Testing and cognitive psychology

Abstract

Evaluates 4 major approaches to understanding mental abilities: cognitive correlates, which relate test performance to tasks believed to tap basic information-processing abilities; cognitive components, which construct cognitive process models of tasks from standard psychometric tests; cognitive training, which trains individuals in a particular skill and examines subsequent performance; and cognitive contents, which examine the differences in knowledge structures between experts and novices. The major implication of these approaches is that they can relate test performances to specific mental processes. Some newer trends in cognitive research that are potentially fruitful for testing are also discussed. The author concludes that the eventual supplementing of psychometric tests with theory-guided cognitive tasks will be a viable endeavor. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1981 American Psychological Association.