Report on Efficacy of Cognitive Interventions for Adults with Challenging Learning Behaviours and Pe

Instructions For Completing The Assessment

An Educational Psychologist employed by a local consortium of council education authorities, the Northumbria Education Consortium (NEC), has approached you as an expert in individual differences, to write a report on the efficacy of cognitive interventions for adults with challenging learning behaviours. They were particularly impressed by these press-released comments
by Stojanoski, et al., (2021).

“The promise of brain training is appealing: completing online “games” targeting certain cognitive systems, such as attention and memory, will result in global improvements in cognitive functioning, and even IQ.”

A) Critically considers the relevant psychological research in terms of working memory (WM) intervention and its impact upon fluid intelligence (Guideline: 3000 words)

B) Provides guidance to the psychologist on the development of their new psychometric measure. Specifically, the consortium would like you to carry out a psychometric assessment of a measure of non-verbal fluid intelligence, the NEC Test of Intelligence (NECTI), which they have recently started to develop, for use in an adult education context, to assess the impact of their WM
intervention. In this component of your report, you should first provide the consortium with guidance on developing a good psychometric measure and then explicitly consider the reliability and validity of their new intelligence measure, based on the information that they have provided (Guideline: 2000 words)

The NEC Test of Intelligence (NECTI) consists of 30-items involving short tasks such as matrices reasoning, where patterns vary in a matrix and you have to identify the rules for the changes; cube task where a flat 2 dimensional pattern is presented and you have to identify- the 3-D cube object which can be constructed from the pattern; 3-D mental rotation, where you have to mentally image the rotation of an object and you have to identify its appearance after the mental rotation; and an object assembly task, where you are given multiple parts of an object and you have to construct the object from its parts.

NECTI Time1 measure, a measure of NECTI taken in the initial phase of the assessment process,

NECTI Time2 measure, a measure of NECTI taken 12 weeks after the NECTI Time1 measure,

Ravens Progressive Matrices (RPM, Burke, 1972), a measure of non-verbal fluid intelligence taken in the initial phase of the assessment process,

The Empathy Quotient questionnaire (EQ, Allison et al., 2011), a measure of autistic-like personality traits known to be important for how well an individual socially interacts with others, taken in the initial phase of the assessment process,

Option 1: Intelligence

The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT, Mauger & Kolmodin, 1975), a measure of performance in educational assessment, this was given 6 months after the NECTI Time1 measure.

A Health Psychologist employed by a local consortium of council authorities, the Newcastle Health Consortium (NHC), has approached you as an expert in individual differences, to write a report on the efficacy of psychological interventions for adults who want to change their personality. They were particularly impressed by this press release comment by Jarrett (2021).

“Your personality will continue to evolve through your life, partly as a natural response to your changing situations and also because of gradual changes in your physiology. Most exciting, there are ways you can take control of this malleability to mould yourself more in line with the person you aspire to be.” (Jarrett, 2021)

A) Critically considers the relevant psychological research in terms of psychological intervention and its impact upon personality (Guideline: 3000 words)

B) Provides guidance to the psychologist on the development of their new psychometric measure. Specifically, the consortium would like you to carry out a psychometric assessment of a measure of conscientiousness, the Newcastle Health Consortium Conscientiousness Test (NHCCT) which they have recently started to develop, for use with adults, to assess the impact of their
intervention to increase conscientiousness in the general population. The consortium has read that there is an association between conscientiousness and positive health behaviour (e.g., Bogg & Roberts, 2004) therefore, they aim to increase levels of this personality trait in the general population. In this component of your report, you should first provide the consortium with guidance on developing a good psychometric measure and then explicitly consider the reliability and validity of their new conscientiousness measure, based on the information that they have provided (Guideline: 2000 words)

The Newcastle Health Consortium Conscientiousness Test (NHCCT) is a 30-item measure of conscientiousness consisting of short sentences which participants are asked to rate on a 5- point scale ranging from 1 (disagree strongly) to 5 (agree strongly). The aim of the new measure was to create a scale with a similar format to the Conscientiousness Subscale of the Big Five Inventory (BFI-C; John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991; John, 2021) but with improved levels of comprehensiveness and reliability.

