Scoring Accuracy and Norms Flashcards
7 cards from real BCP practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Scoring Accuracy and Norms flashcards as text
A psychometrist administers a test to a patient using a wheelchair who cannot complete timed motor items. The manual does not address this accommodation. What is the most appropriate action?
Answer: Administer the items without time limits and note the nonstandard administration in the report
When standard administration is not possible and the manual lacks guidance, the psychometrist should document the accommodation and clearly note that standard norms may not apply.
Which norm-referenced score type expresses a child's performance as the age at which the average child earns that raw score?
Answer: Age-equivalent score
Age-equivalent scores represent the chronological age in the normative sample at which the median raw score matches the examinee's obtained raw score.
A psychometrist notices that a client's working memory index score is 12 points lower than their verbal comprehension index. What must be determined before interpreting this discrepancy?
Answer: Whether the difference is statistically significant
A score discrepancy is clinically meaningful only if it exceeds the critical value for statistical significance at a specified confidence level (e.g., .05 or .01).
Norms collected in 1995 are used to score a test administered in 2026. Which direction will this most likely bias the standard scores for a typical examinee?
Answer: Upward, because older norms set a lower performance baseline
Due to the Flynn Effect, population performance increases over time; older norms have a lower baseline, so current examinees score higher than they would with updated norms.
A raw score of 0 is obtained on a subtest. Before recording a scaled score, the psychometrist should first check:
Answer: Whether a floor effect makes the subtest uninterpretable
A raw score of 0 may reflect a floor effect where the test cannot differentiate levels of very low performance, making derived scores unreliable.
When converting a sum of scaled scores to a composite index score, a psychometrist uses the wrong age column in the norm table. What type of error has occurred?
Answer: Scoring error due to misapplication of norms
Using the wrong age column constitutes a normative scoring error because the wrong reference group is applied, yielding an inaccurate derived score.
Which characteristic makes a normative sample inadequate for generalizing test scores to a specific population?
Answer: The sample excludes individuals with the disability being assessed
If individuals with the disability of interest are excluded from the normative sample, the norms are not representative of that population and scores cannot be validly compared.