This document provides a history of testing and assessment, distinguishing between tests and assessments. It discusses early examples of assessments from ancient China and Greece for civil service positions. It then covers the precursors to modern testing from the 1800s focusing on assessing language, intelligence, motor skills, and sensory abilities. The emergence of individual intelligence testing, neuropsychological assessment, and group ability testing is described from the 1900s with tests like the Binet scale, Stanford-Binet, Army Alpha and Beta tests. The development of personality, interest, and projective tests is also summarized. The document concludes with a discussion of informal assessment procedures and modern uses of assessment across cognitive, affective, and informal domains.

1. Chapter 1 History of Testing and Assessment

2. Distinguishing Between Testing and Assessment Tests are a subset of assessment yielding scores based collective data (e.g., finding the sum of correct items on a multiple-choice exam). Assessment procedures can be: Formal. Rigor in test development (e.g., good valid, and reliable) Informal. Rigor has not been demonstrated in the test development

3. Testing Vs. Assessment Assessment includes:

4. Historical Context: Ancient 2200 B.C.E Chinese used essay examinations for civil service employees Plato (428 – 327 B.C.E) noted: Greeks assessed intellectual and physical ability of men when screening for state service

5. Historical Context: Precursors to Modern-Day Esquirol (1830's). Used language ability to identify intelligence Retardation on continuum: “idiocy” to low grade normals Forerunner of verbal intelligence testing Seguin (1800's). Worked with individuals with mentally retardation to increase motor control and sensory discrimination Developed “Form Board” Forerunner of performance intelligence testing

6. Historical Context: Precursors to Modern-Day (Cont’d) Understanding uniqueness of the humans: Darwin (mid 1800s): Theory of evolution Set tone for others who followed Galton: (late 1800s, Darwin’s cousin) English biologist who examined differences in sensory motor activities Wundt (1879). Founded 1st psychological laboratory Looked at sensitivity to visual, auditory, and other sensory stimuli and reaction time

7. Historical Context: Precursors to Modern-Day (Cont’d) Understanding uniqueness of the humans (Cont’d): Cattell (late 1800s; Am. Psychologist) Phrased term "mental test" Used statistical concepts to understand differences G. S. Hall (late 1800s) Experimental lab at Johns Hopkins Mentor to many First president of American Psychological Association

8. Emergence of Ability Testing (Testing in the Cognitive Domain) Three areas: Individual Intelligence Testing Neuropsychological Assessment Group Tests of Ability Individual Intelligence Testing Binet (1890's) Hired by French Ministry of Ed. To integrate “sub-normal” children into the schools Developed first modern-day intelligence test

9. Emergence of Ability Testing (Cont’d) Individual Intelligence Testing (Cont’d) Terman (At Stanford) Revised Binet scale-- Stanford-Binet I.Q.=MA/CA (See Box 1.1, p. 7) Neuropsychological Assessment Head injuries: 5,000-year-old Egyptian medical documents WWI: Increased interest in brain injuries 20 th century: development of braining imaging techniques Today: Suspected changes in brain function yields neurospychological assessment

10. Emergence of Ability Testing (Cont’d) Group Testing: WWI: Army Alpha and Army Beta Developed by Yerkes, Terman, and others Take Army Alpha (Box 1.2. p. 8) Used by Eugenics Movement (Read Box 1.3, p. 10) After WWII: SATs: Developed by James Bryant Conant to equalize educational opportunities for all Vocational counseling led to special aptitude tests and multiple aptitude tests

11. Emergence of Ability Testing (Cont’d) Group Testing (Cont’d): 1923: Edward Thorndike Stanford Achievement Test Frank Parsons Vocational Counseling Multiple Aptitude Tests (Group Tests of Ability Focused on Job Attainment) E.g., GATB: U.S. Employment Services

12. Emergence of Personality Tests ( Tests in the Affective Realm) Interest Inventories and Vocational Assessment Thorndike and Miner: Early assessors of interests (early 1900s) Strong (1927): Strong Vocational Interest Blank Objective Personality Assessment Kraeplin (1892): Word association test to study schizophrenia Woodworth's Personal Data Sheet (WWI) Kept “unfit” out of army Items related to neuroticism Forerunner to MMPI. (see Box 1.4, p. 12)

13. Emergence of Personality Assessment (Cont’d) Projective Testing Galton (1879) and projective testing: “ Experiments such as these allow an unexpected amount of illumination to enter into the deepest recess of the character, which are opened and bared by them like the anatomy of an animal under the scalpel of a dissector in broad daylight.” (p. 12 of text) Cattell: Examined associations made by “healthy people” to a standard list of words

14. Emergence of Personality Assessment (Cont’d) Projective Testing (Cont’d) Carl Jung (1904) 156 stimulus words to which individuals would respond—to detect ”complexes” Herman Rorschach (early 1900s) Inkblot Test Henry Murray’s Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

15. Emergence of Informal Assessment Procedures Twentieth Century: Situational Tests: “Contrived naturalistic situations” Clinical Interview DSM-IV-TR (1 st developed in 1952) Observation Rating Scales Classification Techniques Records and Personal Documents Environmental Assessment Performance-based Assessment

16. Modern-Day Use of Assessment Procedures Computers: Statistical procedures has increased the quality of tests Today, can view tests in the following categories: Testing in the cognitive domain, often called “ability testing” Testing in the affective domain, usually called "personality assessment” Informal assessment procedures

17. Graph of Ability Assessment (Figure 1.2)

18. Graph of Personality Assessment (Figure 1.3)

19. Graph of Informal Assessment (Fig. 1.4)

20. Terms to Memorize See Box 1.5, pp. 15-16

21. Questions to Consider When Assessing People How valid is the information gained from assessment instruments and how should that information be applied? How do assessment instruments invade an individual’s privacy and does the government have, at times, the right to insist an individual be assessed? Can the use of assessment instruments, in some cases, lead to labeling and what are the implications for the individuals who are “labeled.” Are assessment procedures used to foster equality for ALL people, or do they tend to create a society based on class.