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5.10 Psychometric Principles and Intelligence Testing

5 min readdecember 23, 2022

Sadiyya Holsey

Sadiyya Holsey

Dalia Savy

Dalia Savy

Sadiyya Holsey

Sadiyya Holsey

Dalia Savy

Dalia Savy

Measuring Intelligence

You know how psychologists describe variables using an operational definition? Intelligence is very subjective, too, but are involved in trying to create some sort of test that measures intelligence.

A good test must be:

  1. 🔔 —having uniform testing procedures and the test must be graded the same way for everyone. The performance on the test is usually examined with a pretested group and scores should form a .

    • Examples of exams that you know of are the SAT, ACT, and AP exams.

  2. 🔄 Reliable—For a test to be reliable, it has to yield the same results multiple times. It is best to test by retesting and seeing if the score distribution is similar.

  3. 🔄 Valid is the extent to which the test predicts what it is supposed to.

and are two completely different things and they cannot predict each other.

🎯Target analogy:

  • If you were to shoot a bunch of darts and they all landed to the right of the middle, you would have reliable results, but not valid results.

  • If you were to shoot a bunch of darts that landed slightly above the middle, slightly below the middle, and slightly on the sides of the middle, with a few darts far away, you would have valid results, but not reliable results.

https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/fiveable-92889.appspot.com/o/images%2F-HjmdPLIU50mF.gif?alt=media&token=cd6daf6c-ce56-45c9-a65e-6b74d90823cb

Image Courtesy of Conjoint.

Types of Tests

There are two primary types of tests:

  1. 🧠 —Checks what someone has already learned, like the unit exams you have at school or the AP test at the end of the year.

  2. 🤔 —Designed to predict someone's success in the future. An example of this is the ACT or SAT, which are said to give colleges an idea of how prepared you are for college.

Development of Tests

Alfred Binet

Binet was hired to study an education problem in France 🇫🇷 In order to complete his task, he wanted to compare a child's potential to what the child was actually doing. With this, he came up with .

is the age at which a person functions intellectually. For example, a 9-year-old could have a of a 14-year-old because of their advanced knowledge in certain subjects. If a child has a below their actual age, it means they struggle a little academically.

The idea of an IQ (intelligence quotient) arrived during this time.

IQ = / chronological age x 100

This explains why the average IQ is 100. If someone is 15 years old with a of 15, their IQ is exactly 100.

Grit

is basically passion and determination used to pursue a long-term goal.

Lewis Terman

It was eventually realized that IQ cannot cover all ages. For example, how do we distinguish the of a 53 year old from the of a 52 year old? It's basically impossible, because there isn't much development going on during adulthood years 🤷

Therefore, Terman came up with the , which was deviation based rather than ratio based.

David Wechsler

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale is the most used intelligence test and contains different subtests like:

  • Testing similarities

  • Testing vocabulary 💭

  • Testing design and visual processing 🍥

  • Testing letter and number sequences 🅰️ 1️⃣

It is so well known that there is also a Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.

Francis Galton—Eugenics

He didn't come up with an intelligence test, but he wondered if there was a way we could test intelligence and then match people with higher IQs together. He was part of the movement to encourage only people with high IQs to reproduce 🤦

The Normal Curve

We keep talking about a and deviation, but do you remember what those terms are?

Intelligence scores usually form a , which is a bell-shaped curve with two extremes and a large middle. Let's discuss it:

https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/fiveable-92889.appspot.com/o/images%2F-Gh702xpt1B6e.jpg?alt=media&token=078c54d1-64ca-46b8-a5a8-2ee042ff1180

Image Courtesy of Macmillan,

The farthest right is the top percentile for IQ, and the farthest left on the curve is the bottom percentile for IQ. The middle 68.2% represents average IQ. Only about 2.6% of people are gifted. The 13.5% on the curve represents above average IQ but not gifted.

This normal bell curve, as we discussed in unit 1, is all about intelligence scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale.

The Low Extreme

Having an IQ that is below a score of 70 often means that there is some sort of that causes a person to:

  • have limitations in learning 📖

  • have a hard time solving problems 🤔

  • have a hard time communicating 🗣️

  • lack in many skills needed for everyday life 👔

People with an have a really hard time adapting to the demands of life that require conceptual, social, and practical skills.

