Types of Tests

1
Introduction

• Types of Tests
• Course Overview
• Historical Perspective

2
Todays Objectives

• To welcome you!
• Explain the relevance of psychological testing in
  contemporary society.
• Define basic terms pertaining to psychological
  testing.
• Identify major developments in the history of
  psychological testing.
• Review requirements of the course.

3
Who is in league with Satan?

• Witch Hammer
• (Malleus Maleficarum, by Heinrich Kramer and
  James Sprenger)
• Primitive diagnostic manual designed to teach how
  to identify and interview witches

4

• A car drives into the center ring of a circus and
  exactly 8 clownsQ, R, S, T, V, W, Y and Zget
  out of the car, one clown at a time. The order in
  which the clowns get out of the car is consistent
  with the following conditions
• V gets out at some time before both Y and Q
• Q gets out some time after Z
• T gets out at some time before V but at some time
  after R
• S gets out at some time after V
• R gets out at some time before W
• Question 1 If Q is the fifth clown to get out of
  the car, then each of the following could be true
  except
• Z is the first clown to get out of the car
• T is the second clown to get out of the car
• V is the third clown to get out of the car
• W is the fourth clown to get out of the car
• Y is the sixth clown to get out of the car

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• A result of global warming is that ice of some
  glaciers is melting. Twelve years after the ice
  disappears, tiny plants, called lichen, start to
  grow on the rocks. Each lichen grows
  approximately in the shape of a circle.
• The relationship between the diameter of the
  circles and the age of the lichen can be
  approximated with the formula d 7 X the square
  root of (t-12) for any t less than or equal to
  12, where d represents the diameter of the lichen
  in millimeters, and t represents the number of
  years after the ice has disappeared.
• Calculate the diameter of the lichen 16 years
  after the ice disappeared.

7
Average scores of 15-year-old students on the
Program for International Student Assessment
(PISA) mathematical literacy test relative to the
United States. Note OECD average refers to the
average for Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) member countries with data
available.
8

• A bus is moving along a straight stretch of road.
  The bus driver, named Ray, has a cup of water
  resting in a holder on the dashboard. Suddenly
  Ray has to slam on the brakes. What is likely to
  happen to the water in the cup immediately after
  Roy slams on the brakes?
• The water will stay horizontal.
• The water will spill over side 1.
• The water will spill over side 2.
• The water will spill but you cannot tell if it
  will spill over side 1 or side 2.

9
Gender differences in mean score on the PISA
scientific literacy test across countries.
Positive differences indicate males scored
higher, negative differences indicate females
scored higher.
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11
Basic Concepts

• A test is
• Measurement device or technique used to quantify
  behavior or aid in the understanding or
  prediction of behavior
• An item is
• A specific stimulus to which a person responds
  overtly. Because psychological and educational
  test produce explicit data, they are subject to
  scientific inquiry.

12
Basic Concepts

• A psychological test (or educational test) is a
  set of items that are designed to measure
  characteristics of human beings that pertain to
  behavior (overt and covert behavior, as well as
  past, current, and future behavior).
• Score T Error

13
Basic Concepts

• To deal with problems of interpretation,
  psychologists make use of scales.
• E.g., What does it mean to get 75 correct on a
  100-item test?
• One thing it means is that 75 of the items were
  answered correctly. But, is that good or bad?
• If 99/100 scored 90 correct and higher, then
  its bad.
• If 99/100 scored 20 correct and lower, then its
  good.
• Scales relate raw scores on test items to some
  defined theoretical or empirical distribution.

14
Types of Tests

• Ability Tests Measure skills in terms of speed,
  accuracy, or both
• Achievement Measures previous learning.
• Aptitude Measures potential for acquiring a
  specific skill
• Intelligence Measures potential to solve
  problems, adapt to changing circumstances, and
  profit from experiences

15
Types of Tests

• Personality Tests Measure typical
  behaviortraits temperaments, and dispositions
• Structured (objective) Provides a self-report
  statement to which the person responds True or
  False or Yes or No
• Projective Provides an ambiguous test stimulus
  response requirements are unclear

16
Types of Tests

• Diagnostic Tests Identifies areas of deficit to
  be targeted for intervention and rules out
  alternative conclusions

17
Overview of the Course

• Principles of Psychological Testing
• Cover basic concepts and fundamental ideas that
  underlie all psychological tests. Two of the most
  fundamental
• Reliability- measures the accuracy,
  dependability, consistency, or repeatability of
  test results
• Validity- measures the degree to which a certain
  inference or a certain interpretation based on a
  test is appropriate What does this psychological
  test measure?

18
Overview of the Course

• Applications of Psychological Testing
• Provide detailed analysis of the most widely used
  tests
• Intelligence Tests
• Personality Tests
• Standardized Tests in Education, Civil Service,
  and the Military
• Health Psychology Tests
• Testing in Industrial and Business Settings
• Testing in Forensic Settings

19
Overview of the Course

• Issues of Psychological Testing
• Many social and theoretical issues accompany
  testing. We will discuss those issues that have
  particular importance in the current
  professional, social, and political environment.

20
Historical Perspective

• The western world likely learned about testing
  programs through the Chinese
• Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E. to 220 C.E.) used test
  batteries (two or more tests used in conjunction)
  Eligibility for public office determined by
  multi-stage national tests.
• In 1832, East India Tea company modeled Chinese
  system in selecting employees (and then British
  government followed suit, then the French and the
  Germans)
• In 1883 the US established the American Civil
  Service Commission

21
Historical Perspective

• Charles Darwin and Individual Differences
• An important step in understanding individual
  differences came with the publication of the
  Origin of Species in 1859.
• Sir Francis Galton (a relative of Darwins)
  applied Darwins theories to the study of human
  behavior, which he articulated in Hereditary
  Genius in 1869.
• James McKeen Catell (mental test) wrote his
  doctoral thesis based on Galtons work on
  individual differences in reaction time.

22
Historical Perspective

• Experimental Psychology and Psychophysical
  Measurement
• E.H. Weber attempted to demonstrate the existence
  of a psychological threshold, the minimum
  stimulus necessary to activate a sensory system
• G.T. Fechner devised the law that the strength of
  a sensation grows as the logarithm of the
  stimulus intensity
• Wilhelm Wundt follwed the tradition of Weber and
  Fechner, and set up the first psychology lab at
  the University of Leipzig in 1879
• Titchner succeeded Wundt, whose student G.
  Whipple, recruited L.L. Thurstone.

23
Historical Perspective

• The Evolution of Intelligence and Standardized
  Testing
• Binet-Simon Scale published in 1905
• World War I Army Alpha and Army Beta (Yerkes,
  1921)
• Achievement Tests (e.g., Stanford Achievement
  Test, 1923)
• Stanford-Binet, 1937 and Wechsler intelligence
  scales (1939)
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
  (1943)
• Clinical Psychology was born by 1949