Monday, June 27, 2022

Examination of differential effects of cognitive abilities on reading and mathematics achievement across race and ethnicity: Evidence with the WJ IV - ScienceDirect

COI…I have a financial interest in the WJ IV as one of its authors. 

Examination of differential effects of cognitive abilities on reading and mathematics achievement across race and ethnicity: Evidence with the WJ IV - ScienceDirect 
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022440522000462

There has been little research investigating the predictive validity of modern intelligence tests for racially and ethnically diverse students. The validity of test score interpretation within educational and psychological assessment assumes that test scores predict educationally relevant phenomena equally well for individuals, regardless of group membership (American Educational Research Association et al., 2014; Messick, 1995; Warne et al., 2014). We used multiple group latent variable structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate Cattell-Horn-Carroll general (g) and broad cognitive abilities on reading and mathematics achievement and whether these differed between racial (African American, Asian, and Caucasian) and ethnic (Hispanic, non-Hispanic) children and adolescents within the Woodcock-Johnson IV norming sample (N = 3127). After establishing construct equivalence across racial and ethnic groups, supporting the consistent calculation of composite scores regardless of group membership, we then examined the predictive validity of intelligence on achievement. After controlling for parent education, findings suggested two instances of differential predictive relations: (a) general intelligence had larger influences on basic reading skills for Caucasians when compared to Asian peers, and (b) comprehension-knowledge had larger influences on basic reading skills for Asians when compared to Caucasian peers. The overall pattern of findings suggests there is little to no predictive bias with the WJ IV. However, the findings indicate that when latent mean differences exist (after establishing strong factorial invariance), then bias will be introduced into the estimation of regression parameters used to identify differential predictive validity. Thus, even when measurement invariance is supported, differential prediction bias is inevitable when there are mean differences in the scores used as predictors. Future test bias research should consider latent ability differences and how that may impact findings of bias, and possibly, socioeconomic status-related indicators when assessing for measurement or prediction bias in intelligence and achievement tests.

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Kevin S. McGrew, PhD
Educational & School Psychologist
Director
Institute for Applied Psychometrics (IAP)
https://www.themindhub.com
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Tuesday, June 07, 2022

Structure of working memory in children from 3 to 8 years old. - PsycNET

 Structure of working memory in children from 3 to 8 years old. - PsycNET 
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-66912-001

Abstract
Several models of working memory (WM) have been proposed in the literature. Most of the research on the architecture of WM is based on adults or older children, but less is known about younger children. In this study, we tested various models of WM on a sample of 739 Italian children, ranging in age from 3 to 8 years, primarily of European heritage and from medium to medium–high socioeconomic background. Participants were assessed with 12 WM tasks, systematically varying the modality and level of executive control required (based on the number of activities to be performed at once: retention alone, ignoring distractors, and dealing with dual tasks). We examined younger children (n = 501, Mage = 56.8 months, SD = 6.4, 48% boys) and older children (n = 238, Mage = 80.0 months, SD = 9.0, 58% boys) separately using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses. A Bayesian analytical approach was adopted. Our results suggested that a four-factor model distinguishing between verbal, visual, spatial–simultaneous, and spatial–sequential components of WM achieved the best fit. Overall, the WM structure was very similar in the two groups. We further explored this result with an additional model with a central executive factor loaded on high-control tasks only and found evidence for the presence of an executive control component. The contribution of this factor in terms of explained variance was only modest, however. Our findings demonstrate that it is important to distinguish between WM components in young children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

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Kevin S. McGrew, PhD
Educational & School Psychologist
Director
Institute for Applied Psychometrics (IAP)
https://www.themindhub.com
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