An example of an is .

The High Extreme

Those that are usually on the higher end of the are gifted 🎁 Their talents and intellect are beyond what is considered one’s normal .

Savant Syndrome 

Individuals with perform poorly on intelligence tests and have serious intellectual disabilities. However, they have a certain talent or skill that is above average.

An example of this is someone that can barely produce and understand language, but is a genius when it comes to mathematical calculations 🧮

Bias in IQ tests

Every test has some sort of bias, and Earl Hunt and Jerry Carlson had a debate over differences in IQ. The is one of the ways ones test score could be affected because of bias.

Stereotype Threat

The is where someone may do worse on a test because they are told they aren't good enough (because of the stereotypes that exist in society). If a Black woman is told she is incapable of passing a medical exam, she may doubt herself and the stress could impair her performance. The causes a change in our behaviors which, in turn, affects our IQ.

Key Terms to Review (24)

Achievement Test

: An achievement test evaluates an individual's knowledge or proficiency in certain areas that they have been taught or trained in.

Alfred Binet

: Alfred Binet was a French psychologist who, in the early 20th century, developed the first practical intelligence test known as the Binet-Simon scale.

Aptitude Test

: An aptitude test is designed to assess an individual's potential to succeed in a certain area, even if they haven't received training or education in that field.

Bias in IQ tests

: This refers to the criticism that IQ tests may unfairly favor certain groups over others due to cultural, socioeconomic, or other factors not related to actual intelligence.

David Wechsler

: David Wechsler was a renowned American psychologist who developed several widely used intelligence tests, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC).

Down Syndrome

: Down Syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of an extra 21st chromosome. It's characterized by physical growth delays, characteristic facial features, and mild to moderate intellectual disability.

Earl Hunt and Jerry Carlson Debate

: A debate between two psychologists about whether intelligence can be accurately measured by standardized testing methods such as IQ tests.

Francis Galton—Eugenics

: Francis Galton was a British scientist known for his pioneering studies of human intelligence. He coined the term 'eugenics' to describe the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.

Giftedness

: Giftedness refers to exceptional intelligence or talent far above average compared to peers. It can be seen across various domains such as intellectual ability, creativity, artistic talent, leadership capacity etc.

Grit

: Grit is a personality trait that involves perseverance and passion for long-term goals, despite obstacles or failures.

Intellectual Disability

: An intellectual disability is characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem-solving) and adaptive behavior, which covers a range of everyday social and practical skills. This disability originates before the age of 18.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

: IQ is a score derived from standardized tests designed to assess human intelligence. It's calculated by dividing the test taker's mental age by their chronological age and multiplying by 100.

Lewis Terman

: Lewis Terman was an American psychologist known for his revision of the Stanford-Binet IQ test and his longitudinal study on gifted children.

Mental Age

: Mental age refers to an individual's level of mental development relative to others. It was originally used in scoring early versions of IQ tests.

Normal Curve

: A normal curve, also known as bell curve or Gaussian distribution, represents data that clusters around a mean or average. It’s symmetrically balanced with half of all scores falling above and below the mean.

Psychometricians

: Psychometricians are psychologists who specialize in measuring psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, and attitudes.

Reliability

: Reliability refers to the consistency or repeatability of an assessment tool. It means that if you take the same psychological test multiple times under similar conditions, you should get roughly similar results each time.

Savant Syndrome

: Savant Syndrome is a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. These could be in fields like music, art, mathematics etc.

Standardized

: In psychology, standardized refers to uniform procedures for administering and scoring a test. This ensures that results can be accurately compared across individuals or groups.

Stanford-Binet Test

: The Stanford-Binet Test is a cognitive ability and intelligence test that measures fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, and working memory.

Stereotype Threat

: The fear that one's behavior will confirm an existing stereotype of a group with which one identifies. This fear can actually lead to decreased performance.

Validity

: Validity refers to the extent to which a test or experiment measures what it is supposed to measure.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

: The WAIS is an IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents.

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

: The WISC is an individually administered intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16 that can be completed without reading or writing.