The majority of questions were worded such that higher scores indicate more conscientiousness (e.g., ‘I am someone who works diligently until the task is complete’). However, 5 questions were reverse-worded (e.g., ‘I am someone who behaves irresponsibly’), so that higher scores indicated less conscientiousness. When assessing this measure for reliability and validity, all reverse-worded questions were reverse-scored so that higher scores on the measure overall indicated higher levels of conscientiousness.

Option 2: Personality

NHCCT Time1 measure, a measure of NHCCT taken in the initial phase of the assessment process,

NHCCT Time2 measure, a measure of NHCCT taken 12 weeks after the NHCCT Time1 measure The Big Five Inventory, 9-item  Conscientiousness subscale (BFI-C, John et al. 1991), a measure of conscientiousness taken in the initial phase of the assessment process, The Big Five Inventory, 9-item Agreeableness subscale (BFI-A, John et al. 1991), a measure of agreeableness taken in the initial phase of the assessment process, The leisure score index (LSI) of the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ;
Godin, Jobin & Bouillon, 1986; Godin & Shephard, 1985), this was given 6 months after the NHCCT Time1 measure to assess Exercise Behaviour.

You may want to consider the following points before writing your guidance on the development of a new psychometric measure:

• Why it is important to use well-validated psychometric measures.

• What would you look for in a good measure of non-verbal fluid intelligence for use in an adult education context.

• Why test developers administer additional measures to participants during the test validation process and what do you look for when deciding whether these additional measures are ‘fit for purpose’

• Based on the information that you have available, what can you say about the reliability of the NECTI? Is any information about the reliability of the measure missing? Why would it be beneficial to have access to this additional data in making your psychometric evaluation?

• What does the relationship between the NECTI and RPM tell you about the convergent validity of the new measure?

• What does the relationship between the NECTI and EQ tell you about the discriminant validity of the new measure?

• What does the relationship between the NECTI and EQ tell you about the discriminant validity of the new measure?

• What does the relationship between the NECTI and SAT tell you about the predictive validity of the new measure?

• Based on all of the information that you have available, what can you say about the validity of the NECTI? Is any information about the validity of the measure missing? Why would it be beneficial to have access to this additional data in making your psychometric evaluation?

You are advised to structure your report clearly with subheadings and the writing style should be appropriate for an academic audience which lacks expertise in psychometrics.

A) Students should include

1) A critical consideration of the general nature/nurture debate in the context of personality

2) A brief consideration of the personality research and theoretical literature

3) A critical consideration of the personality intervention research literature

B) 1) A critical consideration of the features associated with a sound psychometric measure

2) A critical evaluation of the usefulness of the psychometric information provided by NHC

3) A consideration of the further psychometric information that you would require in order to make a complete evaluation of the NHCCT

You may want to consider the following points before writing your guidance on the development of a new psychometric measure:

Why is it important to use well-validated psychometric measures?

What would you look for in a good measure of conscientiousness for use in an adult context?

Why do test developers administer additional measures to participants during the test validation process and what do you look for when deciding whether these additional measures are ‘fit for purpose’?

Based on the information that you have available, what can you say about the reliability of the NHCCT? Is any information about the reliability of the measure missing? Why would it be beneficial to have access to this additional data in making your psychometric evaluation?

What does the relationship between the NHCCT and BFI-C tell you about the convergent validity of the new measure?

What does the relationship between the NHCCT and BFI-A tell you about the discriminant validity of the new measure?

What does the relationship between the NHCCT and LSI tell you about the predictive validity of the new measure?

Based on all of the information that you have available, what can you say about the validity of the NHCCT? Is any information about the validity of the measure missing? Why would it be beneficial to have access to this additional data in making your psychometric evaluation?