Historical antecedents of modern testing

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CHAPTER 2

HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF MODERN TESTING

- This will provide perspective and aid in the understanding of present day tests.

- This chapter is concerned only with the antecedents and the early development of

the testing movement.

- There have been repeated accounts of the system of civil service examinations

prevailing in the Chinese empire for some 2,000 years (Bowman, 1989)

- Testing was an established adjunt to the educational process.

- Tests were used to assess the mastery of physical and intellectual skills (Doyle,

1974)

- In the middle ages, European universities relied on formal examinations in awarding

degrees and honors

Early Interest in Classification and Training of Mentally Retarded Persons

- 19

Century witnessed the strong awakening of interest in the humane treatment of

mentally retarded and insane persons.

- Proper care and concern of people through uniform criteria with mental problems

were required.

- First it was necessary to differentiate between insane and mentally retarded

individuals

- Esquirol pointed out that there are many degrees of mental retardation. He also

tried several procedures but concluded that the individual’s use of language

provides the most dependable criterion of her or his intellectual level.

- Sequin pioneered in the training of mentally retarded persons. He experimented the

physiological method of training. In 1837 he established the first school devoted to

the education of mentally retarded children.

- After more than half a century of Esuirol and SEguins’ work, Alfred Binet urged that

children who failed to respond to normal schooling be examined before dismissal an

considered educable. Binet encouraged the Ministry of Public Instruction to improve

the condition of retarded children. Binet was appointed in the ministerial commission

and this appointment was a momentous even in the history of pscyhlogical testing.

THE FIRST EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGISTS

- The Principal aim of psychologists was the formulation of generalized descriptions

of human behavior not with the measurement of individual differences.

- It was the uniformities not differences in behavior that were the focus of attention

- Wundt at Leipzig in 1879 founded the attitude toward individual differences that

prevailed in the laboratories where many of the early experimental psychologist

received their training.

- The founders of experimental psychology reflected the influence of their background

in physiology and physics. The problems studied in their laboratories were

concerned largely with sensitivity to visual, auditory, and other sensory stimuli and

with simple reaction of the first psychological tests.

- The early physiological experiments brought out the need for rigorous control of the

conditions under which observations were made. For example: the wording of

direcins given to the participant in a reaction-time experiment might appreciably

increase or decrease the speed of the person’s responses.

Contributions of Francis Galton

- English biologist

- Primarily responsible for launching the testing movement.

- Unifying factor of numerous and varied research activities was his interest in human

heredity.

- Realized that measuring the characteristics of related and unrelated persons.

- Sets up an anthropometric laboratory at the International Exposition of 184. Where,

by paying three pence, visitors could be measured in certain physical traits and

could take tests of keenness of vision and hearing, muscular strength, reaction time,

and other simple sensor motor functions.

- Devised most of the simple tests administered at his anthropometric laboratory.

Examples include Galton bar for visual discrimination of length, the Galton whistle

for determining the highest audible pitch, and graduated series of weights for

measuring kinesthetic discrimination.

- Noted that persons with extreme mental retardation tend to be defective in the

ability to discriminate among heat, cold, and pain.

- Pioneered in the application of rating-scale and questionnaire methods.

- Selected and adapted a number of techniques previously derived by

mathematicians.

Cattell and the Early “Mental Tests”

- James McKeen Catell -American psychologist

- He completed dissertation on reaction time, under Wundt’s direction at Leipzig.

- Active both in the establishment of laboratories for experimental psychology and in

the spread of the testing movement.

- His article written in 1890, the term “mental test” was used in the psychological

literature for the first time.

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CHAPTER 2 HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF MODERN TESTING - This will provide perspective and aid in the understanding of present day tests. This chapter is concerned only with the antecedents and the early development of the testing movement. There have been repeated accounts of the system of civil service examinations prevailing in the Chinese empire for some 2,000 years (Bowman, 1989) Testing was an established adjunt to the educational process. Tests were used to assess the mastery of physical and intellectual skills (Doyle, 1974) In the middle ages, European universities relied on formal examinations in awarding degrees and honors Early Interest in Classification and Training of Mentally Retarded Persons - - - 19th Century witnessed the strong awakening of interest in the humane treatment of mentally retarded and insane persons. Proper care and concern of people through uniform criteria with mental problems were required. First it was necessary to differentiate between insane and mentally retarded individuals Esquirol pointed out that there are many degrees of mental retardation. He also tried several procedures but concluded that the individual’s use of language provides the ...
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