MM,
This is a review of a BOOK that contains the assessemtn in quesiton. Unfortunately, it IS the same Reynolds.
The review below refers to the assessment used as an "emerging" scale. I would ask to see relaibility and valididty data. MOST new intelligence scales demonstrate their validity by comparison to the WISC.
I tried to get into Mental Measurement Yearbook (16th edition) but it is not availabe to me on-line. However, the test is listed as in it. You should be able to get this at any university or large public library.
Martie
Recent Advances in Intelligence Assessment Theory and Practice
[REVIEW]
Flanagan, Dawn P.; Harrison, Patti L.; Moses, James A. Jr.
Abstract
Reviews the book, Contemporary Intellectual Assessment: Theories, Tests, and Issues (2nd ed.) by Dawn P. Flanagan and Patti L. Harrison (Eds.) (see record 2005-09732-000). The coverage in this volume admirably meets the growing need for comprehensive information about current intellectual assessment methods of these various groups of theorists and practitioners. It provides authoritative, comprehensive, lucid information that integrates experimental work and theoretical formulations of cognitive processing with clinical assessment methods. This handbook is a superb theoretical and clinical overview of the state-of-the-art status of current intelligence testing. The standards of theoretical and methodological rigor, comprehensive topical coverage, balanced and objective critical analysis, life span cognitive evaluation, and advocacy for special populations (including the gifted, learning disabled, and culturally linguistically diverse individuals) are beautifully balanced. One could not ask for more from a review and critical evaluation of this extensive, rich, and complex literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)
Contemporary Intellectual Assessment: Theories, Tests, and IssuesDawn P. Flanagan and Patti L. Harrison (Eds.) New York: Guilford Press, 2005. 667 pp. ISBN 1-59385-125-1. $70.00
Many new, integrative conceptual models of cognition have been formulated, developed, expanded, refined, and validated during the past decade. The frequency and quality of these developments are increasing and appear likely to continue to accelerate. The leading cognitive theorists who have formulated these conceptual models have provided their colleagues with broadly applicable, integrative experimental and theoretical psychometric findings that have refined and expanded our understanding of the nature of human cognition. Many of the developments in cognitive theory building also have been translated into clinical assessment tools that provide new methods for pediatric, adolescent, adult, and geriatric intellectual assessment in the experimental laboratory as well as in applied educational and clinical settings.
Both experimentalists and clinicians require objective and precise assessment instruments that accurately and validly measure important, specific cognitive skills. Cognitive psychologists, neuropsychologists, forensic psychologists, gerontologists, school psychologists, and educators all are being increasingly challenged to provide individualized, evidence-based, valid, and reliable cognitive assessment. Theoreticians and test developers have responded to these diverse needs through the development of a wide variety of new intellectual assessment measures as well as through development of progressively more refined and sophisticated versions of well-established, classical, cognitive assessment instruments. Although it is fortunate that there is an increasing wealth of theoretical information and clinical instrumentation to meet the needs of various cognitive assessment experimentalists and clinicians, it has become progressively more difficult to remain current in one's knowledge concerning this burgeoning literature.
The coverage in this volume admirably meets the growing need for comprehensive information about current intellectual assessment methods of these various groups of theorists and practitioners. It provides authoritative, comprehensive, lucid information that integrates experimental work and theoretical formulations of cognitive processing with clinical assessment methods. Many of the chapters were written by leading authorities in cognitive theory and specific clinical assessment methods, and some chapters were written by the original theorists who developed the conceptual models that are presented. Multiple chapters also were written by the clinicians who developed or most recently revised the important intellectual assessment instruments that are discussed. A wide variety of theories and assessment methodologies are presented in a parallel, integrative format that encourages and enhances informed choice among intellectual assessment methods and their component measures that can be optimized to answer the specific assessment question and the individual needs of the client.
The volume includes separate historical introductions to issues that are related to intelligence test development as well as intelligence test profile interpretation. The nature of intelligence as a theoretical construct and its early operational definition provide a useful framework in which to view the strengths as well as the limitations of current intellectual assessment theories and methods. Empirical evidence is provided even within these historical reviews to demonstrate why some of these classical ideas have been retained in current assessment methods, whereas others have been revised or removed. From the historical viewpoint, we come to appreciate the progressive unification of cognitive theory, scientific evidence, and clinical application to the development of intellectual assessment methods. We see the evolution of intellectual assessment from an early, global, performance-level form of analysis to a currently much more refined, multifactorial, dimensionally organized framework that is directed toward analysis of a complex set of related cognitive skills.
In recent years there has been increasing recognition of the value of cross-battery assessment, which is based on integration of complementary, dimensionally defined cognitive skills that are assessed with component measures that may be selected from different tests. This general, dimensional theoretical approach allows one to develop individualized assessment procedures for each client on the basis of the specific assessment question and the unique pattern of strengths and deficits that the client may present. Within this model, fluid and crystallized intellectual abilities were identified long ago, and they have been repeatedly validated. More recent work has expanded the model to include a variety of other memorial, perceptual, and mental processing speed variables that have been identified primarily through extensive factor analytic construct validation procedures.
Various empirically supported cognitive theories of Cattell, Horn, Carroll, Gardner, Sternberg, Naglieri, and Das are presented in detail by their originators and developers. This provides a dazzling array of new ideas, insights, and perspectives on the integrative theme of intelligence as an evolving construct that is increasingly seen as a multidimensional, multilayered, interactive, complex pattern of abilities that is in dynamic, interactive, hierarchically organized interaction among perceptual, conceptual, memorial, and executive levels of analysis. The authors present empirical evidence to support each aspect of these models that demonstrates their validity as well as their heuristic conceptual value.
