Spelling tests, timed arithmetic tests, and map quizzes are all examples of achievement tests. Each measures how well students can demonstrate their knowledge of a particular academic subject or skill. Achievement tests on a small scale like these are administered frequently in schools. Less frequently, students are given more inclusive achievement tests that cover a broader spectrum of informatio…
People make sense out of visual scenes by relying on various cues. The Ames Room is a specially constructed space that demonstrates the power of these cues. Normally, people use monocular depth cues such as relative size and height in the visual plane as indicators of depth. If two people of similar size stand a distance part, the one closer to the viewer appears larger. Similarly, the person fart…
The Apgar Score is the sum of numerical results from tests performed on newborn infants. The tests were devised in 1953 by pediatrician Virginia Apgar (1909-1974). The primary purpose of the Apgar series of tests is to determine as soon as possible after birth whether an infant requires any medical attention, and to determine whether transfer to a neonatal (newborn infant) intensive care unit is n…
Psychological assessment is used for a variety of purposes, ranging from screening job applicants to providing data for research projects. Most assessment methods fall into one of three categories: observational methods, personality inventories, or projective techniques. Observational assessment is performed by a trained professional either in the subject's natural setting (such as a classr…
The Bayley Scales of Infant Development measure mental and physical, as well as emotional and social, development. The test, which takes approximately 45 minutes, is administered individually by having the child respond to a series of stimuli. The Mental Scales, which measure intellectual development, assess functions such as memory, learning, problem-solving ability, and verbal communication skil…
Creativity tests, mostly devised during the past 30 years, are aimed at assessing the qualities and abilities that constitute creativity. These tests evaluate mental abilities in ways that are different from—and even diametrically opposed to—conventional intelligence tests. Because the kinds of abilities measured by creativity tests differ from those measured by intelligence quotient…
Culture-fair tests, also called culture-free tests, are designed to assess intelligence (or other attributes) without relying on knowledge specific to any individual cultural group. The first culture-fair test, called Army Examination Beta, was developed by the United States military during World War II to screen soldiers of average intelligence who were illiterate or for whom English was a second…
Based on children's drawings of human figures, this test can be used with two different scoring systems for different purposes. One measures nonverbal intelligence while the other screens for emotional or behavioral disorders. During the testing session, which can be completed in 15 minutes, the child is asked to draw three figures—a man, a woman, and him- or herself. To evaluate int…
Electroencephalography is used for a variety of research and diagnostic purposes. It is usually conducted using electrodes, metal discs attached to the scalp or to wires connected to the skull or even to the brain itself. The signals obtained through the electrodes must then be amplified in order to be interpreted. EEG patterns typically take the form of waves, which may be measured according to b…
The use of free association was pioneered by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, after he became dissatisfied with the hypnosis-based "cathartic" treatment of hysterical symptoms practiced by his colleague Josef Breuer (1842-1925), through which patients were able to recall traumatic experiences while under hypnosis and express the original emotions that had been repressed …
The Kohs block test, or Kohs block design test, is a cognitive test for children or adults with a mental age between 3 and 19. It is mainly used to test persons with language or hearing handicaps but also given to disadvantaged and non-English-speaking children. The child is shown 17 cards with a variety of colored designs and asked to reproduce them using a set of colored blocks. Performance is b…
Because emotional states are often accompanied by physiological arousal, researchers have often wondered if physiological measurements could be used to detect what a person is thinking or feeling. If you feel guilty for telling a lie, are there physiological cues that will betray you? The assumption that there are such cues forms the basic rationale behind the polygraph test. It is assumed that a …
Psychologists rely heavily on measurements for very different purposes, ranging from clinical diagnoses based on test scores to the effects of an independent variable on a dependent variable in an experiment. Several different issues arise when considering measurement. One consideration is whether the measurement shows reliability and validity. Reliability refers to consistency: if the results of …
The Merrill-Palmer scales of mental tests are intelligence test for children aged 18 months to four years, which can be used to supplement or substitute for the Stanford-Binet test. Its 19 subtests cover language skills, motor skills, manual dexterity, and matching ability. They require both oral responses and tasks involving a variety of materials including pegboards, formboards, cubes, Kohs desi…
