The WJ IV Measurement of Auditory Processing (Ga)

The WJ IV Measurement of Auditory Processing (Ga)

Kevin S. McGrew, PhD.Institute for Applied Psychometrics (IAP)

www.themindhub.com

© Institute for Applied Psychometrics; Kevin McGrew 06-20-14

Kevin McGrew Affiliations

• Institute of Applied Psychometrics (IAP)-Director

• University of Minnesota - Visiting Professor (Educ. Psych.)

• Interactive Metronome - Director of Research and Science (External Consultant) *

• Darhma Berkmana Foundation (YDB; Indonesia) –Intelligence expert for development of first Indonesian CHC-based intelligence battery for children

* Conflict of interest disclosure: Financial relationship and interest in IM;

Coauthor of WJ III and WJ IV (royalty interest)

The New Ga

Auditory Processing (Ga) abilities should no longer be considered the Rodney Dangerfield

of CHC abilities


The WJ IV Auditory Processing (Ga) cluster is not your father’s Ga measure.

WJ IV still has the Oldsmobile Ga(Phonetic Coding) in OL: COG now has more cognitively complex Ga measures

The WJ IV has taken a broader contemporary view of the domain of Ga

© Institute for Applied Psychometrics; Kevin McGrew 06-20-14© Institute for Applied Psychometrics; Kevin McGrew 06-18-14© Institute for Applied Psychometrics; Kevin McGrew 06-18-14

There has been an explosion of research on auditory abilities since Carroll’s (1993) seminal work (Schneider & McGrew, 2012). A wide-ranging collection of Ga characteristics have been related to disorders of reading, speech, and language. For example, Ga abilities are now recognized as playing a pivotal scaffolding role in the development of language and general cognitive abilities (Conway, Pisoni, & Kronenberger, 2009).

© Institute for Applied Psychometrics; Kevin McGrew 06-18-14© Institute for Applied Psychometrics; Kevin McGrew 06-18-14

AuditoryProcessing (Ga)

PhoneticCoding (PC)

NWDREPPHNPRO*

* Test in GIA

Short-Term Working Memory (Gwm)

Memory for Sound Patterns (UM)

SEGMNT SNDBLN

(Ga cluster)

(Phonetic Coding cluster-PC)

Author/expertCHC narrow

factor classifications


Memory Span(MS)

Nonword Repetition

(PC/UM-MS)

Phonological Processing

(PC/Glr-LA)

Sound Awareness

(PC)

Sound Blending

(PC)

Segmentation

(PC)

Auditory Processing (Ga)

Short Term

Wrk Mem (Gwm)

Most complex

Least complex

COG

OL


An auditory processing battery ?

New WJ IV Ga tests

COG Test 5: Phonological Processing

• Ga (PC) / Glr (LA/FW)•3 subtests (Word Access; Word Fluency; Substitution• Measures three aspects of speech sound processing

that requires the efficient construction of sound-based lexical representations• High in cognitive complexity and g. Best single Ga

test predictor of achievement. High loading on Gaand secondary low loading on Gc (accessing thelexicon). Also loaded on narrow LA factor inbroard+narrow bottom-up CFA models.

• In GIA, Ga, and all reading and writing scholasticaptitude clusters


Ga (UM)

Examinee listens to a nonsense word and then mustrepeat the word exactly.

Requires temporary storage of phonological segments in immediate awareness.

Significant body of research has found such tasks tobe significantly related to (and be possible “markers”of) reading disabilities, dyslexia and SLI (specific language impairment)

COG Test 12: Nonword Repetition


OL Test 3: Segmentation

• Ga (PC)

• Examinee listens to words and identifies word parts

• In OL Phonetic Coding (PC) cluster

• Highest loading test on Ga factor across all ages

• A moderate measure of g and predictor of ach. across all ages; much more so (and more cognitively complex) than Sound Blending.

