FREE ESSAY ON IQ TESTING AND GROUPING

IQ TESTING AND GROUPING

Running Head: IQ TESTING AND GROUPING
INTELLIGENCE TESTING AND GROUPING
RON WILLIAMS
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EDUCATIONAL TESTING
CAMPBELL UNIVERSITY
DR. FATICA
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In defining intelligence, there has always been the question of whether intelligence is 
measured as a remarkable occurrence or if it has many variables that are combined. For
example,
is it how "smart" a person is? Or is it their ability to perform well on standardized
tests? Are they
measuring a person's intelligence? Or just some arbitrary quantity of the person's IQ? Or
is it a 
mixture of survival, mathematical, social and other abilities. There are many debates
regarding 
whether measuring intelligence is determined from test scores and results, or if it is
measured by the person's ability to process and problem solve. 
Uses of intelligence testing in an educational setting, intelligence and achievement
tests are administered routinely to assess individual accomplishment. They are used to
improve instruction and curriculum planning. High schools use these tests to assist in
the students future educational planning and help decide what college or type of college
to attend. Elementary schools utilize screening and testing procedures to help determine
readiness for writing and reading placement. Intelligence can be measured, by
intelligence tests, among them the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler
Scale. These tests are intended to determine an individual's intelligence quotient (IQ).
Intelligence tests usually provide an estimate of global cognitive functioning as well as
information about functioning within more specific domains. Intelligence tests are quite
stable compared to measures of other human traits. However, the degree of stability
increases with age such that early childhood and preschool measures of intellectual
function are far less predictive of later functioning than assessments taken during
middle childhood. The stability of intelligence test scores may change as a function due
to important environmental factors. Therefore, intelligence test scores are descriptive
of a child's functioning at that point in time when taking a test. The test scores could
also be effected by environmental factors, child's psychiatric status or educational
program. 
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Components of a good intelligence test are (a) Validity; does the test really measure
intelligence and not something else? (b) Reliability; does the test produce consistent
measures? 
(c) Norms; are the participants being fairly compared? Components that make an
intelligence test flawed are (a) Poor validity; tests may be sensitive to social factors.
(b) Poor norms; comparing people who are different. (c) Poor application; tests measure
something that the school or job has nothing to do with. 
Theories of Process Psychometric Model Psychometric approach is defined as psychology
that deals with the design, administration, and interpretation of quantitative tests for
the measurement of psychological variables such as intelligence, aptitude, and
personality traits. There are various psychometric approaches to intelligence. The
following paragraphs describe three different theorists and their psychometric model.
First is Charles Spearman, who believed that intelligence is a combination of two parts.
According to his two-factory theory of intelligence, the performance of any intellectual
act requires some combination of g, (general intelligence factor) which is available to
the same individual to the same degree for all intellectual acts. (Specific factors) or s
is specific to that act and varies in strength from one act to another. S is specific
knowledge such as verbal reasoning or spatial problem solving. Spearman equated g with
mental energy. If one knows how a person performs on one task that is highly saturated
with g, one can safely predict a similar level of performance for another highly g
saturated task. The prediction of performance on tasks with high s factors is less
accurate. Thus, the most important information to have about a person's intellectual
ability is an estimate of their g or mental energy (Plucker 1989).
Guilford's theory includes 150 abilities, arranged in three dimensions; contents,
operations, and products. Guilford's three-dimensional Structure of Intellect classified
intellectual acts into 120 separate categories. These categories are operations
dimension, products dimension and material 
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or content dimension. He developed firm convictions regarding the ability of individual
difference among people. Guilford believed that intelligence is much too complicated to
be subsumed by a few primary mental abilities and g factor. His systematic theory gave
rise to what is known as informational-operational psychology. Information-Processing
Informational theorists believe human cognition is best understood as the management of
information through a system with limited space or resources (Bukato and Daehler 1998).
Thurstone's theory is based on seven primary mental abilities. In the area of
intelligence, his theory maintains that intelligence is made up of several primary mental
abilities rather than just the g and s factors. He was among the first to purpose and
demonstrate that there are numerous ways in which a person can be intelligent.
Thurstone's Multiple-Factors Theory identified these seven primary mental abilities;
Verbal Comprehension, Associative Memory, Word Fluency, Number Facility, Reasoning,
Spatial Visualization, and Perceptual Speed. Thurstone's theory has been used to
construct intelligence tests that yield a profile of the individual's performance on each
of the ability tests, rather than general that yield a single score such as an IQ. 
Two theorists that promote informational processing models are Sternberg and Gardner.
Sternberg's triarchic theory consists of three parts; cognitive components of
intelligence, experience and intelligence, and context of intelligence. They are divided
into three major sub-theories: Componential is encoding, combining and comparing stimuli,
and evaluating one own performance.
