal and performance skills. The subtests, their factors, indices derived from them,…

Response patterns to the Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) were analyzed for a sample of 203 Hispanic and 254 Anglo first- through fifth-grade children from a rural school district in southern Colorado. Gender distributions were nearly equal. Gender and ethnic differences were examined within the context of determining whether the CPM…

Cognitive processes in the Raven Progressive Matrices Test, a nonverbal test of analytic intelligence, are analyzed in terms of processes distinguishing between high- and low-scoring students and processes common to all subjects and test items. Two experiments with 89 college students identify the abilities distinguishing among individuals. (SLD)

Many public and private kindergartens in New York use standardized tests for admission into their programs. How parents and teachers feel about these tests was studied. Parents were asked whether their child had taken any standardized kindergarten admission test, whether they discussed the results with a professional, whether the results really…

Stephen Jay Gould points out in "The Mismeasure of Man" (1981), "Science, since people must do it, is a socially embedded activity. It progresses by hunch, vision, and intuition." The legacy of the traditional construct of intelligence and its measurement through intelligence quotient (IQ) tests has not been educational improvement. Its legacy in…

Under Title V, Guidance, Counseling, and Testing of the "National Defense Education Act of 1958," the Congress of the United States has recognized the value of tests as a tool which may be used to help make an early determination of the aptitudes and abilities of the students in U.S. schools. This bulletin attempts to explain the use and…