Psychological Testing Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The WAIS-IV (India) is characterised by (I) and (III) only: the Full Scale IQ and the Perceptual Reasoning Index.

The fourth edition of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale reports a Full Scale IQ and four index scores: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing Speed. The Indian adaptation keeps this structure.

The traditional Verbal IQ and Performance IQ of earlier editions were dropped in WAIS-IV, replaced by the index scores. So any option including (II), the Verbal Intelligence Quotient, is wrong, and '(I) only' leaves out the reasoning index.

Answer: D

(A) is true and (R) is false.

Deviation IQs are preferred over ratio IQs. A ratio IQ, mental age divided by chronological age times 100, breaks down for adults, whose mental age stops rising, and its spread differs from age to age, so the same IQ means different things at different ages. A deviation IQ, introduced by Wechsler, is a standard score (mean 100, standard deviation 15) based on the person's own age group, so it means the same at every age.

The reason given is wrong: multiplying by 100 already removed decimal fractions from ratio IQs, and that is not why DIQs were adopted. So the options calling R true are wrong.

Answer: C

Both are sources of error, so the answer is Both (I) and (II).

Alternate-form reliability correlates scores on two equivalent forms of a test. If the forms are given in immediate succession, the only source of error is content sampling, the fact that the two forms use different items. If they are given after a delay, scores can also change with the person's state and with time, adding time sampling error, as in test-retest reliability.

So the delayed type combines both sources, and options naming only one, or neither, are incomplete.

Answer: B

The defining feature is (II) only: the test is administered to a number of test-takers at the same time.

Group tests, which began with the Army Alpha and Beta tests of the First World War, are designed so that a single examiner can test many people at once, with printed instructions, simple timing and objective scoring. That is what separates them from individual tests such as the Stanford-Binet or the Wechsler scales, where one examiner tests one person.

Group tests do not need several administrators working together; one usually suffices (I). Having multiple copies of the test booklet is a practical necessity of administering it to many people, not what characterises a group test (III).

Answer: B

Interscorer reliability is most needed for projective tests.

Interscorer (inter-rater) reliability shows how far different scorers agree when scoring the same responses. It matters most where scoring depends on judgement. In projective tests such as the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test, the scorer has to interpret open-ended responses, so scores can differ between scorers, and their agreement must be checked.

Achievement and ability tests, and adjustment inventories, are usually objective, with fixed keys and multiple-choice or yes/no items, so different scorers will give the same score and interscorer reliability is of little concern.

Answer: A

The most important reason for a low KR-20 is inadequate content sampling.

KR-20 is a measure of internal consistency for tests with right-wrong items. It reflects how far the items measure the same thing. If the items sample heterogeneous content, or the item sample is poor, the items do not correlate well with each other and KR-20 falls; content sampling is the main source of error variance it detects.

Interscorer agreement is irrelevant to KR-20, which is used for objectively scored items. Items that are too hard reduce score variance, but that is a narrower effect, and a longer test raises reliability, as the Spearman-Brown formula shows, so it cannot explain a low value.

Answer: C

Both are assumptions, so the answer is I and II both.

Item response theory models the probability of a response to an item as a function of a latent trait, usually called ability (theta), and of the item's own parameters. It assumes that the test measures a single dominant trait, unidimensionality (I), together with local independence of items.

It also assumes that respondents differ in their level of that trait, so that ability varies across people and the item characteristic curve describes how the chance of a correct answer changes with ability (II). Without that variation the model's central function would have nothing to describe, so options leaving out either statement are wrong.

Answer: C

The two sub-tests are Verbal Reasoning and Numerical reasoning, (1) and (3).

In the Differential Aptitude Tests, the scores on Verbal Reasoning (VR) and Numerical Reasoning or Numerical Ability (NA) are added to give the VR + NA index, which serves as a measure of scholastic aptitude, a general index of ability to learn from school work, and correlates well with academic achievement.

Perceptual speed and accuracy (clerical speed) and language usage are separate DAT sub-tests that predict specific kinds of work, such as clerical tasks and language skills, but they are not part of the scholastic aptitude index, so options including (2) or (4) are wrong.

Answer: B

Statements (1) and (2) are true, so the answer is (1) and (2) only.

The MSCEIT measures emotional intelligence as an ability, using eight tasks, two for each of the four branches of the Mayer-Salovey model: perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions (1). Its scores correlate moderately with verbal intelligence, as an ability measure should (2).

Statement (3) is false: the MSCEIT correlates only weakly with the Big Five personality traits, which is one of the arguments that it measures something distinct from personality. Statement (4) is false: it is based on the ability model of EI and is scored against right answers, not the trait model measured by Likert-type self-report scales.

Answer: A

Only statement (I) is true, so the answer is (I) only.

A criterion-referenced test evaluates a person's performance against a predetermined standard or criterion, such as mastery of specified skills or a cut-off score for passing a driving test. What matters is whether the person reaches the standard, not how others performed (I).

Statement (II) describes a norm-referenced test, which interprets an individual's score by comparing it with the performance of a normative group, for example as a percentile. That is the opposite approach, so options including (II) are wrong.