Example: Non verbal test - Raven's Progressive Matrices
The Raven Progressive Matrices test is a widely
used intelligence test in many research and applied settings. In each
test item, one is asked to find the missing pattern in a series. Each
set of items gets progressively harder, requiring greater cognitive
capacity to encode and analyze.
Sample item from the Raven
Progressive Matrices tests
Raven's Progressive Matrices was designed
primarily as a measure of Spearman's g. There are no time limits and
simple oral instructions. There are 3 different tests for different
abilities:
-
Coloured Progressed Matrices (younger children
and special groups)
-
Stanford Progressive Matrices (average 6 to 80
year olds)
-
Advanced Progressive Matrices (above average
adolescents & adults)
In terms of its psychometrics, Raven's
Progressive Matrices:
has good test-retest reliability between .70
and .90 (however, for low score ranges, the test-retest reliability is
lower)
-
has good internal consistency coefficients -
mostly in the .80s and .90s
-
has correlations with verbal and performance
tests range which between .40 and .75
-
fair concurrent validity in studies with
mentally retarded groups
-
lower predictive validity than verbal
intelligence tests for academic criteria
Read more about
Raven's Progressive Matrices.
Example: Non-verbal test - Gesell Developmental
Schedules for very young children
Prior to the preschool years, the assessment
tools for infants measure somewhat different components of intellectual
ability. An example of an oft-used test is the Gesell Developmental
Schedules. This test was first introduced in 1925 and has been revised
periodically. The schedules are designed to measure developmental
progress of babies and children from 4 weeks to 5 years. These schedules
provide a standardized procedure for observing and evaluating the
developmental attainment of children in five areas:
-
Gross motor skills: cruises a rail using 2
hands
-
Fine motor skills: uses “scissors” grasp on
string
-
Language development: uses “da-da” with
meaning
-
Adaptive behaviour: pulls a string to obtain a
ring
-
Personal-social behaviours: pushes arm through
dress if started.
Gesell identified naturally occurring situations
in the home or clinic and uses objects or tasks with high appeal for
infants and preschoolers. Well-trained observers can attain interrater
reliabilities in the mid .90s (Knobloch & Pasamanick, 1974).
Gessell didn’t intend his schedules to be
intelligence tests, rather they are used to identify neurological
impairment and mental retardation.
Gesell determined that normal development is a
time-bracketed phenomenon: that is the age variability for attaining
developmental milestones in infancy is very small; on the order of a few
weeks for many tasks. Many studies indicate that the Gesell Schedules
function well in the screening of intellectually at-risk infants.
Virtually all infant tests have borrowed from or adapted the original
schedules devised by Arnold Gesell (1880-1961).
Tests for special populations
-
Tests may be individual or group
-
Typically designated as performance,
non-language or nonverbal tests
-
Tests designed for groups such as infants,
preschoolers, mentally retarded people, physically disabled (hearing,
visual, motor), and multicultural populations (language & cultural
issues)
-
The major non-verbal test in use is Raven's
progressive matrices
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