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The nature and the structure of children's abilities are considered in the light of evidence from the Differential Ability Scales (DAS), a newly published, individually administered cognitive test battery for children age 2 years 6 months through 17 years 11 months. The DAS was developed primarily to assess children's cognitive profiles. Evidence is presented on its relatively high levels of reliable specific variance (a requirement for identifying reliable intertest differences in a profile). The DAS cognitive battery also yields a number of focused composite scores: a measure of psychometric g, called General Conceptual Ability (GCA) and measures of Verbal and Nonverbal Ability at the preschool level, and of Verbal, Nonverbal Reasoning and Spatial Ability at the school-age level. The case is argued against the use of terms “intelligence” and “IQ” in describing children's abilities, and evidence on the factorial structure of the DAS is presented through both confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses.

The Differential Ability Scales (DAS) is a relatively new and well-received measure of intelligence for children and youth ages 21/2 through 17. Although there is evidence to support the construct validity of the DAS, there is little evidence concerning construct bias in the DAS. The purpose of this research was to test for construct bias in the DAS for children from the three major ethnic groups, and across the entire age range of the DAS. We also sought to determine the nature of the constructs measured across these three groups. Both purposes were accomplished through hierarchical, multisample confirmatory factor analysis of DAS standardization data. The research also illustrates the use of this methodology to perform a comprehensive test of construct bias. Results suggest that the DAS measures the same constructs for all three ethnic groups across the four age levels studied; the DAS, therefore, shows no construct bias across groups. Furthermore, the hierarchical factor structure of the test is quite consistent with the DAS's actual structure, thus supporting the construct validity of the DAS. The DAS's Nonverbal reasoning cluster may be a good measure of fluid intelligence.

Average correlations for three age groups from the BAS standardization data were factor analysed using principal‐factor analysis. Children aged 5:0–7:11 years were given 19 scales, those of 8:0–13:11 were given 18, and those aged 14:0–16:11 were given 14. Two factors were extracted with eigenvalues > 1 at each age level. The first factor, clearly identifiable as g, accounted for about 30 per cent of the variance. The second factor, again clearly identifiable for each age group as verbal recall of pictures, accounted for between 5 and 9 per cent of the variance. The proportion of reliable specific variance was calculated for each scale, and this accounted for about 46 per cent of the variance. Well over half the reliable variance is therefore attributable to specificity. These results indicate higher levels of specificity than in the WPPSI, WISC‐R and WAIS. It was concluded that the British Ability Scales have sufficient specificity to justify comparisons between scales in profiles of cognitive strengths and weaknesses.