• Such tasks have been reported to be strong predictors of early reading (Bouwmeester et al, 2011; Geuden & Sandra, 2003)


CHC Ages Ages Ages Ages AgesTests Factor 6 thru 8 9 thru 13 14 thru 19 20 thru 39 40 thru 90+ Mediann = 823 1572 1685 1251 1145

Object Number Seq. Gwm 0.72 0.69 0.74 0.75 0.79 0.74

Oral Vocabulary Gc 0.66 0.67 0.72 0.75 0.75 0.72

Phonological Processing Ga 0.73 0.63 0.68 0.71 0.77 0.71

Concept Formation Gf 0.63 0.62 0.66 0.70 0.67 0.66

Numbers Reversed Gwm 0.63 0.59 0.65 0.67 0.69 0.65

Analysis-Synthesis Gf 0.64 0.63 0.64 0.67 0.70 0.64

Verbal Attention Gwm 0.61 0.62 0.64 0.65 0.70 0.64

Number Series Gf 0.62 0.61 0.64 0.59 0.65 0.62

Memory for Words Gwm 0.60 0.58 0.61 0.64 0.66 0.61

Visualization Gv 0.60 0.57 0.61 0.66 0.67 0.61

General Information Gc 0.44 0.52 0.59 0.63 0.65 0.59

Story Recall Glr 0.58 0.53 0.58 0.54 0.62 0.58

Letter-Pattern Matching Gs 0.57 0.55 0.60 0.57 0.65 0.57

Number-Pattern Matching Gs 0.56 0.53 0.54 0.53 0.59 0.54

Nonword Repetition Ga 0.55 0.51 0.52 0.51 0.56 0.52

Visual-Auditory Learning Glr 0.52 0.47 0.49 0.59 0.60 0.52

Pair Cancellation Gs 0.45 0.47 0.52 0.51 0.54 0.51

Picture Recognition Gv 0.52 0.43 0.36 0.45 0.47 0.45

Shading indicates tests in GIA cluster.

g-loadings of WJ IV COG tests across 5 norming age groups


Fluid Reasoning (Gf) 0.78

Auditory Processing (Ga) 0.77

Short-Term Working Memory (Gwm) 0.76

Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc) 0.74

Long-Term Retrieval (Glr) 0.72

Visual Processing (Gv) 0.68

Cognitive Processing Speed (Gs) 0.62

Comparison of WJ III and WJ IV CHC cluster g-loadings in respective norm samples (first unrotated principal component)

Fluid Reasoning (Gf) 0.79

Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc) 0.79

Long-Term Retrieval (Glr) 0.78

Auditory Processing (Ga) 0.69

Short-Term Working Memory (Gsm) 0.69

Processing Speed (Gs) 0.62

Visual Processing (Gv) 0.60

Note changes in relative g-loadings for Ga and Gwm


Gs g-loadingLETPAT 0.58NUMPAT 0.55PAIRCN 0.52

GaPHNPRO 0.75SNDAWR 0.71SEGMNT 0.64SNDBLN 0.59NWDREP 0.58

GlrSTYREC 0.59RETFLU 0.58VAL 0.56RPCNAM 0.51

GvVISUAL 0.63PICREC 0.48

g-loadings of WJ IV COG/OL tests across ages 6-90+

Gc g-loadingORLVOC 0.76ORLCMP 0.71PICVOC 0.67GENINF 0.63

GfCONFRM 0.67ANLSYN 0.64NUMSER 0.63

GwmOBJNUM 0.72UNDDIR 0.67VRBATN 0.67MEMWRD 0.65NUMREV 0.64SENREP 0.62


Yet to be published preliminary cross-battery g-loading and cognitive complexity analysis of

primary WJ IV/external IQ battery special studies

T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9T1 T12T10 T11

g

(1a) Spearman’s general Factor model

g-loadings based on factor/principal component analysis

Spatial position from center of MDS Guttman radexanalysis “maps”


Loadings on first unrotated common factor

CommunalityEstimates

Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) 0.809 0.654

Auditory Processing (Ga) 0.804 0.646

Fluid Reasoning (Gf) 0.804 0.646

Perceptual Reasoning Index (PR) 0.800 0.639

Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc) 0.779 0.607

Short-Term Work. Memory (Gwm) 0.764 0.584

Working Memory Index (WMI) 0.749 0.562

Long-Term Retrieval (Glr) 0.683 0.466

Visual Processing (Gv) 0.604 0.365

Processing Speed Index (PSI) 0.569 0.323

Cog. Processing Speed (Gs) 0.537 0.288

1-factor (unrotated) common-factor solution for WJ IV COG / WISC-IV composite scores (n=173)


-2 -1 0 1 2

-2

-1

0

1

2

GIA

GC

GF

GWM

GS

GA

GLR

GV

VCI

PRI WMIPSI

2 MDS solution for WJ IV / WISC-IVcomposite and g-scores (n=173)

•The WJ IV GIA score is as good (better?) a measure of general intelligence (g) as the WISC-IV FS IQ when defined by g-loadings and MDS cognitive complexity analysis.

