Psychology Paper

Stanford-Binet test

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Stanford-Binet test

Introduction

Experts and participants in psychological experiments requiring the test refer to it as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. It serves as an independent intelligence test revised by a renowned expert such as Lewis M. Terman. The administration of the intelligence test focuses on individuals and not groups. Its release came in 2003 and it exists in its fifth edition form since its establishment. Experts use the Stanford-Binet test in identifying intellectual deficiencies and developmental problems among young children. As per the occurrence of the tests, it focuses on five main factors, which revolve around nonverbal and verbal subtests. Some of the known factors include working memory, knowledge, visual-spatial processing, and knowledge (Joshi, Kale, Chandel, & Pal, 2015). As per the establishment of the test, many psychological experts acquire a modern approach to intelligence testing as it used adaptive testing in its measurement process.

Origin of the Test

The test has its origin in France but the United States took a major role in revising its components and measurement factors. Alfred Binet serves as the scientist behind its existence. He acquired motivation from the initiative of the French Government to introduce universal education through policy in France. The situation saw the need to have fully integrated children for the slow and quick students in the learning environment. Slow children had most of their education in an asylum, which served as institutions for sick children. Binet believed in case of studies as being significant due to their detailed status. However, the shortcoming revolved around the aspect of testing many people, which would become time-consuming. Lewis Terman had to take a central role in revising the test to eliminate its limitations.

Description of the Test

As reiterated above, the test acts as a standardized approach used to measure cognitive abilities and intelligence among children and adults. It concentrates on children from the age of two years and continues to adulthood. The original purpose of the test focused on assisting educational experts to place children in the needed educational backgrounds. Educational experts used it to determine the cognitive functioning and intellectual levels among children, adults, adolescents, and preschoolers. The situation saw the identity and diagnosis of a number of psychological disorders. Currently, educational experts have the capacity to diagnose psychological disorders such as mental retardation, developmental delay, and learning disability. Educational experts also acquire the capacity to know the level of giftedness among children. Schools and curriculum planners know how to undertake educational placement and planning initiatives, research, and neuropsychological evaluations. The clinical and school environment serves as the main environment to implement the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.

Presentation of the Test

The Stanford-Binet test may take approximately 120 minutes to undertake (Joshi, Kale, Chandel, & Pal, 2015). The length of the test may take place depending on the age of a participant and the subtests administered. The test comprises of four main cognitive areas scores. The area scores determine the factor and composite scores. The main areas as discussed above include quantitative reasoning, visual reasoning, short-term memory, and verbal reasoning. The composite score acts as the best estimate. The general reasoning comprises of the sum of the all the scores found in a subtest. General responsibility capacity represents the ability of a person to develop solutions towards novel problems. The Stanford-Binet comprises of 15 subtests defined in four main area scores.

The expert may administer the subtests to each of the age groups. Six subtests have their administration at all age levels. The subtests include Bead Memory, Sentences Memory, Quantitative, Pattern Analysis; Comprehension; Vocabulary. The performance on a sub-test and the age of a test taker may act as a key factor in understanding the difficulty of a test and the various tests were undertaken. The cognitive abilities focus on four main areas to measure. Verbal reasoning comprises of application of verbal skills to new situations. It also includes factors such as home learning environments and comprehension acquired from school. Some of the measured factors include social judgment, word knowledge, social intelligence, and visual material.

Visual reasoning focuses its discussion on the performance of mathematical operations, problem-solving skills, motor skills, and capacity to visualize patterns. An example involving visual reasoning score may comprise of a timed test with tasks such as replicating cube designs with black and white colors. The quantitative reasoning measures areas such as concentration, numerical concepts’ application, and numerical reasoning. The short-term memory score revolves around sequencing skills, short-term memory, and concentration skills (Bücker, Furrer, & Lin, 2015). Number sequences and sentence structure have a key combination of factors that describe auditory and visual short-term memory. The subjects of the assessment respond to pictures possessing bead designs. The expert asks the participant to replicate the bead design from memory to measure a factor such as visual short-term memory.

Results of Stanford - Binet test

It serves as a standardized approach. A large group of adults and children may take an examination as a way to develop test norms. The group from the sampled population represents the United States population with factors such as community size, geographic region, educational placement, and parental education among others revolving around them. The situation may see the establishment of norms. It ensures the specification of nature of the group. The test allows the conversion of correct responses on the subtests to Standard Age Scores. The recording of the results takes place bawd on the test subject chronological age.

Ethical Consideration

Many experts used the Stanford-Binet Intelligence scale as compared to an intelligence test in the psychological sector. It has effective scales in providing intellectual evaluations in different groups. However, many people have criticized the test for failing to be comparable when it comes to all age groups and their ranges. The main reason focuses on the fact that the different age groups have unique subtests. Nevertheless, the youngest preschoolers lack a capacity to receive a zero score since the test has a difficult status. A child may also lack the unwillingness to cooperate when it comes to an assessment. It also becomes hard for one to use the test in discriminating abilities in younger children with lower scores in an assessment (Bücker, Furrer, & Lin, 2015). The interpretation and administration of results found in the test require competency. The examiner should receive training in psychology and psychological tests given by a psychologist. An examiner may lack the capacity to provide a subject with the assessment if they lack the needed skills and knowledge about the assessment.

Conclusion

From the ages of Alfred Binet to the modern society, the test has had a successful implementation in the psychological sector. Many experts have used it to measure cognitive and intelligent capabilities among children and adults in relation to academic performance.

References

Bücker, J., Furrer, O., & Lin, Y. (2015). Measuring cultural intelligence (CQ) A new test of the CQ scale. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 15(3), 259-284.

Joshi, A., Kale, S., Chandel, S., & Pal, D. (2015). Likert scale: Explored and explained. British Journal of Applied Science & Technology, 7(4), 396.