Development of a Test of Nonverbal Intelligence for Youth
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Keywords

Intelligence, Non-verbal, test development, Psychometric, item analysis, difficulty level, discrimination level and internal consistency.

Abstract

Present study was designed to develop a test of nonverbal intelligence for youth in group settings for large scale testing and screening of human resource induction. Items were developed to minimize the effect of education and language proficiency. Items of the proposed test were constructed from figurative material and drawings of geometric symbols, shapes, designs and patterns. The theoretical foundation of the test was derived from the Cattell’s (1963)concept of Fluid Intelligence. The test was divided into five subscales i.e. matrices, odd one out, similarity, series and analogies, and consisting ability areas (abstract reasoning, analogical reasoning, working memory, processing and perceptual speed, inductive & deductive reasoning). Research was conducted in three phases. In the first phase of the main study 200 items were developed and presented to subject matter experts (SMEs) for their opinion (qualitative analysis/ content validity). In the second phase, two studies were conducted. Firstly try out testing was conducted on a sample of N=100 students of Army Public College, Malir to assess the feasibility of test format, clarity and comprehension of items and test instructions. Item strength and distracter analysis were also carried out. Second study was conducted for item analysis on a randomly selected sample of N=300 intermediate level college students of Faisalabad. Item analysis was carried out to estimate the difficulty level, discrimination index and internal consistency (quantitative analysis). Items withdata difficulty level range between 0.30-0.70, discrimination index greater than 0.30 and item to total correlation values greater than 0.30 were retained. After data analysis 80 items were found fulfilling the set criterion for fair item selection. Items were arranged in relative order of difficulty and the final draft of the test was prepared. In the third phase of the main study, test taking time was estimated for each subtest and full test. The time limit for the test was decided to be 30 minutes. Current research provides a valid and reliable tool for the measurement of non-verbal intelligence in youth in a group setting.

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