Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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CHAPTER 1
Puzzle 1
Instructions Identify what is described, answer a question, or fill in the blank to complete this crossword puzzle
based on material presented in Chapter 1 of Cohen & Swerdliks Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction
to Tests and Measurement (7th edition). Some of the clues actually contain the answers in capital letters. These items
usually provide you with a sneak preview of terms you will encounter in subsequent chapters. Consider these giveaway items free spaces in the puzzle.
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AN OVERVIEW
Across
2. A working relationship between the examiner and the
examinee in the context of testing or assessment.
4. Common sources of it are test construction (including
item or content sampling), test administration, test scoring, and test interpretation. It is error VARIANCE.
7. The process of assigning evaluative codes or statements
to performance on tests, tasks, interviews, or other behavior samples.
8. A measuring device or procedure.
9. The assignment of numbers or symbols to characteristics of people or objects according to rules.
10. An online, electronic database maintained by the American Psychological Association designed to help users
locate psychologically relevant journal articles and
documents.
12. Its a judgment regarding how well a test or other measurement tool measures what it purports to measure. Its
a reference to a tests VALIDITY.
14. An acronym for an organization that issues credentials
of expertise in measurement to psychologists.
16. Records, transcripts, and other accounts made in written, pictorial, or other form, in any media, that preserve
archival information, official and informal accounts,
and other data and items relevant to an assessee. This
describes _______ history data.
17. Its a tool of assessment involving a procedure wherein
assessees are instructed to act as they would if they
were placed in some sort of situation. Its a(n) _______
play test.
18. The process of measuring psychology-related variables
by means of devices or procedures designed to obtain a
sample of behavior.
21. In the tradition of true score theory, a statistic designed
to estimate the extent to which an observed score
deviates from a true score is the STANDARD error of
measurement.
24. It could be a psychologist, an instructor, a counselor, an
individual who works in human resources, or any of a
number of other people. Its a test _______ .
25. Its a set of numbers or other symbols whose properties
model empirical properties of the objects or traits to
which numbers or other symbols are assigned.
27. Its used to monitor the actions of others or oneself by
visual or electronic means, by recording quantitative
and/or qualitative information about actions. Its
_______ observation.
29. Dont expect to get completely unbiased descriptions of
the virtues of tests by consulting test _______ .
30. The extent to which measurements are consistent or repeatable, this actually sets a limit on a tests validity.
31. Its almost anyone who has ever lived long enough to
take the vapor testthat is, breathing on a mirror and
seeing if the mirror gets fogged.
Down
1. Synonymous with the more antiquated term, psychometry, its the science of psychological measurement.
3. The gathering and integration of data for the purpose of
making an evaluation, accomplished through the use of
tools such as tests, interviews, case studies, and behavioral observation.
5. It is a reconstruction of a deceased individuals psychological profile on the basis of archival records, artifacts,
and interviews previously conducted with the assessee
or people who knew the assessee, and it is called a psychological _______ .
6. An evaluation or diagnostic procedure or process that
varies from the usual, customary, or standardized way
a measurement is derived; it is referred to as _______
assessment.
11. Its the test performance data of a particular group of
testtakers designed for use as a reference for evaluating,
interpreting, or otherwise placing individual test scores
in context. Its the test NORMS.
13. A description or conclusion reached on the basis of
evidence and opinion through a process of distinguishing the nature of something and ruling out alternative
conclusions.
15. A work sample.
19. In baseball its a no-no; in measurement its expected.
Its ERROR.
20. Psychologists and other professionals do it. So do talk
show hosts, typically with different objectives.
22. Phonetically its pronounced like a-bep, and its an
abbreviation for the American Board of Professional
Psychology.
23. This party to the assessment enterprise creates a test
and is called a test _______ .
26. Its a source for learning about what tests a test publisher publishes.
28. Assigning numbers in accordance with empirical properties of objects or traits. Alternatively, a term frequently used with reference to Mount Everest.
29. The abbreviation for the brainchild of Oscar Buros,
and a good Consumer Reports type of reference work
on tests.
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E XE R C I S E 1-1
Feeling faint?
