CAS PS 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Psychological Testing, Twin Study, Heritability

• School: Boston University
• Department: Psychological & Brain Sciences
• Course: CAS PS 101
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Psychological tests are standardized measures of a person"s sample behavior: it is a sample behavior because people do not act the same way all the time. Mental ability tests includes 3 different types of tests: They assess intellectual potential, not previous learning or accumulated knowledge: aptitude tests. These assess specific types of mental abilities: achievement tests. An achievement test gauges a person"s mastery and knowledge of various subjects. There are also personality tests: these measure various aspects of personality, including motives, interests, values, and attitudes. Standardization refers to the uniform procedures used in the administration and scoring of a test: subjects receive the same instructions, questions, and time limits. Reliability indicates whether repeated measurements yield similar results or not (measurement consistency) One way to check a study"s reliability is test-retest reliability: this is estimated by comparing subjects" scores on two administrations of a test.