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is a test used to gather information on personality, attitudes, and mental health of persons aged 16 or older and to aid in clinical diagnosis. It consists of 556 true-false questions, with different formats available for individual and group use. The MMPI is untimed and can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours to complete. This is normally done …
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assigns people to one of sixteen different categories or types, based on their answers to 126 questions, such as: "How easy or difficult do you find it to present yourself, consistently, over a long period as a person who is patient?" There are 4 different subscales of the test, which purport to measure different personality tendencies. Extraver…
Personality inventories, also called objective tests, are standardized and can be administered to a number of people at the same time. A psychologist need not be present when the test is given, and the answers can usually be scored by a computer. Scores are obtained by comparison with norms for each category on the test. A personality inventory may measure one factor, such as anxiety level, or it …
Several varieties of rating scales have been developed. One common form of rating scale presents the rater with a spectrum of potential responses that includes antithetical elements at each end of a range of intermediate possibilities, on which the rater is expected to indicate the position that most accurately represents the rater's response to the subject in question. Another form of rati…
Role playing was developed by Jacob Moreno, a Viennese psychologist who contended that people could gain more from acting out their problems than from talking about them. This method requires a protagonist (the client whose problems are being acted out); auxiliary egos (group members who assume the roles of other people in the protagonist's life); an audience (other group members who observ…
Popularly known as the "Inkblot" test, the Rorschach technique, or Rorschach Psychodiagnostic Test is the most widely used projective psychological test. The Rorschach is used to help assess personality structure and identify emotional problems. Like other projective techniques, it is based on the principle that subjects viewing neutral, ambiguous stimuli will project their own perso…
In March 1994, the test formerly known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test became the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). The name change reflects the test's objectives more accurately, that is, to measure a student's scholastic ability and achievement rather than his or her aptitude. The format of the SAT remains basically the same, however; it is a series of tests, given to groups of stu…
The Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) is a group or individually administered test that nonverbally assesses intelligence in children and adults through abstract reasoning tasks. It is sometimes called Raven's, although the SPM is only one of three tests that together comprise Raven's Progressive Matrices. Appropriate for ages 8-65, the SPM consists of 60 problems (five sets of 12)…
Standardized tests are used in psychology, as well as in everyday life, to measure intelligence, aptitude, achievement, personality, attitudes and interests. Attempts are made to standardize tests in order to eliminate biases that may result, consciously or unconsciously, from varied administration of the test. Standardized tests are used to produce norms—or statistical standards— th…
Consisting of questions and short tasks arranged from easy to difficult, the Stanford-Binet measures a wide variety of verbal and nonverbal skills. Its fifteen tests are divided into the following four cognitive areas:1) verbal reasoning (vocabulary, comprehension, absurdities, verbal relations); 2) quantitative reasoning (math, number series, equation building); 3) abstract/visual reasoning (patt…
The Thematic Apperception Test is an untimed, individually administered psychological test used for personality assessment. Suitable for ages 14-40, it is used to identify dominant drives, emotions, and conflicts, as well as levels of emotional maturity, observational skills, imagination, and creativity. The subject is shown a series of pictures, one at a time, and asked to make up a story about e…
As a general example, a vocational aptitude test might consist of an instrument that assesses an individual's abilities, personality characteristics, and interests, and compares the individual's responses to those persons considered to be successful in their occupations and professions, with a notation of points of similarity and dissimilarity. Vocational aptitude tests are valuable …
The Wechsler Intelligence Scales are divided into two sections: verbal and nonverbal (or "performance"), with separate scores for each. Verbal intelligence, the component most often associated with academic success, implies the ability to think in abstract terms using either A test subject performs the block test portion of the Wechsler intelligence scales. (Will & Deni Mc…
In a word association test, the researcher presents a series of words to individual respondents. For each word, participants are instructed to respond with the first word (i.e., associate) that comes to mind. Freud believed that such responses provided clues to peoples' personalities (free association). Cognitive psychologists, however, use this procedure to investigate how semantic informa…