Evaluation of Test Materials and Procedures

Evaluation of Test Materials and Procedures

Abstract

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale is an intelligence quotient test that has been designed for measuring cognitive ability as well as intelligence amongst the adults and older adolescents’ population. David Wechsler published the first Wechsler intelligence test after a revision of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale published in 1939. Pearson released its fourth edition in 2008. It is the version that is widespread in usage compared to other testing scales targeting adults. Data collection for version five of the test commenced in 2016 and is in progress with an expectation to be published in the year 2020.

Keywords: intelligence quotient, cognitive ability, tests, intellectual, deficiencies, adults. Mature adolescents.

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

Introduction

Instruments design to measure latent variables is known as psychological tests. At times, psychological tests resemble questionnaires that are designed to measure abstract constructs and that are a bit different in terms of the extent of performance. Psychological tests ask for maximum performance, whereas the surveys ask for the typical performance of the respondents. Intelligence tests are progressive tasks that are designed to measure the capacity to make abstractions, deal with novel situations, as well as to learn some of the most extensively used intelligence tests such as the Wechsler Scales (Bright et al., 2018). The Wechsler Adult intelligence test is founded on Wechsler’s definition of intelligence. He had a strong belief that intelligence comprises of individual constituents which needed to be isolated, subsequently measured and defined. The different components were not interrelated but instead interrelated. He reasoned that intelligence consists of various identifiable and interlinked functions, as well as elements that can be measured individually.

Test Items and Format

The latest version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale was released in 2008. It consists of ten mini-tests, five supplemental subtests, and ten score mini-tests resulting in scaled scores that add up to derive the reliability of the testing method. In this test, the verbal and performance IQ scores were eliminated from the initial version. They were later replaced with Index Scores. In its components, the General Ability Index being placed as a constituent comprises of vocabulary, information subtests as well as similarities derived from the Verbal Comprehension Index and the Block design (Bright et al., 2018). Perceptual Reasoning Index yields Matrix Reasoning and Visual Puzzles subtests. The General Ability Index is best suitable in clinics since it has the capability of being used as a measure of cognitive abilities, which are not very vulnerable to processing speed impairments and working memory (Erdodi et al., 2017).

Four major index scores represent the significant components of intelligence. They include; processing speed index, perceptual reasoning index, working memory index, verbal comprehension index, and General Ability Index (majoring only on the six mini-tests which comprises of the oral comprehension index and perception reasoning index) (Glassmire et al.,2019).

Use of Technology

Few tests nowadays involve computing of mental ages even though many tests still measure intelligence aspects. For example, the above phenomenon has been computed in terms of the statistical percentage of the population of people expected to have a certain degree of Intelligence Quotient (Glassmire et al., 2019). Intelligence test scores for adults tend to follow an almost normal distribution. It is where a good number of the population scores are concentrated towards the center of the distribution curve with a rapid, fair drop in terms of frequency off the curve’s center. For instance, roughly two out of three scores in the intelligence quotient scores lie between 85 to 115, and also 19 out of 20 falls between 70 and 130. It is considered a gifted score if performance scores are above 130 and above. Mentally deficient populations are those whose scores go below 70 (Glassmire et al., 2019). These results show that the application of technology when conducting the tests is necessary and that it can result in reliable outcomes.

Synthesis of Findings

The constitution of mental abilities on intelligence, adequacy, and efficiency of the knowledge of an individual in the representation of these abilities has provoked, to a great extent, a great deal of controversy with an active debate on cultural biases regarding test construction as well as standardization procedures (Glassmire et al., 2019). Administration of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale test has to be done by a clinically trained specialist who, in most cases, is a psychologist. The assigned professional then offers recommendations with regards to the results from the test, and this makes it most efficient (Bright et al.,2018).

Specific recommendations can also be derived from the test because of its unique design. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence test has the most prestigious long history and unique design. Therefore, it is easy to apply, use, and it also produces accurate outcomes. Another merit is that the costs of the tests are mostly covered by health insurance, making it more reliable (Fujimori et al., 2017).

Fair and Appropriate Materials

Criticisms have depicted that intelligence tests tend to act in favor of groups, especially those from more affluent backgrounds. They can be the ones with discrimination against ethnic, racial, and social groups (Fujimori et al., 2017). In due response to this, there have been attempts to by psychologists to construct culture-free tests, which would be more improved for an accurate reflection of an individual’s original ability. One of them is John’s Hopkins Perceptual Test, which was developed by Leon Rosenberg in 1960, aimed at measuring preschool adults’ intelligence (Glassmire et al., 2019).

Another tried solution to solve the problem is the use of test materials that are pertinent to the environment where the child is living in compared to those dwelling in the villages and urban centers (Drozdick et al., 2018). At every age, there was a group of subjects that could perform better by more than half of the participants at that level, hence, becoming the majority (Bright et al., 2018)). This implies that the items were not placed according to content. In this test, a participant could only score well when a certain number of tasks were accomplished. No credit was awarded to incomplete tasks. The point scale, therefore, reconsidered this unfair ideology and instead ensured that points were assigned to each item (Drozdick et al., 2018).

Conclusion and Recommendations

Most of the psychological tests are always not readily available in public because of various restrictions that have been put forward by both publishers of the original experiments as well as psychology licensing boards. Both parties aim to prevent public access to the tests and results’ information as they are concerned about variations in interpretation and their effects. Professional ethics and copyright issues have to be considered by the test publishers. It helps to protect the confidentiality of the test procedures and results. They should approve the sale of the tests with approved professional and educational qualifications based on the standards of experiment shareholders’ satisfaction.  They should also ensure proper admission of the test and that the followed test procedures and results are not leaked to the public, especially without permission from the assigned psychologist and other concerned parties.

In conclusion, the Wechsler Adult intelligence scale is a reliable and valid testing method. This scale was first in history called Wechsler-Bellevue intelligence scale which was later changed in 1955 by David Wechsler. The test concentrates on an individual’s age as well as what is perceived to be average Intelligence Quotient at that particular time. The importance of this specific test based on the above discussion is that it revolves mostly around psychologists’ ability to diagnose developmental and intellectual challenges. The application of this test, however, is quite extensive and diverse. The use of this test can also determine the intelligence and integrity of adult employees for cooperation. In almost all fields, psychologists use this test. It is most prevalent in industrial and organizational psychology as well as child psychology.

Reference

Bright, P., Hale, E., Gooch, V. J., Myhill, T., & van der Linde, I. (2018). The National Adult Reading Test: restandardisation against the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 28(6), 1019-1027.

Drozdick, L. W., Raiford, S. E., Wahlstrom, D., & Weiss, L. G. (2018). The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition and the Wechsler Memory Scale—Fourth Edition.

Erdodi, L. A., Abeare, C. A., Lichtenstein, J. D., Tyson, B. T., Kucharski, B., Zuccato, B. G., & Roth, R. M. (2017). Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-(WAIS-IV) processing speed scores as measures of noncredible responding: The third generation of embedded performance validity indicators. Psychological Assessment, 29(2), 148.

Fujimori, J., Nakashima, I., Baba, T., Meguro, Y., Ogawa, R., & Fujihara, K. (2017). Cognitive impairment in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders: A comparison of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised with the Rao Brief Repeatable Neuropsychological Battery. eNeurologicalSci, 9, 3-7.

Glassmire, D. M., Wood, M. E., Ta, M. T., Kinney, D. I., & Nitch, S. R. (2019). Examining false-positive rates of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) processing speed-based embedded validity indicators among individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Psychological assessment, 31(1), 120.