My chief object was to investigate the innate mental abilities of the West Indian child. This I proposed doing by testing a sufficiently large sample of elementary school children from country districts with a large battery of tests measuring a wide range of abilities yet each designed to measure only one of them. The tests would fall into the a priori grouping of Non-Verbal, Space, Picture, Numerical, Verbal, Attainment. But the scores would be dealt with by the method of factorial analysis so that the actual way the tests of the battery should be grouped would be determined. This grouping might corroborate or refute the a priori grouping. This grouping would be the manifestation of the mental factors operative and, within a certain group of tests, one might be expected to be purer in the factor found than others. It was also thought that possibly factors not previously found with other populations might emerge. The factors might remain as statistical abstractions, but by scrutiny of those tests most representative of the factors it might be possible, as is frequently the case, to express them in psychological terms.

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The Order Dominance Scale (ODS) was constructed and proven reliable by Jones (2009). The scale is based on the combination of two theories; namely, Broken Windows Theory or BWT (Wilson & Kelling, 1982) and Reversal Theory (Apter, 1982). BWT provided the gap in the literature on which the personality trait of order dominance is based, while Reversal Theory provided the means with which to measure this trait. The purpose of this research was to take the completed scale constructed by Jones (2009) and test it for various types of psychometric validity. The research was able to establish predictive validity (although not in the way it would conventionally be done) and construct validity (which was established in conjuncture with convergent and discriminant validity). After going through testing for both reliability and validity, the ODS can now be considered a worthwhile scale by psychometric standards. The sample with which the data for this research was collect yielded a new set of norms for the ODS. The new set of norms gives it a mean of 31.38 with a standard deviation of 7.79, an absolute range of 0-50, an observed range of 8-48, and a reliability coefficient (alpha) of 0.7527. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

Research has shown a possible causative link between playing the popular videogame Tetris and improvements in Mental Rotation performance. The aim of the present study was to address a question about an aspect of Tetris expertise that had not yet been factored into any of the existing work on Tetris and Mental Rotation. David Kirsh and Paul Maglio (1994) have shown that skilled Tetris players appear to use physical actions as substitutes for, or compliments to, mental operations. This is hypothesised to include physically rotating game pieces instead of Mentally Rotating them. The specific question we sought to address in the present study was whether these physical substitutes for mental operations, which Kirsh and Maglio call epistemic actions, have an effect on Tetris' efficacy as a Mental Rotation training task. In order to address this research question, three groups of subjects were administered tests of Mental Rotation ability before and after a five week training period. The training period consisted of a total of five, hour long, laboratory sessions - evenly spaced across the training period - in which each of the three groups were required to play an assigned video-game. The results showed that a group of subjects (N=13) who received Tetris training on the version of the game that made epistemic actions involving rotation impossible showed no greater Mental Rotation performance gains when their results were compared to a group of subjects (N=13) trained using a Standard version of Tetris. This suggests that the occurence of epistemic actions does not have an impact on Tetris' efficacy as a Mental Rotation training task. Further, neither of these two groups showed greater Mental Rotation performance gains than the non-Tetris control group (N=14), a result which suggests that, at least under some circumstances, Tetris training fails to impart Mental Rotation performance gains any greater than what can be expected due to retest effects. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Introduced in 1986, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition differs radically from its predecessors. Because of the adaptive testing format and the limited number of items given to each subject, it is especially important that consecutive levels in each of the tests increase in difficulty. The purpose of this study was to investigate the progression of difficulty among items in the Fourth Edition.Three hundred sixty-four subjects f iii Indiana who ranged in age from 3 years, 0 months to 23 years, 4 months were administered the Fourth Edition. The study was limited to those subjects earning a Composite SAS Score at or above 68.Data were presented to indicate trends in the difficulty of each item as well as in the difficulty of each level in the Fourth Edition. Three research questions were answered. 1.) Are the items at each level equally difficult? 2.) Are the levels in each test arranged so that the level with the least difficult items is first followed by levels with more and more difficult items? 3.) In each test is an item easier for subjects who have entered at a higher level than it is for subjects who have entered at a lower level?The results supported the hypotheses, confirming that the Fourth Edition is a solidly constructed test in terms of item difficulty levels. Most item pairs within a level were found to be approximately equal in difficulty. Nearly all of the levels in each test were followed by increasingly more difficult levels. And each item was found to be more difficult for subjects entering at a lower entry level than for those entering at a higher entry level with very few exceptions. For these few discrepancies found, there was no reason to believe that these were caused by anything other than chance. / Department of Educational Psychology

The purpose of the present study was to continue the development of the Children's Life Situation Scale, in an attempt to create a scale which answered some of the methodological and statistical problems with existing scales and to establish psychometric evidence for its use. The participants were 210 fifth, sixth and seventh graders. Respondents were primarily from the middle class with approximately equal numbers of males (n=105) and females (n=106).The following research questions were addressed: 1. How well do individual items relate to a central concept and what is the internal consistency of the scale?2. What is the internal factor structure of the scale? 3. What is the criterion related validity of the scale in relation to the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992)? 4. Do positive events affect outcome measures in a different way than do negatively stressful events?Results of reliability analysis suggested that the scale was highly internally consistent, and that all items equally related to the central concept of stress. However, Principal Axis Factoring revealed two factors which were conceptualized as "Life Events," and "Daily Hassles." When the total stress score as well as individual factor scores were correlated with the BASC, they were found to correlate significantly with all subscales, with the strongest correlations involving scales of an internalizing nature such as depression. The "Daily Hassles" factor was found to correlate most strongly with students' reports of psychological distress. Not only do the results support the use of the present scale as a reliable and valid measure of stress in children, results support the conceptualization of stress as involving two components, both "Life Events" and "Daily Hassles." / Department of Educational Psychology

