CHAPTER 18 Assessment of Intellectual Functioning JOHN D. WASSERMAN DESCRIPTIONS OF THE MAJOR Individuals With Mental Retardation 434 INTELLIGENCE TESTS 418 Individuals Who Are Intellectually Gifted 434 Cognitive Assessment System 418 Individuals With Specific Learning Disabilities 435 Differential Ability Scales 420 Individuals With Dementias 435 Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children 423 INTELLECTUAL ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION 435 Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale 425 Cognitive Instruction 436 Wechsler Intelligence Scales 427 Computerized Instruction 437 Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities 430 TOWARD A MATURE CLINICAL SCIENCE 438 INTELLECTUAL ASSESSMENT AND REFERENCES 438 DIAGNOSTIC CLASSIFICATION 433 Life is not so much a conflict of intelligences as a combat of characters. The story behind the first intelligence tests is familiar to ALFRED BINET & THÉODORE SIMON (1908/1916, p. 256) many psychologists (Wolf, 1973). In the fall of 1904, the French Minister of Public Instruction appointed a commission The study of intelligence and cognitive abilities dates back to study problems with the education of mentally retarded more than a century and is characterized by the best and the children in Paris, in response to the failures of the children to worst of science—scholarly debates and bitter rivalries, re- benefit from universal education laws. Alfred Binet, as an search breakthroughs and academic fraud, major assessment educational activist and leader of the La Société Libre pour paradigm shifts, and the birth of a commercial industry that l’Étude Psychologique de l’Enfant (Free Society for the Psy- generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. chological Study of the Child) was named to the commission. Still struggling with unresolved matters dating from its birth, La Société had originally been founded to give teachers and the study of intelligence has seen as many fallow periods in its school administrators an opportunity to discuss problems of growth as it has seen steps forward. In this chapter, the history education and to collaborate in research. Binet’s appointment and evolution of intelligence theory and applied intelligence to the commission was hardly an accident because members testing are described, along with a vision of intelligence as a of La Société had already served as principal advocates field of study grounded in theory and psychological science— with the ministry on behalf of schoolchildren. The commis- aimed at facilitating clinical and educational decision making sion’s recommendations included what they called a medico- related to classification and intervention. The essential re- pedagogical examination for children who do not benefit from quirements of a mature clinical science, according to Millon education, teaching, or discipline, before such children were (1999; Millon & Davis, 1996), are (a) a coherent foundational removed from primary schools and—if educable—placed in theory, from which testable principles and propositions may be special classes. The commission did not offer any substance derived; (b) a variety of assessment instruments, operational- for the examination, but having thought about intelligence for izing the theory and serving the needs of special populations; over a decade, Binet decided to take advantage of the com- (c) an applied diagnostic taxonomy, derived from and consis- mission mandate and undertake the task of developing a reli- tent with the theory and its measures; and (d) a compendium of able diagnostic system with his colleague Théodore Simon. change-oriented intervention techniques, aimed at modifying The first Binet-Simon Scale was completed in 1905, revised in specific behaviors in a manner consistent with the theory. 1908, and revised again in 1911. By the completion of the The study of intelligence has yet to claim status as a mature 1911 edition, Binet and Simon’s scale was extended through clinical science, but some signs of progress are evident. adulthood and balanced with five items at each age level. 