The CattellHornCarroll (CHC) multidimensional model of intelligence has had wide-ranging effects on the development and revision of cognitive tests that are currently in wide use. This cross-battery assessment methodology provides a means for comparison of dimensionally similar and complementary abilities across tests, and it provides one with an inventory of the scope and limitations of the dimensional coverage that is provided within a given set or combination of measures. Many theoretical models of cognitive information processing are presented in the text and are integrated with the empirically validated models that are based on CHC theory. The CHC model is shown to be a centrally important theoretical model that has guided development of the latest versions of the Wechsler intelligence scales for children and adults; the revisions of the StanfordBinet IV and V; the latest versions of the Kaufman intelligence scales for children, adolescents, and adults; the WoodcockJohnson III Cognitive Battery; and the Wide Range Intelligence Test. The CHC model also has been demonstrated to be a powerful dimensional methodology that is relevant to analysis of cultural and linguistic factors. Use of this methodology has allowed researchers to match the degree of acculturation and language proficiency in English with specific component measures from standard intelligence tests according to objective, well-validated criteria. Researchers can now choose specific assessment measures on an individual basis that are valid and appropriate for assessment of individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Investigation of intelligence test profile patterns in terms of component cognitive skills rather than broadly defined cognitive abilities also has proven to be important for refinement of analysis of patterns of ipsative strength and deficit among learning-disabled individuals. Specific methods for the assessment of such skills also are presented as additional applications of the CHC theoretical model.
The text includes emerging intellectual assessment scales, such as the Differential Ability Scales, the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test, the Cognitive Assessment System, and the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, with detailed presentations of their theoretical foundations, clinical utility, validity, and reliability. Case presentations illustrate the usefulness and skill coverage of these methods in clinical application settings. Many of these measures explicitly reference the CHC factorial model of intellectual ability assessment. Among the presentations of specific intellectual measures are chapters that discuss recently revised versions of classical measures such as the WoodcockJohnson Cognitive Battery III; the Kaufman intelligence scales for children, adolescents, and adults; the Wechsler Scales for children and adults; and the StanfordBinet V. These presentations appear in a series of chapters that were authored, in many cases, by the individuals who were in charge of revision of the current editions of these measures. The chapters are uniformly well written, self-contained, balanced, objective, and well integrated. A special feature of these presentations is that many of these measures also are cross-validated with other tests that are presented separately in the volume. This feature enhances and applies the cross-battery, multidimensional assessment model that characterizes the volume as a whole.
A series of chapters addresses specialized assessment issues that are related to assessment of preschool children and exceptional children who are gifted, learning disabled, or culturally or linguistically diverse relative to children from the typical American culture. These chapters illustrate the importance of dimensional assessment and specify and highlight special abilities as well as sources of potential bias by means of the CHC model. The recommended individualized assessment procedures are detailed and explicitly operationally defined. There is rigorous validation of the methodology, and the authors stress the multifactorial nature of intellectual ability to highlight the pattern of strengths and deficits that the individual may present. A particular strength of these discussions is the presentation of an explicit, detailed, multistep process for analysis of both level and pattern of performance within each of these groups. The authors also present a valuable interpretive model that emphasizes multilevel hypothesis testing and integration with test behavior and the psychoeducational history rather than only simple norm referencing as the primary basis for clinical inference. Use of cross-battery assessment methodology to choose the best set of assessment measures for evaluation of a given individual is a special strength of the presentation.
An unusual and particularly valuable chapter presents a detailed analysis of currently available measures of nonverbal intellectual assessment. These methods are particularly useful for evaluation of those individuals who have hearing impairment or deafness, use English as a second language, have a brain injury, have a nonverbal learning disability, have visual and/or motor impairment, or use nonstandard English as a primary language. Such individuals present special challenges that are not well met by the traditional methods of intellectual assessment. Use of these nonverbal procedures can be particularly valuable for demonstration of the individuals' specific cognitive strengths as well as their deficits. The authors present an information-processing model that highlights potential difficulties with information encoding input, sensory or cognitive processing, and response output for each of the special needs populations that they discuss. They present psychometric characteristics, clinical applications, and multiple specific sources of evidence for the validity of each measure and contrast these in the text as well as in tabular formats.
The authors discuss the statistical methodology of confirmatory factor analysis and illustrate this discussion with data from multiple well-structured intelligence tests that are based on the CHC factorial model. The comparison of the WoodcockJohnson III Cognitive Battery set of tests and the measures of the Cognitive Assessment System provides the most elegant example of the methodology. It demonstrates the convergent validity of these measures and supports the theoretical CHC factorial model that unifies the volume as a whole. Aside from its value as an explanation of the statistical methodology, this chapter provides a particularly valuable integrative summary of the CHC model through the analysis of many of the intellectual measures that are presented elsewhere in the volume. The presentation enhances understanding of the theoretical model as well as its statistical basis. A complementary chapter illustrates how the CHC model and its application to intellectual assessment methodology, which is modeled throughout the volume, meet generally accepted standards for test development, clinical application, and validation.
This handbook is a superb theoretical and clinical overview of the state-of-the-art status of current intelligence testing. The standards of theoretical and methodological rigor, comprehensive topical coverage, balanced and objective critical analysis, life span cognitive evaluation, and advocacy for special populations (including the gifted, learning disabled, and culturally linguistically diverse individuals) are beautifully balanced. One could not ask for more from a review and critical evaluation of this extensive, rich, and complex literature.
