Microcomputers and Psychometric Assessment

Computer-Assisted Testing and the Goals of Counseling Psychology

This article explores how the use of computer-assisted testing and assessment can potentially contribute to the goals of counseling psychology. The following five trends in computer applications in testing and assessment are analyzed in relation to five goals of counseling psychology: (1) computer-based test interpretation (goals of remediation and rehabilitation, and serving diverse populations); (2) computer-assisted instruction (goals of remediation and rehabilitation, and education and development); (3) integration of audio-visual media (goals of prevention and serving diverse populations); (4) adaptive devices (goal of serving diverse populations); and (5) computer-assisted research (goal of research). The necessary commitment of human and financial resources, research priorities, and ethical issues are then discussed as issues that will influence the extent to which computer-assisted testing can contribute to the goals of counseling psychology.

A clinical study of the automated assessment of intelligence by the Mill Hill Vocabulary test and the Standard Progressive Matrices test

As part of the Leicester/DHSS project on microcomputer-aided assessment, 274 patients at five clinical sites were assessed with either a computerized version or the standard version of the Mill Hill Vocabulary (Synonyms) test. Of this group, 178 were retested on the alternative version of the test. Similarly, 184 patients were tested with either a computerized version or the standard version of the Standard Progressive Matrices test, of whom 129 were retested on the alternative test form. High correlations were found between the standard and computerized versions for both tests. For the Mill Hill Vocabulary test, no significant difference was found between test versions for first administration, and the vast majority of retested subjects had very similar scores on each version. On the Standard Progressive Matrices, however, subjects obtained significantly lower scores on the computerized test. It is concluded that whereas the computerized Mill Hill Vocabulary test could be used in place of the standard version of clinical settings, the computerized Standard Progressive Matrices test could not be used.