• The WJ IV Ga cluster is a measure of complex cognitive abilities; comparable to WJ IV & WISC-IV Gf/PRI composites.

•The WJ IV measures cognitive abilities not represented in the WISC-IV (Ga, Glr, and possibly Gv).

Measures closer to the center of the radex are more cognitively

complex

FSIQ


Component Ldgs.

PHNPRO 0.83

AR 0.81

VOC 0.80

ORLVOC 0.80

INF 0.78

SNDAWR 0.78

CONFRM 0.76

SIMS 0.75

MR 0.74

VRBATN 0.73

SPLSND 0.72

NUMSER 0.71

NUMREV 0.70

GENINF 0.69

SEGMNT 0.69

BD 0.69

CMP 0.68

LNQ 0.68

DS 0.65

SNDBLN 0.63

NWDREP 0.63

OBJNUM 0.63

PCCN 0.63

VAL 0.62

SS 0.61

ANLSYN 0.61

NUMPAT 0.59

RETFLU 0.58

STYREC 0.58

PAIRCN 0.57

VISUAL 0.54

PICREC 0.48

LETPAT 0.47

COD 0.46

RPCNAM 0.43

CAN 0.42

First (unrotated) principal

component forWJ IV COG/OLWISC-IV tests

(n=173)

Remember that there was a paucity of Ga factor studies when Carroll

completed his 1993 treatise


Auditory Processing (Ga) abilities should no longer be considered the Rodney Dangerfield of CHC abilities

School psych. and SLD have had a myopic “lamp post-search ” blinder focus on only one part of the very broad domain of Ga

There has been an explosion of research (since Carroll’s 1993 treatise) that has identified potentiallynew important and cognitively complex Ga narrow abilities


Visual-SpatialProcessing (Gv)

Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc)

Resistance to auditory stimulus distortion (UR)

Reading-Writing (Grw)

Short-TermMemory(Gwm)

Phonetic

coding (PC)

Musical Discrimination

& Judgment (U1 U9)

Language

Development (LD)

Speech sound

discrimination (US)

Maintaining &

Judging Rhythm (U8)

Absolute

Pitch (UP)

Spelling

(SG)Reading

Decoding (RD)

Memory

Span (MS)

Memory for

Sound Patterns (UM)

SoundLocalization (UL)


(Adapted slide from original Gv genius slide of Dr. Joel Schneider)

School psych. and SLD have had a myopic “lamp post-search ” blinder focus on only one part (phonetic coding)

of the very broad domain of Ga

Click to activate

animation

Long-term retrieval (Glr)

Visual-SpatialProcessing (Gv)

Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc)

Resistance to auditory stimulus distortion (UR)

Reading-Writing (Grw)

Short-TermMemory(Gwm)

Phonetic

coding (PC)

Musical Discrimination

& Judgment (U1 U9)

Language

Development (LD)

Speech sound

discrimination (US)

Maintaining &

Judging Rhythm (U8)

Absolute

Pitch (UP)

Spelling

(SG)Reading

Decoding (RD)

Memory

Span (MS)

Memory for

Sound Patterns (UM)

SoundLocalization (UL)


There has been an explosion of research that has identified potentially new important Ga and related (LA) narrow abilities

Click repeatedly to activate animation

Speed of Lexcial

Access (LA)

Auditory

Imagery ?

Auditory gap

Detection ?

?

(Adapted slide from original Gv genius slide of Dr. Joel Schneider)

Sampling of range of Ga abilities being studied:

© Institute for Applied Psychometrics; Kevin

McGrew 01-23-14





Dr. Nina Kraus

Auditory Processing (Ga) abilities, when properly measured, should have a

prominent chair at the roundtable of cognitive CHC abilities


Date post:	09-Jul-2015
Category:	Education
Upload:	kevin-mcgrew
View:	2,269 times
Download:	1 times

The WJ IV Measurement of Auditory Processing (Ga)

Education