The purpose of this study was to investigate the construct validity of the eight subscales of the Cambridge Cognitive Examination (CAMCOG). A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to determine if the subscales of the CAMCOG, as proposed by its authors (Roth et al., 1986), were able to adequately describe the total set of relations among the set of individual scale items.The subjects consisted of 224 male and female individuals obtained through a study to examine the validity of the CAMCOG on a United States population. The subjects were divided into two separate groups: those diagnosed as having a dementing illness and a normal comparison group. The CAMCOG was administered to each subject as a measure of neuropsychological functioning by a trained professional or paraprofessional.Two models were established a priori for the confirmatory factor analysis. The first model was based on the theory of Roth et al. (1986) which suggested there are eight factors within the CAMCOG. The second model was developed as a one-factor solution and was based on the present author's theory that the CAMCOG is a general measure of brain impairment and that all data would be best explained by one common factor. Maximum likelihood estimates were calculated using LISREL VII (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1989).The results of the study suggest that the eight-factor model of the CAMCOG proposed by its authors (Roth et al., 1986) provided a significantly better explanation of the data than did the one factor model proposed by the author of this study. However, neither one of the models postulated was found to adequately describe the covariance of the obtained data. Accordingly, the validity of the constructs of the CAMCOG as proposed by Roth et al. (1986) is considered to be questionable. Suggestions for further research are presented. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The purpose of this study was to develop and conduct initial validation of a special MMPI scale for the detection of bulimia. Existing measures all contain content-obvious items that require the individual to self-disclose regarding their bulimia symptomatology. Such measures are not effective in identifying those reluctant or unwilling to self-disclose. A measure which utilizes nonobvious items would be useful in identifying those undetected by other measures. The MMPI item pool was utilized to develop such a nonobvious measure. A number of treatment centers were contacted to solicit MMPI response sheets and diagnostic and demographic information from existing client files. A random 80% subsample was drawn from the total sample with the remaining 20% reserved for cross-validation analyses.Item analysis and discriminant analysis were conducted to identify items which differentiated between criterion and comparison groups. The 31 items chosen by these analyses became the B-scale. The bulimic individuals were found to be differentiated from those in the comparison groups by significantly higher scores on the new B-scale Two-way cross-classification frequency analysis established a cutoff score of 21. Through evaluation of K-scale corrections it was determined that such correction did not add to the accuracy of the B-scale and is, therefore, unnecessary.The discriminant validity of the B-scale was then examined. Discriminant function analysis established the B-scale as a better predictor of group membership than the existing clinical scales. In addition, the existing clinical scales were not found to add significantly to prediction when compared with the B-scale alone. Cross-validation analyses were conducted on the independent 20% random sample, demonstrating that the B-scale effectively identifies bulimics when applied to a new sample. Implications of this scale construction and suggestions for future research are presented. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

For many school psychologists the constraints of time create a need to identify an instrument that can be used to screen students referred for comprehensive psychoeducational evaluations. This study examined the relationship between scores students obtained on the group-administered Test of Cognitive Skills (TCS) and those they obtained on the individually administered Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition (SB:FE). Comparisons were made between the Cognitive Skills Index (CSI) and Sattler's Factor scores from the SB:FE, and between the CSI and the SB:FE Composite score.The subjects were 75 elementary public school students who were enrolled in regular education classes at least 50% of their school day. The students were referred for comprehensive evaluations because of concern about their academic progress. Archival data from tests administered during the 1987-1988 school year were gathered from the students' cumulative school files.Pearson product moment correlations indicate that (in the sample studied) there was a significant positive correlation between the CSI scores and each of the Factor scores and the Composite scores. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures were used to test mean differences. The data indicate that there was no statistically significant difference between the mean score of the CSI and the Verbal Comprehension Factor score, nor between the CSI and Memory Factor. However, the Nonverbal Reasoning/Visualization and Composite means differed significantly from the CSI mean.The results of this study suggest that the CSI can make a worthwhile contribution to referral information. Correlational and mean difference data derived from this study demonstrate the need for caution when interpreting and applying statistical findings. Additional research is needed to clarify further the relationship among group-administered and individually administered intelligence tests, and between the SB:FE and other individually administered intelligence tests. / Department of Educational Psychology

The study examined the theoretical and statistical factor structure of the Dean-Woodcock Structured Emotional-Status Exam (D-WESE) and evaluated the prediction of representations of clinical two-point scores representing MMPI codetypes. Analyses provided greater insight into the structure of the measure and its effectiveness in classifying psychopathology. The data of 200 patients referred for a neuropsychological evaluation at a large Midwestern neurology practice was used in this study. Age of patients ranged between 13 and 96 years. An 11-factor exploratory analysis with an oblique rotation and principle axis factoring was compared to the original theoretical model of DSM diagnoses used to develop the 50-items of the measure in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the measure. Regression analyses was incorporated to assess the ability of the relatively brief, 50-item D-WESE to predict representations of 12 codetypes from the 566-item MMPI. / Department of Educational Psychology