5.10 Psychometric Principles and Intelligence Testing

5 min readdecember 23, 2022

Sadiyya Holsey

Sadiyya Holsey

Dalia Savy

Dalia Savy

Sadiyya Holsey

Sadiyya Holsey

Dalia Savy

Dalia Savy

Measuring Intelligence

You know how psychologists describe variables using an operational definition? Intelligence is very subjective, too, but are involved in trying to create some sort of test that measures intelligence.

A good test must be:

  1. 🔔 —having uniform testing procedures and the test must be graded the same way for everyone. The performance on the test is usually examined with a pretested group and scores should form a .

    • Examples of exams that you know of are the SAT, ACT, and AP exams.

  2. 🔄 Reliable—For a test to be reliable, it has to yield the same results multiple times. It is best to test by retesting and seeing if the score distribution is similar.

  3. 🔄 Valid is the extent to which the test predicts what it is supposed to.

and are two completely different things and they cannot predict each other.

🎯Target analogy:

  • If you were to shoot a bunch of darts and they all landed to the right of the middle, you would have reliable results, but not valid results.

  • If you were to shoot a bunch of darts that landed slightly above the middle, slightly below the middle, and slightly on the sides of the middle, with a few darts far away, you would have valid results, but not reliable results.

https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/fiveable-92889.appspot.com/o/images%2F-HjmdPLIU50mF.gif?alt=media&token=cd6daf6c-ce56-45c9-a65e-6b74d90823cb

Image Courtesy of Conjoint.

Types of Tests

There are two primary types of tests:

  1. 🧠 —Checks what someone has already learned, like the unit exams you have at school or the AP test at the end of the year.

  2. 🤔 —Designed to predict someone's success in the future. An example of this is the ACT or SAT, which are said to give colleges an idea of how prepared you are for college.

Development of Tests

Alfred Binet

Binet was hired to study an education problem in France 🇫🇷 In order to complete his task, he wanted to compare a child's potential to what the child was actually doing. With this, he came up with .

is the age at which a person functions intellectually. For example, a 9-year-old could have a of a 14-year-old because of their advanced knowledge in certain subjects. If a child has a below their actual age, it means they struggle a little academically.

The idea of an IQ (intelligence quotient) arrived during this time.

IQ = / chronological age x 100

This explains why the average IQ is 100. If someone is 15 years old with a of 15, their IQ is exactly 100.

Grit

is basically passion and determination used to pursue a long-term goal.

Lewis Terman

It was eventually realized that IQ cannot cover all ages. For example, how do we distinguish the of a 53 year old from the of a 52 year old? It's basically impossible, because there isn't much development going on during adulthood years 🤷

Therefore, Terman came up with the , which was deviation based rather than ratio based.

David Wechsler

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale is the most used intelligence test and contains different subtests like:

  • Testing similarities

  • Testing vocabulary 💭

  • Testing design and visual processing 🍥

  • Testing letter and number sequences 🅰️ 1️⃣

It is so well known that there is also a Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.

Francis Galton—Eugenics

He didn't come up with an intelligence test, but he wondered if there was a way we could test intelligence and then match people with higher IQs together. He was part of the movement to encourage only people with high IQs to reproduce 🤦

The Normal Curve

We keep talking about a and deviation, but do you remember what those terms are?

Intelligence scores usually form a , which is a bell-shaped curve with two extremes and a large middle. Let's discuss it:

https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/fiveable-92889.appspot.com/o/images%2F-Gh702xpt1B6e.jpg?alt=media&token=078c54d1-64ca-46b8-a5a8-2ee042ff1180

Image Courtesy of Macmillan,

The farthest right is the top percentile for IQ, and the farthest left on the curve is the bottom percentile for IQ. The middle 68.2% represents average IQ. Only about 2.6% of people are gifted. The 13.5% on the curve represents above average IQ but not gifted.

This normal bell curve, as we discussed in unit 1, is all about intelligence scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale.

The Low Extreme

Having an IQ that is below a score of 70 often means that there is some sort of that causes a person to:

  • have limitations in learning 📖

  • have a hard time solving problems 🤔

  • have a hard time communicating 🗣️

  • lack in many skills needed for everyday life 👔

People with an have a really hard time adapting to the demands of life that require conceptual, social, and practical skills.

An example of an is .

