Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests
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The following is a guest post by John Garruto, school psychologist with the Oswego School District and member of the IQs Corner Virtual Community of Scholars. John reviewed the following article and has provided his comments below. [Blog dictator note - John's review is presented "as is" with only a few minor copy edits by the blog dicator and the insertion of some URL links]Technorati Tags: pscyhology, educational psychology, school psychology, special education, LD, learning disabilities, intelligence, IQ tests, IQ scores, cognition, RTI, response to intervention, CHC, CHC theory, Catell Horn Carroll
- Fuchs and Young appropriately suggest that further investigations need to examine the relations between multi-factorial models of intelligence (e.g., CHC theory) and response-to-treatment interventions. They do concede that all of their studies use overall ‘g’ as a single predictor. However, a careful inspection reveals that most of the studies used the Wechsler batteries (WISC-III or earlier versions). If one examines the Olde School Wechsler…half of the test measures Verbal IQ or crystallized intelligence (Gc). There is a substantial body of literature relating crystallized intelligence (Gc) to reading ability.
- None of the IQ tests included in the review measured auditory processing abilities (Ga), like those measured in the WJ III and specialized batteries (e.g., CTOPP). Therefore, it is not surprising that the authors found little relationship between intelligence tests and phonemic awareness training.
- Cognitive ability tests have changed since the days of David Wechsler. We now know (and as Fuchs and Carlson highlight) that skills such as phonological processing (Ga-PC), rapid naming (Glr-NA), orthographic processing, etc. are important in learning to read. Although the Wechsler batteries do not assess these skills, there are cognitive ability tests that currently do. I would suggest that the relations between cognitive batteries that include measures of these important reading-related abilities would likely demonstrate stronger relations with intervention responsiveness. Of course, this is an empirical question begging further research.
- Although Fuchs and Young do not necessarily espouse a multi-factorial model of intelligence for LD identification, clearly there are implications for a problem-solving model. If IQ (and let’s face it…IQ is predominantly Gc in the case of the Wechsler's) accounts for unique variance in predicting treatment outcome and explicit PA training is not related to IQ (but I would wager it would be related to auditory processing profiles), using CHC theory and CHC-designed batteries (e.g., WJ III; cross-battery designed assessments) seems to fit well within the context of this study. Other significant correlates to reading have been processing speed (Gs), short-term memory (Gsm), and long-term storage and retrieval (Glr). All of the above abilities are either underrepresented or not represented in the Wechsler batteries, the primary battery that served as the crux of this review.
- The article recognizes and describes the two primary factions that are prominent in contemporary special education and school psychology fields--those who believe in response-to-intervention as the way to determine LD eligibility, and those who espouse the need for cognitive assessment. This article does not diminish the importance of RTI or the problem-solving model. In fact, it supports many of the changes noted in the regulations regarding the importance of RTI as a part LD determination process. It places importance on using empirically-based instruction and interventions. Fuchs and Young also highlight the significance of formative assessment and ongoing progress monitoring
Interesting post over on the Eide Neurolearning blog that suggests that the hot (and hard to find) Nintendo Wii video game may be good for learning and the brain.powered by performancing firefox
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Someone just posted a link to the following as a comment to one of my posts and asked for feedback. I decided to post it to all readers. Readers...please provide feedback via the comment function.
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All the news thats fit for IQs Corner readers:
I'm always searching for easy to read overview articles to help myself, and hopefully others, see the forest from the trees regarding complex aspects of human behavior. Today I ran across a 1999 article written for speech and language pathologists which I thought did a very nice job of providing the general gestalt of the process of learning to read and the important relations between early reading/literacy skills and early language development. I particularly like the simplified step-by-step explanation of the basics of learning to read on pages 50-51 (the section titled "Skilled Reading: The Goal")