Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T02:00:02.780Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Non-verbal Measures of Ability Within the Context of Ability Assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2016

Helga A. H. Rowe*
Affiliation:
Australian Council for Educational Research
*
Australian Council for Educational Research, P.O. Box 210, Hawthorn, Victoria, 3122
Get access

Extract

To provide a framework for our discussion of the use of non-verbal ability tests, I would like to precede my paper by a few general remarks concerning ability testing in the 1980s. Everything I am going to say does, in fact, apply to non-verbal tests, the same as it applies to other types of tests; and it certainly applies to the battery of non-verbal ability tests, the NAT, which the ACER will publish during the next 12 months.

We cannot ignore the controversy which is going on around us. No one operates in a vacuum. No matter what our present personal attitude to the use of tests in assessment might be, nothing we do can be perceived in isolation from present, and for that matter past, debate in the field.

We are finding ourselves at a point in time where there is widespread concern and often fierce debate about the use of standardized tests for the assessment of individual differences and the evaluation of programs.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anastasi, A. Psychological Testing, 5th Edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1980.Google Scholar
Cronbach, L.J. and Snow, R.E. Aptitudes and Instructional Methods: A Handbook for Research and Interaction. New York: Irvington, 1977.Google Scholar
Detterman, D.K. and Sternberg, R.J. (Eds) How much can Intelligence be Increased? Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1982.Google Scholar
Harrington, M. Decade of Decision. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980.Google Scholar
Luria, A.R. Higher Cortical Functions in Man. New York: Basic Books, 1966.Google Scholar
Luria, A.R. The Working Brain. New York: Basic Books, 1973.Google Scholar
Pellegrino, J.W. and Glaser, R.Cognitive correlates and components in the analysis of individual differences”. Intelligence, 1979, 3, 187214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, I.M. Spatial Ability. London: University of London Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R.J. and Detterman, D.K. (Eds) Human Intelligence: Perspectives on its Theory and Measurement. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1979.Google Scholar
Vernon, P.E.The nature of field independence”. Journal of Personality, 1972, 40, 366391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wigdor, A.K. and Garner, W.R. (Eds) Ability Testing: Uses, Consequences and Controversies (2 Vols). Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1982.Google Scholar