Validity
 Validity – A property exhibited by a test that measures
what it purports to measure.
 Face Validity – Measures whether a test looks like it tests
what it is supposed to test.
 Content Validity – A property exhibited by a test in
which each item is representative of the larger body of
knowledge about the subject the test covers.
 Criterion Validity – A property exhibited by a test that
accurately measures performance of the test taker
against a specific learning goal.
Reliability
 Reliability – A property exhibited by a test that yields
the same results over time.
 Test-retest Reliability – A property exhibited by a test on
which people get about the same scores when they take
the test more than once.
 Split-half Reliability – A measure of reliability in which a
test is split into two parts and an individual’s scores on
both halves are compared.
Standardization and Norms
 Standardization Means:
 The administration and scoring guidelines are the same
for each subject taking the test.
 The results of the test can be used to draw conclusion
about the test takers in regard to the objectives of the
test.
Standardization and Norms
 Normal Range – Scores falling near the middle of a
normal distribution.
Types of Test
 Objective Tests – Tests that can be scored easily by
machine, such as multiple choice tests and selectedresponse tests.
 Subjective Tests – Tests in which individuals are given
an ambiguous figure or an open-ended situation and
asked to describe what they see or finish a story.
 Inter-rater reliability – A measure of how similarly two
different test scorers would score a test.
Intelligence
 A concept, not a “thing.”
 Intelligence – Mental
quality consisting of the
ability to learn from
experience, solve
problems, and use
knowledge to adapt to
new situations.
Intelligence Testing
 Intelligence test – A
method for assessing an
individual’s mental
aptitudes and comparing
them with those of others
using numerical scores.
Intelligence Testing
 Binet and Simon – Introduced intelligence testing in
the early 1900s to evaluate school children’s mental
age.
 Mental age – The average age at which normal (average)
individuals achieve a particular score.
 Chronological age – The number of years since the
individual’s birth.
Intelligence Testing in the U.S.
 Standford-Binet intelligence scale / test invented by
Lewis Terman
 Today the Wechsler intelligence test is considered to
be a little more modern.
 From it comes the term IQ
 Intelligence Quotient – A numerical score on an
intelligence test, originally computed by dividing the
person’s mental age by chronological age and
multiplying by 100.
Extremes
 Low Extreme
 Mental Retardation – Low test scores and difficult adapting to
normal life demands. Lower 2% of IQ Range, 30 points below
average.
 Down Syndrome – Retardation coupled with physical
disabilities caused by extra copy of chromosome 21.
 High Extreme
 Giftedness – Upper 2% of the IQ Range, 30 points above
average.
 Sho Yano



Played Mozart by age 4
Aced SAT at age 8
Graduated Loyola University with honors at age 12, and started Ph.D.
and M.D. at age 13.
Savant Syndrome
 Condition in which a
person with limited
mental ability has an
exceptional specific skill,
such as computation or
drawing.
General Intelligence
 Spearman’s General
Intelligence (g) Factor –
A general intelligence
factor, that underlies
specific mental abilities
and is therefore
measured by every task
on an intelligence test.
Raymond Cattell’s Crystallized and
Fluid Intelligence
 Crystallized Intelligence – The knowledge a person has
acquired, plus the ability to access the knowledge.
 Fluid Intelligence – the ability to see complex
relationships and solve problems.
Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
 Practical Intelligence – The ability to cope with the
environment.
 AKA – “Street Smarts”
Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
 Analytical Intelligence – The ability measured by most
IQ tests; includes the ability to analyze problems and
find correct answers.
Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
 Creative Intelligence – The form of intelligence that
helps people see new relationships among concepts;
involves insight and creativity.
Sternberg’s Multiple Intelligences
 Analytical (academic problem-solving) Intelligence
 Creative Intelligence
 Creativity – The ability to produce ideas that are both
novel and valuable.
 Practical Intelligence
 8 year old selling gum on the streets of Tijuana, Mexico
may have a high level of Practical Intelligence, and very
little Analytical Intelligence.
Howard Gardner’s Multiple
Intelligences
 Linguistic
 Logical – Mathematical
 Musical
 Spatial
 Bodily Kinesthetic
 Intrapersonal (self)
 Interpersonal (other
people)
 Naturalist
Bigger Brain = More Intelligence?
 Many studies done.
 No evidence to show
consistent connections
between brain size and
intelligence.
Assessing Intelligence
 Many different Intelligence Tests
 IQ Tests:
 Defined originally as the ratio of mental age to
chronological age multiplied by 100.
 Contemporary intelligence tests, the average
performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.
 Most intelligence test can be translated into IQ scores.
Factors that Influence Intelligence
 Environment
 School
 Gender
 Ethnicity
 Heredity
 Self Fulfilling
Prophecies???
 Eugenics???