The Stanford Binet Profiles of Young Children with Autism

Twenty-four young children with autism were assessed with the Fourth Edition of the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale as part of the routine assessment procedure at the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center. Inspection of the pattern of their responses yielded an distinctive profile with the subscale of Absurdities being consistently the lowest and Pattern Analysis the highest subtest. Comparisons of the profiles for the subjects with the highest and lowest overall IQs showed essentially the same profile patterns. These data are consistent with what we know about autism as a disorder and provide support for the notion that traditional psychometric assessment can be useful in evaluating children with autism.     

A factor analytic study of the Stanford Binet with young children

Seven factors were found as the result of a factor analysis of year IV-6 through year VI of the 1960 Revision of the Stanford Binet Intelligence Test. No factor had a sufficient number of high loadings to justify interpretation as ‘g’, a general intelligence factor. The test protocols used were of 152 children from three to seven years of age who attended a University nursery school or Head Start day care centers. The group included 107 white and 45 Negro children who had been tested as part of a routine intellectual evaluation. The socioeconomic level, as measured by occupation of the parent, was higher than that of the standardizing population of the Binet, as was the mean IQ (109.4 ± 14.7). The results of this study were compared with the logical analysis of Meeker & Bonsall based upon Guilford's factors of the intellect, and with Valett's profile analysis.     

Alfred Binet and higher education

At the beginning of the 20th century, Alfred Binet sought teaching positions at the Collége de France and the Sorbonne. Binet wanted to develop experimental psychology in France, but the strong psychopathological orientation of French psychology blocked his ambition. The 1st part of this article relates the history of the introduction of psychology, via Théodule Ribot, to the Sorbonne and the Collège de France. Ribot's premature retirement from the Collège de France in 1901 triggered a battle that led to Binet's repeated failure to gain access to these institutions of highter education and the success in 1902 of Ribot's students: Pierre Janet at the Collège de France and George Dumas at the Sorbonne.     

The Influence of Mode of Test Administration on Test Performance

This study examined the influence of mode of test administration (paper based or computer-based) on anxiety levels and test performance. Participants were 44 learners (males = 22, females = 22) from three schools in Johannesburg, South Africa who completed both a computer and paper version of the Differential Aptitude Test—Form K Non-Verbal Reasoning test, the Computer Attitude Scale, the Computer Anxiety Rating Scale and Sarason's Test Anxiety Scale. Test anxiety was significantly related to both computer and paper based testing.     

Varieties of Inconsistency Across Test Occasions: Effects of Computerized Test Administration and Repeated Testing

This article investigates different types of instability in subjects' responses to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Indices were constructed to measure the effects of the automated testing format and repeated testing on 150 undergraduate subjects who took a computer-administered and pencil-and-paper MMPI 1 week apart. One set of indices measures systematic shifting, attributable to format or time alone. Two families of six indices each are computed measuring unsystematic changes in responding, tendencies to shift in particular directions between true, false, and cannot say responses across all 566 items. Unsystematic changes were assessed both between formats and across times, although these factors are confounded. Subjects tend to change their responses to cannot say from the pencil-and-paper to the computer administration and to shift from false to true on the second administration. Systematic shifting due to the test format is related to the more general, unsystematic tendency to shift between true and false responses. The number of cannot say responses in the computerized testing situation, although greater in magnitude, is correlated with the use of cannot say in the pencil-and-paper condition. Systematic shifting attributable to time is distinct from the other types of inconsistency. Subjects are more inconsistent across occasions when the test format changes than would be expected from repeated testing alone, although the consequences of this inconsistency for clinical interpretation are not yet clear. Inconsistent responding is related to subjects' personality characteristics, but not to age or prior experience with computers.     

Neuropsychological Test Administration by Videoconference: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The purpose of the current systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the effect of videoconference administration on adult neurocognitive tests. We investigated whether the scores acquired during a videoconference administration were different from those acquired during on-site administration. Relevant counterbalanced crossover studies were identified according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Twelve studies met criteria for analysis. Included samples consisted of healthy adults as well as those with psychiatric or neurocognitive disorders, with mean ages ranging from 34 to 88 years. Heterogenous data precluded the interpretation of a summary effect for videoconference administration. Studies including particpants with a mean age of 65–75, as well as studies that utilized a high speed network connection, indicated consistent performance across videoconference and on-site conditions, however studies with older participants and slower connections were more variable. Subgroup analyses indicated that videoconference scores for untimed tasks and those allowing for repetition fell 1/10th of a standard deviation below on-site scores. Test specific analyses indicated that verbally-mediated tasks including digit span, verbal fluency, and list learning were not affected by videoconference administration. Scores for the Boston Naming Test fell 1/10th of a standard deviation below on-site scores. Heterogenous data precluded meaningful interpretation of tasks with a motor component. The administration of verbally-mediated tasks by qualified professionals using existing norms was supported, and the use of visually-dependent tasks may also be considered. Variability in previous studies indicates a need for further investigation of motor-dependent tasks. We recommend the development of clinical best practices for conducting neuropsychological assessments via videoconference, and advocate for reimbursement structures that allow consumers to benefit from the increased access, convenience, and cost-savings that remote assessment provides.     

