Linguistic Influences on Cognitive Test Performance: Examinee Characteristics Are More Important than Test Characteristics

Cormier, Damien C.; Bulut, Okan; McGrew, Kevin S.; Kennedy, Kathleen E.

doi:10.3390/jintelligence10010008

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The directions from subtests such as Phonological Process, Story Recall, Visualization , and Number Series from the WJ‐IV could benefit from further analysis to prevent the presence of complexity and verbosity from impacting the performance of preschool students. Also, while our focus was on the linguistic demands of assessment instruments there are other characteristics such as receptive and expressive language abilities (see Cormier et al, 2022 for a review) that should be considered when interpreting scores of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the linguistic demands of the oral directions of preschool cognitive assessments

Graves

Johnson

Phillips

et al. 2022

Psychology in the Schools

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Research has indicated that school aged (6-16 years) versions of cognitive assessment instruments have varying levels of linguistic demand, which could impact assessment results for placement purposes. However, a significant limitation to this research is the fact that it has not been replicated with cognitive assessment instruments used in preschool populations. As such, the purpose of this study is to address this gap in the research literature by examining linguistic demands of cognitive test batteries used for preschool aged children. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition (KABC-II), Woodcock Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities Fourth Edition (WJ Cog-IV), and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence Fourth Edition were used for this examination. Overall results demonstrated that the oral directions of preschool assessments have relatively low linguistic demands. However, several subtests on WJ Cog-IV have high Complexity, Verbosity, and Total Demand indices, which can pose difficulty for students with limited word knowledge. Furthermore, the KABC-II was the least demanding assessment from a linguistic standpoint. Implications are discussed in terms of the assessment of early childhood populations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the linguistic demands of the oral directions of preschool cognitive assessments

Graves

Johnson

Phillips

et al. 2022

Psychology in the Schools

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“…Even supposed nonverbal or spatial subtests rely to some extent on children’s receptive language proficiency to understand directions ( Cormier et al, 2016 ). As argued by Cormier et al (2022) , failure to screen for language proficiency prior to undertaking a comprehensive assessment utilizing standardized tests has the potential to bias results and lead to incorrect estimations of cognitive ability. This bias is especially relevant for children whose first language is not English who may be less likely to fully understand the test instructions ( Cormier et al, 2022 ), or for children from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds who may live in less language-enriched environments ( Graves et al, 2023 ).…”

Section: Importance Of Language In Assessing For Childhood Neurodevel...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As argued by Cormier et al (2022) , failure to screen for language proficiency prior to undertaking a comprehensive assessment utilizing standardized tests has the potential to bias results and lead to incorrect estimations of cognitive ability. This bias is especially relevant for children whose first language is not English who may be less likely to fully understand the test instructions ( Cormier et al, 2022 ), or for children from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds who may live in less language-enriched environments ( Graves et al, 2023 ). Crucially, if language delay or impairment is misattributed as low cognitive ability due to the language-dependent nature of standardized tests, this misattribution can set the child on a course of low teacher expectations for attainment in school, which may, eventually, become a self-fulfilling prophesy ( Gentrup et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Importance Of Language In Assessing For Childhood Neurodevel...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Transdiagnostic considerations are critical to understanding childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

Hoza,

Shoulberg

2024

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Growing dissatisfaction with the current categorical diagnostic systems has led to a movement toward transdiagnostic dimensional approaches to assessment of childhood mental health disorders. We argue that a transdiagnostic approach is especially important and appropriate when screening for neurodevelopmental disorders during early childhood. In the early childhood years, symptoms often appear in the form of developmental delays that could portend a variety of different disorders. Early intervention at this point is critical, even though a final endpoint disorder is not yet apparent. Intervening early has the potential to grow the area of weakness, possibly correcting or at least ameliorating these delays. Early intervention requires a multidisciplinary approach integrating efforts across settings and providers that monitor the development of young children. We argue here that young children’s language ability is central to the development of social cognition, and a prerequisite for adequate social functioning. Social deficits are defining features of a subset of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and social (pragmatic) communication disorder. Critically, impairment in social functioning is common in additional neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disorders, and even motor disorders. For this reason, we argue that, at the earliest sign of a possible neurodevelopmental disorder, children should be screened for language deficits prior to initiating a focused assessment for a specific type of neurodevelopmental disorder such as ADHD. Any detected language deficits should be considered in the design and implementation of the assessment, as well as the ultimate intervention plan.

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“…Despite known impact of distinct cultural and linguistic experience on the accuracy of cognitive scores, empirically-driven guidelines for practitioners for the mitigation of this problem are practically non-existent (Cormier et al, 2022). Previous attempts to reduce cognitive test bias in minorities in practice have been mainly twofold: a search for culture-free cognitive tests (or use of non-verbal tests as culture-fair alternatives) and a development of criteria for the evaluation of the validity of cognitive tests standardized on normative samples (Ortiz et al, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

Validity of Intelligence Assessment Among the Roma Minority Population

Czekóová,

Urbánek

2023

Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment

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An accurate assessment of cognitive abilities in populations that differ from the majority in cultural and linguistic characteristics is one of the main challenges in cognitive testing. Previously developed methods for assessment of the validity of cognitive scores in individuals with diverse backgrounds, such as the Culture-Language Interpretative Matrix (C-LIM), have not been empirically substantiated. We tested the applicability of the C-LIM in the European context, by comparing selected test scores from the Woodcock-Johnson-IV Test of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-IV) between Roma children aged 7–11 years ( n = 399) and their counterparts from the normative population ( n = 131). The largest differences were detected in WJ-IV tests requiring abstract reasoning and manipulation with complex signs. Furthermore, the C-LIM did not reliably discriminate between our groups and its use appears to be inappropriate for making diagnostic decisions about children from populations that do not traditionally rely on processes such as categorical thinking, abstract reasoning, and generalization.

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Linguistic Influences on Cognitive Test Performance: Examinee Characteristics Are More Important than Test Characteristics

Cited by 11 publications

References 23 publications

Quantifying the linguistic demands of the oral directions of preschool cognitive assessments

Quantifying the linguistic demands of the oral directions of preschool cognitive assessments

Transdiagnostic considerations are critical to understanding childhood neurodevelopmental disorders

Validity of Intelligence Assessment Among the Roma Minority Population

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