Verified Document

IQ Testing Essay

¶ … person is given a raw score on a particular test the person has no way of knowing how their score compares with other scores on the same test. For example, if a person got a raw score of 62 on a test of reading the person really does not know what that score means relative to the scores of other people who took the same test. When people describe themselves or someone else being as scoring at a particular percentile on a certain ability or test they are referring to the percentile rank scored on a particular test. The percentile rank represents the number of people at or below a particular score on the test (Runyon, Coleman, & Pittenger, 2000). For instance, the statement such as, "My child is in the 75th percentile in reading," means that the child scored higher than 75% of other children who took the same test. Percentile ranks simply allow for a comparison of a single score in a distribution relative to other scores in the same distribution of scores on the same measure (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2013). These are test result measurements; they are not general ability rankings. For example, scoring at the 75th percentile on a standardized reading test does not mean...

Thus, it offers comparative information above and beyond reporting the raw score on a test. Percentile rankings are most often calculated for normal distributions where the measures of central tendency are equivalent are not valid comparisons in non-normal distributions. In a highly skewed distribution, such as measure of reaction time which is highly positively skewed, percentile ranks calculated by using the mean value as the 50th percentile are not meaningful (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2013).
When describing dispersion, or how the scores on the test are spread about the mean of the distribution, the most common statistic used is the standard deviation. The standard deviation is the square root of the variance (Runyon et al., 2000). The variance is a representation of the average distribution of scores around the mean of the distribution. The standard deviation describes how far particular score lies from the mean of the distribution (Huck, 2012). When using the standard deviation as a descriptive…

Sources used in this document:
References

Cohen, J. R & Swerdlik, M. (2013). Psychological testing and assessment: An introduction to tests and measurements (8th Ed). New York: McGraw Hill Education.

Huck, S.W. (2012). Reading statistics and research (6th ed.).Columbus, OH: Allyn & Bacon.

Runyon, R.P., Coleman, K.A., & Pittenger, D.J. (2000). Fundamentals of behavioral statistics

(9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

IQ Testing
Words: 2095 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System An effort to improve the quality of education for all students and to ensure that no child is left behind, Massachusetts advocates, parents and educators of the Coalition for Authentic Reform in Education (CARE) have proposed, House Bill 3660 for the reform of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAST) test. The high rate of high school dropouts and gaps in achievement among cultures and economic levels has suggested

IQ Discrimination the Concept of General Ability
Words: 3541 Length: 12 Document Type: Term Paper

IQ Discrimination The concept of general ability or intelligence has in the past been the most important single way of accounting for individual differences. IQ (Intelligence quotient) is usually assessed by measuring performances on a test of a number of different skills, using tasks that emphasize reasoning and problem solving in a number of different areas. Early assessments of IQ were done in France by Alfred Binet in 1905, as part

IQ Tests: The Best of
Words: 678 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

All of these students will have different educational needs, even if they have the same numerical IQ. Thus, "the discrepancy," of a score below 100 or average, will not tell educators "anything about what kind of intervention might help the child learn" in a fashion that is useful to the educators. (Benson, 2003) Binet, the originator of intelligence testing, evolved his test to identify if students had normal intelligence and

IQ & Cultural Bias IQ
Words: 2634 Length: 6 Document Type: Thesis

The researchers found that the student's minimum performance rate correlated more closely with their IQ scores than any other single variable. High and low IQ scores were predicted on the basis of the worst performance (minimum recall) and the best performance (maximum recall). When compared, those that were predicted on the basis of the worst performance were more accurate, indicating that "worst performance reveals more about intelligence than best performance"

Testing a Sample of Iqs Compared to the Population Mean
Words: 530 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

colloquially individuals may think that some people are smarter than others, the more scientific term for the concept of being smart is intelligence. The notion of measuring a person's intelligence was first pursued in the early 1900s by Alfred Binet (Kamin, 1995). The French government was looking for a way in which to help predict which students would have the most difficulty in school (Kamin, 1995), so they hired

Detractors to Binet on IQ Testing
Words: 1959 Length: 6 Document Type: Research Paper

Intelligence Testing The author of this report is asked to answer three general questions about intelligence. The first question asks for the general underpinnings and genesis of the discussions about intelligence including what was suggested by Binet as well as the general definition and formulations of the intelligence quotient, or IQ. The second question and discussion is about the challenges to the definition of intelligence as offered and suggested by Gardner,

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now