Achievement of Children in Orphan Homes as Revealed by the Stanford Achievement Test

Regression surface analysis was used to examine relationships between teacher perceptions of school related behavior and children's academic achievement at different levels of intelligence, social status, and family environment. Data were collected as part of a national survey of 11-, 12-, and 15-year-old English schoolchildren (N = approximately 3000). The regression surfaces were constructed from models which examined possible linear, curvilinear, and interaction relations between the variables. In the analysis the Jackknife technique was used to adjust the significance levels. Two propositions are suggested by the results that (a) at each level of intelligence and social environment, changes in the teacher perceptions of student behavior are associated with modest changes in academic achievement, and (b) at each level of teacher perceptions, increases in intelligence and social environment scores are related to sizable increments in academic achievement.     

Archival note: an inquiry into the relationshp between Alfred Binet and Cyril Burt

Two recent archival items offer material for analysis of Alfred Binet's (1857-1911) and Cyril Burt's (1883-1971) relationship in the early twentieth century. Burt's letter to Binet's biographer Theta Wolf was an answer to her request for information about his contact with Binet. An analysis of Burt's account prompts more questions than it answers. His statements in the letter are compared with previous ones and are put into the context of the activities of the two men, but these do not enlighten us about his actual relations with Binet. The problem arises because of Burt's desciptive vagueness and lack of supporting evidence. Despite attacks against Burt's integrity made from 1976 onward, we found no conclusive evidence of false claims. The negative outcome of this analysis probably results from Burt's faulty memory, and herein lies the caveat that personal memories make unreliable material for historical accounts.     

16PF问卷网络与纸笔施测方式的比较

为检验网络测试与纸笔测试方式是否具有同等的信效度,16PF问卷被用于对两个样本分别进行网络(n=213)和纸笔(n=2801)施测;并从网络测试样本中随机抽取47人,随后进行纸笔重测。在α系数、测题同质性和次级因素结构三项检验中,各个人格因素的表现各有优劣,未得出统一的结论,但可以确定网络测试的信效度较纸笔测试没有明显下降。配对t检验的结果显示,两种施测方式下同一批被试的结果在部分因素上有显著性差异,不能将纸笔测试获得的常模直接用于网络测试。     

Ribot, Binet, and the emergence from the anthropological shadow

In the drive to establish a naturalistic psychology in France, anthropological assumptions about a hierarchy of physically determined racial groups with inherent psychological characteristics and about the nearly insurmountable retardation of primitive cultures permeated the work of the founder of French empirical psychology, Théodule Ribot. Assumptions about the correlation of brain mass and head size with intelligence affected Alfred Binet. The rise of sociology and challenges to existing theories of inheritance led Ribot to surrender fitfully some hereditarian assumptions. Binet's experimental caution and contemporary critiques of anthropometry tempered, but did not fully extinguish, his enthusiasm for psychophysical correlations.     

Incongruence Between Native and Test Administration Languages: Towards Equal Opportunity in International Literacy Assessment

Previous research has primarily addressed the effects of language on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) mathematics and science assessments. More recent research has focused on the effects of language on PISA reading comprehension and literacy assessments on student populations in specific Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries. Recognizing calls to highlight the impact of language on student PISA reading performance across countries, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of home languages versus test languages on PISA reading literacy across OECD and non-OECD economies, while considering other factors. The results of Ordinary Least Squares regression showed that about half of the economies demonstrated a positive and significant effect of students' language status on their reading performance. This finding is consistent with observations in the parallel analysis of PISA 2009 data, suggesting that students' performance on reading literacy assessment was higher when they were tested in their home language. Our findings highlight the importance of the role of context, the need for new approaches to test translation, and the potential similarities in language status for youth from OECD and non-OECD countries that have implications for interpreting their PISA reading literacy assessments.     

Instrumental Behaviors Following Test Administration and Interpretation: Exploration Validity of the Strong Interest Inventory

A two-phase longitudinal study was conducted to explore the exploration validity (i.e., the power of interest inventories to facilitate career exploration activities such as talking to professionals and seeking vocational information) of the 1985 Strong Interest Inventory (SII) for college students. Participants in the study included an experimental group (N =75), which participated in the SII testing and a group interpretation, and a contrast group(N=67). Students in the experimental group reported significantly more instrumental career exploration behaviors at a 1-year follow-up than did the contrast group.     

行政职业能力倾向测验效度的研究报告

为了对目前国家公务员录用考试中的行政职业能力倾向测验有效性有一个全面准确的了解,本研究依据现代心理测量理论,采用科学规范的实证研究方法,对行政职业能力倾向测验的效度进行了较为系统的研究,得到了一些有用的结论,为国家公务员录用考试的深化改革提供了较为全面的信息。