Psychometric Assessment

Psychometric measurement is the standardized quantification of language, cognitive and behavioral components that reflects how a person thinks, solves problems, and demonstrates academic achievement in selected areas. The results of these assessments may be supplemented by clinical or subjective measures that pertain to personality factors, emotional responses, and/or physical behaviors.

In our research, the Psychometric team at AALRC uses a variety of group and individual assessment measures to determine the levels of ability and actual achievement demonstrated by each student. Pre- and post evaluations are conducted at the school site with students who receive specific reading instruction during the  school year. The students are assessed once again eight to nine months later to determine whether initial gains were sustained or whether significant additional growth occurred after students had opportunities to implement what they had learned.

Psychometric results are then correlated with brain waveforms generated by four electroencephalographic (EEG) tasks: tone discrimination, phoneme discrimination, pictures seen/words heard, and pictures seen/words seen.

The purposes of this research are:

• to determine if the psychometric evaluations consistently reflect brain behaviors,

• to identify differences in brain wave patterns between expert and low readers, and

• to determine if specific reading interventions modify brain wave patterns of low readers so they more closely resemble those of expert readers.

The AALRC uses a number of instruments to assess various language, cognitive, and behavioral components associated with differing levels of reading achievement. Click here to for a brief description of each.