Contextual is the adaptation to one's environment. One of Sternberg's most important
contributions to intelligence theory has been the redefinition of intelligence to
incorporate practical knowledge. As Sternberg insists, "real life is where intelligence
operates' and not in the classroom...The true 
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measure of success is not how well one does in school, but how well one does in life
(Trosky, 1998)". Dr. Howard Garner believed that intelligence is the ability to find and
solve problems and create products of value in one's own culture. Gardner's theory of
Multiple Intelligence (MI) maintains that people often show marked individual differences
in their ability to process specific kinds of information (Bukato and Daehler 1998).
Gardner originally identified seven such faculties, which he labeled as "intelligences":
Linguistic, Musical, Logico-Mathematical, Spatial, Intra-personal, Inter-personal, and
Bodily Kinesthetic. Multiple intelligences theory, is a polarized way of understanding
their intellect. Recent advances in cognitive science, developmental psychology and
neuroscience suggest that each person's level of intelligence is actually made up of
autonomous faculties that can work individually or in concert with other faculties. 
Interpreting and Grouping Methods have three common methods for reporting performance on
tests are developmental, percentiles and standard scores. The most common is
developmental scores, which are sometimes classified as "mental age" and "grade
equivalents," although many tests provide age-equivalent scores. Many schools show
reaching of goals and objectives by utilizing these types of test scores. The strength
within developmental scores are that the result is descriptive, meaning it can clearly
show the difference in a score. For example hearing that Bob has a mental age of seven
years, or a third grade reading level, provides what seems to be a vivid picture of where
Bob stands within the rest of the seven year olds. 
Percentile scores provide an index of where one stands relative to others on a scale of 1
to 100. A score at the first or 100th percentile does not mean that the person got all of
the questions on the test right or wrong. Percentile score mean that the individual
performed worse or better than everybody else in the comparison group. Nonetheless, like
developmental scores the unit of 
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measure varies across the range. There is relatively little difference between scores at
the 40th and 60th percentiles, but a 20 point difference near either tail of the
distribution will be substantial.
Standard scores scales have the advantage of being indicative of performance relative to
others, but the unit of measure remains constant across the range of scores. Standard
score scales report scores in standard deviation units from the normative sample's mean.
Thus, to interpret standard scores, one must know the mean and standard deviation of the
scale on which it is based
(Woodcock 1989).
Grouping and Validity are one of the most important questions that always come up
regarding validity and reliability of these tools are what are the tests really
measuring? Are they measuring a person's intelligence? What about their ability to
perform well on standardized tests? Is that alone, another measurement of their
intelligence? It is critical to examine the situations around which these tests are
given. A person may not have had lunch or breakfast, could possibly be ill that day or is
having an anxiety attack about taking the test. Many factors go into the test itself.
Other major factors are cultural backgrounds, parenting practices and the home
environment are also very important factors. To issue a truly standardized test, the
testing environment should be the same for everyone taking the test. No matter how
carefully written, standardized intelligence tests have particular cultural biases, and
are almost always based on language ability and mathematical prowess. These traits are
important and desirable, but they may not be the only factors in determining a person's
intelligence. Intelligence consists of abilities necessary to adapt to the environment to
achieve goals. Psychologists differ on how they define intelligence and exactly which
abilities comprise "intelligence." Intelligence testing provides standardized and
objective measures that can be considered useful for evaluating children and
adolescents.
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Intelligence testing reveals something about the person's academic type and their general
mental abilities. Newer or recently developed test may be better equipped to encompass
all of the components necessary to evaluate a person's intelligence level. It is
important to realize the biases, cultural differences and other factors that may
interpret a score or result. IQ tests that fail usually fall into two main groups. The
first grouping is where the tests assume too much. Examples of this flaw are the
assumption that speed is always good, vocabulary is a good indicator of intelligence, and
that different test taking environment won't affect the outcome. The second grouping
comes because the tests gauge the wrong items. Examples of this are different culture
groups being asked to take the same tests as everyone else, and the fact that the tests
ignore so many types of intelligence (like social and physical). These two groupings
illustrate where the major failings of popular IQ tests occur and can be used as tools
for judging others.
IQ tests are not good indicators for a person's overall intelligence, but as their use
has shown, they are extremely helpful in making predictions about how a person will
perform in an academic setting. Perhaps the problem comes in the name intelligence tests
when it is obvious this is not what they really are. Keep in mind that the IQ tests of
today definitely has its applications in society, but the progress of a child depends on
many factors and should not be used to quantify their overall intelligence by any means.
Bibliography
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Bibliography
Bukatko, D., and Daehler, M. W., (1998). Child Development: A Thematic Approach 
(3rd ed.). Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Plucker, J., Ph.D., (1998). Learning and Cognition. Indiana University General
Intelligence, 
Objectively Determined and Measured.
Trosky, S. M., (1989). Contemporary Authors, Vol. 126. Gale Research, Detroit, Mi.
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Bibliography
Bukatko, D., and Daehler, M. W., (1998). Child Development: A Thematic Approach 
(3rd ed.). Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Plucker, J., Ph.D., (1998). Learning and Cognition. Indiana University General
Intelligence, 
Objectively Determined and Measured.
Trosky, S. M., (1989). Contemporary Authors, Vol. 126. Gale Research, Detroit, Mi.