BACKGROUND
Self-administered tests and quizzes have been a part of our
popular-media landscape for as long as anyone living can
remember. We note with some amusement, for example,
tests published in the popular media purporting to measure a
wide variety of skills and other characteristics, including the
sex of ones brain (Moir & Jessel, 1992), childrens emotional IQ (Barko, 1993), psychic ability (Woolfolk, 1992),
communication style (Sandwith, 1994), healthy living
habits (Derrow, 1993), people smarts and other supposed
forms of intelligence (Clifford, 1992; Granat, 1990). But
what do such tests actually reveal, if anything? In the
box on pages 4 and 5 is a test along with excerpts of its
accompanying text as published in a Writers Digest article by Robyn Carr (1994) entitled Do You Have What
It Takes? After you have self-administered it and tallied
your score, think about what you have learned as a result of
the exercise. And as you make your way through the rest of
this book, think again about such self-administered tests in
the popular media and the types of things their creators
would have to do to make the test scores derived from them
meaningful.
OBJECTIVE
YOUR TASK
BACKGROUND
Was the overwhelmed actor in this 1926 Fritz Lang film
(Metropolis) enrolled in a measurement course? Probably
not. Still, matters regarding numbers, statistics, and measurement can seem a bit overwhelming. The key to mastery is
quality study time and the thoughtful completion of exercises such as the ones found in this book.
YOUR TASK
Write a brief essay entitled, Psychological Testing and Assessment: My Hopes and Concerns. In it, describe what
knowledge and skills you hope to take away from this
course. Also, describe some of your concerns and apprehensions regarding this course and how you plan to successfully
deal with them.
E XE R C I S E 1-2
A NEW PERSPECTIVE
OBJECTIVE
To assume the role of a test user as opposed to that of a
testtaker
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AN OVERVIEW
D O Y O U H A V E W H AT I T TA K E S ?
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
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D O Y O U H A V E W H AT I T TA K E S ? (continued)
Summing all points yields a total score that, according to
Carr (1994), can be interpreted as follows:
6575 points: You are gutsy, brazen, brave, and determined.
You put the quality of your work and your learning ahead
of everything else and yet are not afraid to dream, and
dream big. Nothing can stop youNew York, take notice!
5564 points: You stand a good chance of pulling it together; perhaps there are areas you need to work on, like
saying no or reading with a new mission to learn. You have
many of the qualities of successful writers, and such shortcomings as procrastination or rushing can be cured.
E XE R C I S E 1-3
ON MEASUREMENT
OBJECTIVE
To encourage generative thinking on the subject of measurement in general
BACKGROUND
Commodities of daily life are measured in familiar units.
It is commonplace to measure, for example, gasoline by
the gallon, fruit by the pound, and waistlines by the inch.
Perhaps because we deal with these types of measurement
so frequently, we tend to take measurement for granted. In
the study of psychological testing and assessment, however,
little about the process of measurement can be taken for
granted. A variety of skills and knowledge must be brought
to bear in the development of meaningful measures as
well as in the administration and interpretation of those
measures.
YOUR TASK
Write a brief essay on the subject of measurement. In that
essay, discuss your thoughts on the subject of measurement
in generalyour essay need not relate to measurement in
psychology. Give your imagination free rein, developing
interesting concepts that have anything at all to do with measurement. Your essay can be well researched with references
to the scholarly literature. You may choose instead to write
an essay that is more informal, freewheeling, even humorous. Or, like the sample essay that follows, your essay may
combine such features.
ON MEASUREMENT
Ronald Jay Cohen
Measurement? Simple. Well, not really.
The first tools used to measure distance were probably
stones, branches, or parts of ones own body. For example,
one widely used measure of distance was the cubit, defined
as the length between an adults elbow and the outstretched middle finger. For the purposes of standardization, the length of some body part of a royal personage
could be used. An Egyptian royal cubit, for example, is
equal in length to seven palms and presumably was standardized on a pharaoh with very long arms. The standard
measure of length in the United Statesthe footis based
on the length of an English kings foot. One problem: its
difficult enough to get the cable guy to come when you
need him, let alone a pharaoh or a king.
During the Renaissance in Italy, common units of measurement included the passo (pace), the piede (foot), and
the pollice (the width of the thumb). The exact length of
each of these measures might vary a bit not only from
town to town but from trade to trade; an architects passo
might differ from that of an engineers.
