Background and History

1
Chapter 1

• Background and History

2
Basic Definitions

• Test A measurement device or technique used to
  quantify behavior or aid in the understanding and
  prediction of behavior
• Item specific questions or problems that make
  up the test a stimulus to which a person
  responds overtly

3
Types of Tests

• Individual vs. Group
• Paper pencil vs. Performance
• Speed vs. Power tests
• Maximum vs. typical performance
• Norm vs. criterion referenced

4
Types of Ability Testing

• Achievement Measures previous learning
• Aptitude Measures the potential for learning or
  acquiring a specific skill
• Intelligence Measures general potential to
  solve problems, adapt to changing circumstances,
  think abstractly, and profit from experience

5
Personality Tests

• Measure typical behavior (traits, temperaments,
  dispositions)
• Structured or objective personality tests Person
  responds to statements
• Projective Person responds to ambiguous stimuli

6
Critical Assumptions About Testing

• People differ in important traits
• We can quantify these traits
• The traits are reasonably stable
• Measures of the traits relate to actual behavior

7
Background on testing will cover

• Earliest applications of testing
• Individual differences and testing
• Experimental psychology and psychophysical
  measurement
• Intelligence testing
• Testing for the masses

8
Early Testing

• Some texts indicate that the earliest testing
  program seems to have occurred in China over 4000
  years ago. As part of civil service, oral
  examinations were given to determine work
  evaluations and promotions.
• British learned of the system from the Chinese
  and started it in the western world.

9
Individual Differences and Testing

• A basic concept underlying testing is that of
  individual differences.
• Darwins book, The Origin of Species (1859)
  hypothesized that higher forms of life exist
  because they evolved from individual differences
  within lower life forms.
• Sir Francis Galton applied Darwins theory to
  human beings (Hereditary Genius, 1969). He
  operated on the notion that mental ability
  depended upon elemental processes.

10
Individual Differences come to the United States

• James McKeen Catell extended Galtons work to the
  US. He coined the term Mental test He created
  a battery of 50 mental tests which he gave to
  college students in hopes of predicting academic
  success.
• Catells 10 key tests were grip strength, rate
  of movement, sensation areas, pressure casing
  pain, least noticeable difference in weight,
  reaction time for sound, time for naming colors,
  bi-section of a 50 cm line, judgment of 10
  seconds time, number of letters remembered in one
  hearing.

11
Experimental psychology and testing

• Wilhelm Wundt, credited with founding the science
  of psychology, also helped founded the testing
  movement indirectly.
• E.G. Titchener succeeded Wundt. His student, G.
  Whipple, conducted a seminar in the US in 1919
  which peaked the interest of prominent US
  psychologists such as L. L. Thurstone and E.
  Strong.
• Catell also studied in Wundts laboratory

12
Intelligence Testing

• Alfred Binet is the father of intelligence
  testing. Investigated mental functions from a
  more holistic view using words, finding
  connections, getting the meaning, etc.
• Paris schools wanted to identify children that
  could benefit from special schooling. The result
  was the Binet-Simon Scale, published in 1905.
• He used a standardization sample in order to
  compare results. Also developed the concept of
  mental age.
• Terman brought Binets concepts to the US. He
  revised the test for US populations. Since he
  worked at Stanford, it is called the
  Stanford-Binet.

13
Testing for the Masses

• WWI brought a need to process the assign a wide
  variety of military recruits. Yerkes headed the
  committee to address the problem
• Arthur Otis was a doctoral student of Termans.
  He developed the Army Alpha (verbal) and Army
  Beta (nonverbal) versions of intelligence
  testing. It became the Otis Group Intelligence
  Scale. It used a single score.
• The Woodworth Personal Data Sheet, a personality
  test, was devised to also help in processing
  military recruits for WWI. It was a yes and
  no test that assumed respondents told the
  truth.

14
Contemporary Uses of Psychological Tests in

• Psychiatric hospitals or clinics
• Medical hospitals or clinics
• Family or child guidance centers
• Elementary and high schools
• Colleges or universities
• Criminal and civil courts
• Businesses and industries