The High Extreme

Those that are usually on the higher end of the are gifted 🎁 Their talents and intellect are beyond what is considered one’s normal .

Savant Syndrome 

Individuals with perform poorly on intelligence tests and have serious intellectual disabilities. However, they have a certain talent or skill that is above average.

An example of this is someone that can barely produce and understand language, but is a genius when it comes to mathematical calculations 🧮

Bias in IQ tests

Every test has some sort of bias, and Earl Hunt and Jerry Carlson had a debate over differences in IQ. The is one of the ways ones test score could be affected because of bias.

Stereotype Threat

The is where someone may do worse on a test because they are told they aren't good enough (because of the stereotypes that exist in society). If a Black woman is told she is incapable of passing a medical exam, she may doubt herself and the stress could impair her performance. The causes a change in our behaviors which, in turn, affects our IQ.

Key Terms to Review (24)

Achievement Test

: An achievement test evaluates an individual's knowledge or proficiency in certain areas that they have been taught or trained in.

Alfred Binet

: Alfred Binet was a French psychologist who, in the early 20th century, developed the first practical intelligence test known as the Binet-Simon scale.

Aptitude Test

: An aptitude test is designed to assess an individual's potential to succeed in a certain area, even if they haven't received training or education in that field.

Bias in IQ tests

: This refers to the criticism that IQ tests may unfairly favor certain groups over others due to cultural, socioeconomic, or other factors not related to actual intelligence.

David Wechsler

: David Wechsler was a renowned American psychologist who developed several widely used intelligence tests, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC).

Down Syndrome

: Down Syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of an extra 21st chromosome. It's characterized by physical growth delays, characteristic facial features, and mild to moderate intellectual disability.

Earl Hunt and Jerry Carlson Debate

: A debate between two psychologists about whether intelligence can be accurately measured by standardized testing methods such as IQ tests.

Francis Galton—Eugenics

: Francis Galton was a British scientist known for his pioneering studies of human intelligence. He coined the term 'eugenics' to describe the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.

Giftedness

: Giftedness refers to exceptional intelligence or talent far above average compared to peers. It can be seen across various domains such as intellectual ability, creativity, artistic talent, leadership capacity etc.

Grit

: Grit is a personality trait that involves perseverance and passion for long-term goals, despite obstacles or failures.

Intellectual Disability

: An intellectual disability is characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem-solving) and adaptive behavior, which covers a range of everyday social and practical skills. This disability originates before the age of 18.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

: IQ is a score derived from standardized tests designed to assess human intelligence. It's calculated by dividing the test taker's mental age by their chronological age and multiplying by 100.

Lewis Terman

: Lewis Terman was an American psychologist known for his revision of the Stanford-Binet IQ test and his longitudinal study on gifted children.

Mental Age

: Mental age refers to an individual's level of mental development relative to others. It was originally used in scoring early versions of IQ tests.

Normal Curve

: A normal curve, also known as bell curve or Gaussian distribution, represents data that clusters around a mean or average. It’s symmetrically balanced with half of all scores falling above and below the mean.

Psychometricians

: Psychometricians are psychologists who specialize in measuring psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, and attitudes.

Reliability

: Reliability refers to the consistency or repeatability of an assessment tool. It means that if you take the same psychological test multiple times under similar conditions, you should get roughly similar results each time.

Savant Syndrome

: Savant Syndrome is a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. These could be in fields like music, art, mathematics etc.

Standardized

: In psychology, standardized refers to uniform procedures for administering and scoring a test. This ensures that results can be accurately compared across individuals or groups.

Stanford-Binet Test

: The Stanford-Binet Test is a cognitive ability and intelligence test that measures fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, and working memory.

Stereotype Threat

: The fear that one's behavior will confirm an existing stereotype of a group with which one identifies. This fear can actually lead to decreased performance.

Validity

: Validity refers to the extent to which a test or experiment measures what it is supposed to measure.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

: The WAIS is an IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents.

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

: The WISC is an individually administered intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16 that can be completed without reading or writing.


© 2024 Fiveable Inc. All rights reserved.

AP® and SAT® are trademarks registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse this website.


© 2024 Fiveable Inc. All rights reserved.

AP® and SAT® are trademarks registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse this website.