The metric system simplified all of that. . . . Well, yes
and no.
How long is a meter? To provide a definitive, once-andfor-all answer to that (relatively simple) question, 17 nations met in 1875 to ratify a treaty at a meeting called the
Convention of the Meter. The nations agreed that a meter
would be equal in length to a platinum bar to be stored in a
vault at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures
in France. End of story. At least until 1960. . . .
Concerns about possible changes in an atom or two of
the platinum bar standard led to a redefinition of the
length of a meter in 1960. Another international meeting
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AN OVERVIEW
E XE R C I S E 1-4
OBJECTIVE
To enhance understanding of the tools of assessment as well
as the roles of each of the parties in that process
E XE R C I S E 1-5
THE INTERVIEWER/INTERVIEWEE
INTERACTION
BACKGROUND
The tools of assessment include the following:
OBJECTIVE
the test
the interview
the case study
the portfolio or work sample
behavioral observation
computers as tools
others
YOUR TASK
Suppose that you are an independent distributor for a company that produces natural herbs that are represented to help
students study more effectively by lessening debilitating
anxiety. For the sake of example, lets call this natural herb
company Cramway. As a Cramway representative who
also happens to be interested in psychological measurement,
you design a study to measure the effect the Cramway product has on students anxiety. Your study design is of the
pre/post variety; anxiety will be measured before beginning
the Cramway program and seven days after Cramway products have been ingested on the prescribed regimen. Now all
you need is something to measure the construct of anxiety;
something to measure how anxious a person characteristically is on any given day.1
1Technically, the construct being referred to here is the trait of anxiety
this in contrast to the more transient state of anxiety.
BACKGROUND
Think of how various interviewers you have seen or heard on
television or radio conduct their interviews; two interviews
conducted with the exact same objectives in mind, sometimes even with much the same questions, might yield different data due to characteristics of the interviewer.
YOUR TASK
One student will volunteer to play an interviewee while another will volunteer to take on the role of any well-known
celebrity interviewer. The more adept the latter student is at
impersonating the celebrity, the more fun this exercise will
be. Different teams of students, one playing the role of the
celebrity interviewer, the other playing the role of the (student) interviewee, will get up in front of the class and execute an interview. The interviewers initial prompt to the
interviewee will be Tell me about the happiest time of your
life, and follow-up questions will probe the who, what,
where, and how of whatever is described. The role of the
audience is to note the differences in the interviewers
style of interviewing.
If youre having difficulty thinking of the role of a
celebrity youd like to play, how about one of these: David
Letterman, Ted Koppel, Jerry Springer, Regis Philbin, Ellen
DeGeneres, Barbara Walters, Larry King, Oprah Winfrey,
Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Jay Leno, Howard Stern, or
Dr. Phil.
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To enhance understanding of, and promote generative thinking about, behavioral assessment
BACKGROUND
1. What sources would you use to gather information to respond to the deans mandate?
E XE R C I S E 1-6
BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT
OBJECTIVE
YOUR TASK
E XE R C I S E 1-8
ADVENTURES IN CYBERSPACE
OBJECTIVE
After studying the Emptying Garbage behavioral programming scale, create your own behavioral programming
scale. Your scale should take some relatively simple behavior necessary for independent living and then break it up into
its component behaviors.
E XE R C I S E 1-7
OBJECTIVE
YOUR TASK
To experience firsthand what is involved in gathering information and making decisions about a psychological test
BACKGROUND
Test catalogues, test manuals, test reviews, and published research on psychological tests can help prospective users
make informed decisions regarding such instruments and
procedures. To answer questions such as Is this test appropriate for this use with this population? test users need more
than intuition; they need facts.
E XE R C I S E 1-9
YOUR TASK
OBJECTIVE
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AN OVERVIEW
LRO
SRO Behavior
Daily Recordings
Th
Weekly
total
Criteria met?