417 418 Assessment of Intellectual Functioning Although many scholars in the United States were intro- albeit with some modifications made for the purposes of duced to the new intelligence test through Binet’s journal clarity and precision. Emphasis is placed on the interpretive L’Année Psychologique, it became widely known after Henry indexes that are central to the test but not on the plethora of H. Goddard, Director of Research at the Training School for indexes that are available for some tests. the Retarded at Vineland, New Jersey, arranged for his assis- tant Elizabeth Kite to translate the 1908 scale. Impressed by its Cognitive Assessment System effectiveness in yielding scores in accord with the judgments of senior clinicians, Goddard became a vocal advocate of the The Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (CAS; test, distributing 22,000 copies and 88,000 response sheets by Naglieri & Das, 1997a) is a cognitive processing battery 1915. Within a few years, the test had changed the landscape intended for use with children and adolescents 5 through for mental testing in the United States, spawning an entire test- 17 years of age. The origins of the CAS may be traced to the ing industry and laying the groundwork for the proliferation in work of A. R. Luria, the preeminent Russian neuropsycholo- intelligence and achievement tests after World War I. The gist whose work has been highly influential in American most successful adaptation of the Binet-Simon Scale was the psychology (Solso & Hoffman, 1991). Beginning in 1972, Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, which dominated intelli- Canadian scholar J. P. Das initiated a program of research gence testing in the United States until the 1960s, when it was based upon the simultaneous and successive modes of infor- overtaken in popularity by the Wechsler intelligence scales mation processing suggested by Luria. Ashman and Das (Lubin, Wallis, & Paine, 1971). The Wechsler scales have re- (1980) first reported the addition of planning measures to the mained firmly entrenched as the most widely used intelligence simultaneous-successive experimental tasks, and separate tests in every subsequent psychological test usage survey. attention and planning tasks were developed by the end of the decade (Naglieri & Das, 1987, 1988). The work of Luria and Das influenced Alan and Nadeen Kaufman, who published DESCRIPTIONS OF THE MAJOR the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC; based INTELLIGENCE TESTS on the sequential-simultaneous dichotomy discussed later in this chapter) in 1983. Jack A. Naglieri, a former student of In this section, six of the leading individually administered Kaufman’s who had assisted with the K-ABC development, intelligence tests are described, along with the most common met J. P. Das in 1984 and began a collaboration to assess ways to interpret them. The descriptions are limited to intel- Luria’s three functional systems. Thirteen years and more than ligence tests that purport to be reasonably comprehensive and 100 studies later, the CAS was published. It is available in two multidimensional, covering a variety of content areas; more batteries: an 8-subtest basic battery and a 12-subtest standard specialized tests (such as nonverbal cognitive batteries) and battery. group-administered tests (usually administered in large-scale educational testing programs) have been excluded. Students Theoretical Underpinnings of intellectual assessment will notice considerable overlap and redundancy between many of these instruments—in The CAS has its theoretical underpinnings in the work of large part because they tend to measure similar psychological Luria’s (1973, 1980) three functional units in the brain: constructs with similar procedures, and in many cases, they (a) The first unit regulates cortical tone and focus of atten- have similar origins. With a few exceptions, most intelli- tion; (b) the second unit receives, processes, and retains in- gence testing procedures can be traced to tasks developed formation in two basic modes (simultaneous and successive); from the 1880s through the 1920s. and (c) the third unit involves the formation, execution, and The tests are presented in alphabetical order. For each monitoring of behavioral planning. These processes are artic- test, its history is briefly recounted followed by a description ulated and described in PASS theory, using the acronym for of its theoretical underpinnings. Basic psychometric features planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive processing including characteristics of standardization, reliability, and (Das, Naglieri, & Kirby, 1994). validity are presented. Test administration is described but Of the theories and models associated with the major not detailed because administration can only be learned intelligence instruments, PASS theory and Kaufman’s through a careful reading of the test manuals, and every test sequential-simultaneous theory alone offer an approach with seems to offer its own set of unique instructions. Core inter- articulated neurobiological underpinnings (although g theory pretive indexes are also described in a way that is generally has numerous neurophysiological correlates). Moreover, commensurate with descriptions provided in the test manuals, Luria’s approaches to restoration of function after brain injury Descriptions of the MajorIntelligence Tests419 (Luria,1963;Luria&Tsvetkova,1990)hasprovidedabasis ExploratoryandconfirmatoryfactoranalysesoftheCAS foruseofhistheorytounderstandandimplementtreatment