Psychometric ability

TABLE 2 Suggestions for constructs to account for the correlation between brain size and psychometric ability test scores... 

Kastrau et al. Stroke 2005 36(4) 825-829 Retrospective evaluation of aphasia in patients with hemicraniectomy for dominant sphere infarcts 14 patients with surgery evaluated with psychometric quantification twice over 470 days Evolution of aphasic symptoms 13/14 patients with improved scores and increased ability to communicate from baseline in 13 patients. Young age and early decompressive surgery were main... 

Nonpsychotic persons also experience impaired performance as judged by a number of psychomotor and psychometric tests. Psychotic individuals, however, may actually show improvement in their performance as the psychosis is alleviated. The ability of the atypical antipsychotic drugs to improve some domains of cognition in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is controversial. Some individuals experience marked improvement and for that reason, cognition should be assessed in all patients with schizophrenia and a trial of an atypical agent considered, even if positive symptoms are well controlled by typical agents. 

Each subject wrote a subjective account of his experience within a week after the experimental session. Approximately six weeks after the session, subjects were administered questionnaires that related to (1) the effects of the session on postsession creative ability and (2) the validity and acceptance of solutions conceived during the session. These data were in addition to the psychometric data comparing results of the two testing periods. 

Support for the evaluation of the non-technical make up of a candidate is very commonly sought by carrying out some form of psychometric tests on the candidates. Psychometric tests are designed to assess either ability (cognitive tests) or personality characteristics and there are three basic types ones to assess a specific ability, e.g. numeracy, verbal and spatial perception ones to test general mental ability, e.g. an-... 

Tata et al. (1994) used psychometric tests to follow up 21 patients 6 months after abstinence from long-term therapeutic doses of prescribed BZs. They also examined 21 normal matched controls. Pre- and postwithdrawal and 6 months afterward, the results demonstrated significant impairment in patients in verbal learning and memory, psychomotor, visuo-motor and visuo-conceptual abilities, compared with controls. Lagnaoui et al. (2002) found increased dementia in elderly patients treated with BZs in a community setting. 

Two different test batteries, the World Health Organization (WHO) Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery and the Neurobehavioral Evaluation System (NES), are currently the most widely used test batteries in occupational behavioral toxicology studies. Both include components of the WAIS described previously in addition to other psychometric tests of behavioral function. The WHO Neurobehavioral Core Test Battery is a pencil and paper-administered test battery, whereas the NES is a computerized test battery that has been translated into several languages and in fact presents a more extensive set of tests than does the WHO in that it includes tests of psychomotor performance, cognition, memory and learning, and perceptual ability and affect. 

T]he great preponderance of the prediction that is possible from any set of cognitive tests is attributable to the general ability that they share. What I have called empirical g is not merely an interesting psychometric phenomenon, but lies at the heart of the prediction of real-life performances. (Thorndike 1994). 

Jensen AR 1998 The factor the science of mental ability. Praeger, Westport, CT Jensen AR 2000 The factor psychometrics and biology. In The nature of intelligence. Wiley, Chichester (Novartis Found Symp 233) p 37—46 Jensen AR 2000 Charles Spearman the discoverer of g. In Kimble GA, Westheimer M (eds) Portraits of pioneers in psychology. Vol IV. American Psychological Association, Washington DC, and Erlbaum, NJ, in press... 

Size of the brain is among the better established biological correlates of mental test scores, with a moderate effect size. There is some evidence for a small correlation between nerve conduction velocity and psychometric intelligence, and some preliminary work relating aspects of brain metabolism to mental abilities. These areas are reviewed by Deary Caryl (1997). 

Measure Correlation with psychometric intelligence Theoretical tract ability Cause or consequence ofpsychometric testscores Comments... 

If brain function measures that correlate with ability test scores occur at different levels of description then it is of interest to discover whether constructs from more than one level share variance that relates to ability test scores. Three examples of this approach follow. All three discuss ways in which the correlation between inspection times and psychometric intelligence may be investigated further. 

Psychometric—WAIS-R Digit Symbol and British Ability Scales (BAS) Information Processing subtests... 

Carroll s (1993) comprehensive reanalysis of the psychometric literature led to the development of a three-stratum hierarchical model in which g occupies a singular stratum at the apex of the hierarchy accounting for approximately 50% of the covariance among diverse measures of intellect. Carroll s synthesis of the factor analytic literature is subject to two related criticisms. Horn (2000) noted that the g factor is not invariant in several different studies and thus cannot constitute a well-defined theoretical constmct. Gustafsson (1999) noted that Carroll used exploratory rather than confirmatory factor analyses. Gustafsson s confirmatory factor analyses led to the conclusion that g is identical with fluid ability (gf) and that there is no need to hypothesize an independent factor. 

There is a large literature relating psychometric indices of g to relatively simple information processing tasks. These data may be interpreted in two contradictory ways. (1) There is a singular basic ability to process information that is related to g. (2) g arises from the interaction of several distinct elementary information processing abilities (see e.g. Detterman 1994,1999). Studies of infant information processing abilities and some recent multivariate analyses provide support for the former interpretation. 

---