(Yes = +, No = )
1. Removing Garbage
A. Goes to garbage can.
B. Takes full bag from garbage can.
2. Disposing of Garbage
C. Takes bag of garbage to trash can.
D. Opens trash can.
E. Places garbage in trash can.
F. Closes trash can.
3. Lining Can with New Bag
G. Goes to closet.
H. Takes new garbage bag.
I. Takes bag to garbage can.
J. Places bag in can.
K. Pushes bag into can.
L. Overlaps bag top over can top.
LRO = Long-range behavior objective; SRO = Short-range behavior objective
Enter 1 through 7 in appropriate box to indicate clients level of skill. Criterion is met when
a score of 7 is achieved four times out of five for two consecutive trial periods.
BACKGROUND
We have all heard of the Motion Picture Association of
America (MPAA) rating system. There is, for example,
PG-13 which stands for parents being strongly cautioned
with respect to allowing children younger than 13 to see the
movie. Theres also G for general audiences, PG for
parental guidance suggested, and NC-17 for no one 17
and under admitted.
Have you ever wondered who actually evaluates movies
and gives them one of these five age-based ratings? It is
actually a group of 8 to 13 parents who are employed
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YOUR TASK
As a student of psychological testing and assessment, it is
instructive to contrast the MPAA movie rating system with
evaluation using psychological tests. Write an essay comparing the MPAA movie rating system with evaluation in
psychology. In your essay, be sure to include reference to
some of the relevant issues. For example, think about issues
of definition. How clearly is whatever is being measured by
a psychological test defined? What about the clarity of the
definition of terms in the MPAA system? Conclude your
essay by developing an MPAA-like rating scale for psychological tests. Come up with 3 or 4 rating scales to guide test
use decisions of test users, much like ratings such as
PG-13 and R are designed to guide ticket-buying decisions of parents.
E XE R C I S E 1-10
ACCOMMODATING A PERSON
WITH A DISABILITY
OBJECTIVE
To consider ways in which accommodations may be made
for physically disabled testtakers
BACKGROUND
The law mandates some form of alternate assessment when
an assessee who is physically disabled requires psychological assessment and cannot be assessed by the usual means.
Accommodation may take many different forms. It may take
the form of a modification in the way a test is presented or in
the way the assessee responds to the test. Accommodation
may mean that one test or measurement procedure is substituted for another. Accommodation may take the form of
extended time limits or a change in the physical or interpersonal environment in which a test is administered.
YOUR TASK
Prepare a presentation on how a paper-and-pencil test of
academic achievement might be administered in some alternate way to persons who are (a) visually impaired, (b) hearing
impaired, and (c) motor-impaired (with no voluntary use of
arms). Your presentation may include drawings, photos, or
other visual aids.
REFERENCES
Barko, N. (1993, August). Whats your childs emotional IQ? Working
Mother, 16, 3335.
Bushman, B.J. & Cantor, J. (2003). Media Ratings for violence and
sex. Implications for Policymakers and Parents. American Psychologists, 58, 130141.
Carr, R. (1994, April). Do you have what it takes? Writers Digest, 74,
2023.
Clifford, C. (1992, Spring). What kind of intelligence do you have?
YM, pp. 3439.
Derrow, P. (1993, June). Are your habits healthy? Weight Watchers
Magazine, 26, 1820.
Granat, D. (1990, September). What make you so smart? Washingtonian, 25, 134141.
Moir, A., & Jessel, D. (1992, January). Discover your brains sex.
Readers Digest (Canadian English Edition), 140, 8991.
Roth, M. R., & Hermus, G. P. (1980). Developmental plan handbook for
community skills training (2nd ed.). New York: Developmental Press.
Sandwith, P. (1994, January). Building quality into communications.
Training and Development, 48(1), 5559.
Woolfolk, J. M. (1992, Spring). Are you psychic? YM, pp. 6064.
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AN OVERVIEW
course of the term. Then note how your final grade in this
course corresponds to your 4-Question Challenge average.
Here is your first 4-Question Challenge:
1. Which does NOT belong?
a. dynamic assessment
b. vocational assessment
c. therapeutic assessment
d. collaborative assessment
2. A television producer hires a director for a new show after viewing samples of the directors work on other television shows. Using the language of psychometrics, we
could say that the director was hired on the basis of
a. a portfolio assessment.
b. a behavioral assessment.
c. a case study evaluation.
d. an interview.