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Comprehensive Handbook of Psychological Assessment, Volume 1, Intellectual and Neuropsychological Assessment

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

GERALD GOLDSTEIN AND SUE R. BEERS

REFERENCES 4

This volume of the Comprehensive Handbook of Psychological
Assessment is devoted to intellectual and neuropsychological
assessment. The combination of these two areas is an
apt one because both of them are concerned with adaptive
function and cognitive ability. In practice, neuropsychologists
often use intelligence tests, and clinical and counseling psychologists
may use some tests that now would be described
as neuropsychological tests in their practice. However, intelligence
testing is done for a broad range of the general population,
whereas neuropsychological testing is typically done
in cases where there is known or suspected impairment of
brain function. Therefore, Part One of this volume deals
largely with assessment in populations of normal individuals.
Part Two is more clinically oriented, stressing assessment of
individuals whose brain function is known to be or suspected
of being impaired.

The first two chapters of this section are theoretical in
nature. Chapter 2 by Dr. Das is a broad-ranging review of
theories of intelligence.The formulation of theories of intelligence
goes back to ancient times, with beginnings in ancient
Eastern and Greek philosophy. It remains an area of controversy
to the present time, with several viable theories having
contemporary acceptance. Lending support to the unity of
this volume as a whole, this chapter makes it clear that some
of the more recent theories of intelligence are neuropsychological
in nature in the sense that an effort is made to associate
intellectual function with specific brain functions and areas.
Although there was an underlying assumption for many centuries
that intelligence was controlled by the brain, there is
now an attempt to be more specific with regard to identifying
relationships between specific brain systems and different intellectual
abilities. As a simple example, it is now thought
that portions of the left hemisphere of the brain mediate much
of verbal intelligence.

Chapter 3 by Dr. Ramsay and Dr. Reynolds deals with the
relationship between intelligence and achievement. Put in
more general terms, it takes up the issue of how well general
intelligence or IQ predicts performance of activities in a natural
environment. In children, these activities usually relate
to educational matters, such as learning to read or perform
mathematics. In adults, the relationship is mainly with vocational
considerations, stressing the ability to do a particular
job. This matter is important because if intelligence tests do
not successfully predict behavior in the environment, their
usefulness is questionable. Indeed, critics of intelligence testing
have pointed to instances of poor prediction. Critics suggest
that some individuals obtain high scores on these tests
but do not do well in school or at work; whereas other individuals
with lower intellectual levels may do quite well.
Ramsay and Reynolds review numerous studies in which intelligence
tests are correlated with academic achievement
tests. They indicate that many methodological problems remain
in this research, but report that a reasonable degree of
correspondence exists between the two kinds of measures.

Intelligence is a developmental phenomenon, and assessment
methods that are appropriate for the different stages of
life must be constructed. As described in Chapter 6, Dr.
Aylward's chapter, it is possible to evaluate ability levels in
infancy and early childhood. Tests have been developed for
children in their preschool years and for older children. Intelligence
tests have most commonly been used in educational
planning for school-aged children. A more recent development,
resulting from the mandate for early educational intervention,
is the need to assess the abilities of young children
in the their preschool years. Some tests, such as the various
Wechsler adult intelligence scales, are suitable for a wide
range of ages and may be used from early to late adulthood.
Intelligence testing as we know it began with testing of
school children by Binet, and the idea of testing adults for
intelligence developed later. By studying changes in intelligence
in childhood through adulthood, we have learned a
great deal about the development of intelligence into old age.
Longitudinal intelligence testing or the administration of intelligence
tests to people in cross-sectional studies of different
age groups has led to an extensive literature that is not
without controversy, particularly with regard to the nature of
intellectual decline with aging. Thus, intelligence testing is
now accomplished across the life-span, and we have included
chapters describing tests for infants, children, and adults.

Chapters 4 and 5 of this section are devoted to the most
widely used standardized intelligence tests: The Wechsler
intelligence scales in their child and adult versions and the
Stanford-Binet. David Wechsler was probably the major influence
in the introduction of intelligence testing for adults,
and in the development of psychometric procedures and test
contents that were appropriate for adults. Both the adult and
children's scales have received several restandardizations and
revisions to keep them psychometrically sound and contemporary
in content. The various Wechsler intelligence scales
are commonly used in educational, industrial, and clinical
settings. John McFie (1975) said, "It is perhaps a matter of
luck that many of the Wechsler subtests are neurologically
relevant (p. 14)." This remark, made some years ago, presaged
the extensive use during recent times of the Wechsler
scales in neuropsychological assessment.

The history of the Stanford-Binet tests goes back to the
early years of the twentieth century, and the test has gone
through five revisions. The fifth edition has just been made
available. The phrase "Back to the Future" used in the title
of the Kamphaus and Kroncke chapter characterizes this new
edition because it resembles the original Binet-Simon scales
more than it does the presently available fourth edition. The
Stanford-Binet continues to be used mainly with children,
although it may be given to adults. It is probably more widely
used in educational applications than in clinical or industrial
assessment. Its theoretical basis and format have changed
over the various editions, but it continues to be based, at least
in part, on a "g" or general intelligence factor model.

The assessment of infants and young children is a specialized
skill that requires the use of instruments specifically
designed for that purpose, and particularly extensive training
of examiners. Such instruments as the Gesell Developmental
Schedules, the Cattell Infant Intelligence Test, and the Bayley
Scales of Infant Development have been used for many years
to assess development in infants. The major emphases are on
assessing development and possible maturational delay. In
infants, prior to acquisition of language, assessment is done
by observation, such as looking for visual tracking and reaching
for objects, or seeking an object placed out of sight. Later
in development, there is an interest in whether language
and memory are normal for the child's age. Such areas as
perceptual-motor coordination, number concepts, and imitative
abilities are generally evaluated. The current trend is toward
performing these assessments during the preschool
period, at increasingly earlier ages.

The chapters of Part One describe instruments for assessing
intelligence from shortly after birth to old age. These
evaluations are performed across the life-span and require
different instruments and examiner skills. The different assessment
instruments used vary not only in content but also
in the underlying theory upon which they are based. Issues,
such as the matter of whether intelligence is a unitary general
ability ("g") or a combination of a number of intelligences,
as proposed by Gardner (1999), are still debated. Currently,
the conceptualization of intelligence within a neuropsychological
framework is a matter of great interest. The relative
roles of heredity and environment remain a hotly debated
issue. The relationship between intelligence and achievement
in natural environments has been intensively studied. Elsewhere
in this book are discussions about the cultural fairness
of cognitive tests. The considerations raised in these discussions
have crucial implications for the use and interpretation
of intelligence tests.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Comprehensive Handbook of Psychological Assessment, Volume 1, Intellectual and Neuropsychological Assessment

Copyright © 2003 by Gerald Goldstein, Sue R. Beers.
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