The Procedure & Importance Of Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4

Abstract

This is a paper critiquing the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, fourth edition (PPVT-4). The test assesses individuals between the ages 2.6 through 90 plus years of age on standard American English vocabulary. There are two forms of the test, form A and form B. Each form has 228 items of pictures and the participant is to point to the picture that best describes the word. The time it takes to administer the test is between 10 to 15 minutes. Scores are converted to standard scores and into percentages. I will acknowledge the changes made to the PPVT-4 based off the other editions before this assessment.

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Critique

Lloyd M. Dunn and Douglas M. Dunn created the PPVT-4 test for children and adults to measure receptive hearing of the English vocabulary. The fourth edition of the test is a little different from the others considering when the first test was created by Lloyd M. Dunn and Douglas M. Dunn, it was created for just children (Kush, 2010). This later expanded and became a test for children who are practically babies and adults who have lived longer than most of us ever will. It is important that people understand that the PPVT-4 was not created just for those of special needs but was created for all people, it did not matter the race or what part of the country you were from. This is something today most people have considered to be normalized but before, the PPVT was very limited on who the test were for and what was sampled in the test (Kush, 2010).

Assessment Audience of PPVT-4

The demographics of participants for PPVT-4 are very well represented from each of the four geographic regions, there’s only one region a little underrepresented which is the Western region. The total number of participants were 3,540, they were then split into 28 age groups which varied between 2 years and 6 months, 6 years and 11 months, 10 years or more and 31 years to 81 years and up (Shaw,2010). As well as caucasian, african american, hispanic, and others.

The original PPVT only represented caucasians that lived near Nashville, Tennessee and only had one picture from the minority group which was represented using a black train porter (Kush, 2010). The number of people in each age group ran between 60 to 200 people. The individuals chosen are also representatives of those classified as the disabled. These individuals have either hearing impairments, speech impairments, language delay, mental retardation, learning disabilities, children and adult giftedness, emotional and behavioural disabilities and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (Shaw, 2010).

Purpose of PPVT-4

The objective of the test is to accurately assess participants chosen receptive English skills, whether a child or adult. The original test was created to test children in school on their verbal intelligence (Kush, 2010). Eventually this changed over time to expand its research and later was tested on not only children in school but adults over 40 years of age as well. When creating PPVT-4 there were adjustments made to the test, over 70% of the information from PPVT-3 was seen as fitting and 25% was newly developed information. There are two forms of the test which are represented as form A and form B, each of them have a total of 228 items which have four colored pictures on a single page (Kush, 2010). The components are divided into 19 sets with 12 words in each and testing time is usually no more than 15 minutes long (Shaw, 2010).

Procedures of PPVT-4

Furthermore, the test is to be administered by someone with a bachelors degree and has to have training pertaining to the test. The person administering the test is to read a word out loud and the participant is to choose from the four colored pictures. If the participant has some sort of disability that prevents them from choosing a picture, the administer may point to the picture, ask to nod the head or blink as a response (Kush, 2010). In a basal set a participant can only get zero or one answer incorrect and during a ceiling set the participant can get eight or more answers wrong which makes ceiling set the highest and the basal set the lowest. If the participant reaches the ceiling set the test is to be discontinued (Shaw, 2010).

There are a number of ways to score the participant which include computerized scoring, standard scores, percentile ranks, normal curve equivalent, age equivalent, grade equivalent, stanines and additionally growth value scoring which can be useful to detect changes over time. The split-half scores ranged from 90 to 97 with an average of 94. The standard error of measurement is 3.6. The stability data was collected over a four week period in between testing with data from a total of 340 participants who were apart of the sample who retested taking PPVT-4 (Shaw, 2010).

Conclusion

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test adequately use inter-individual interpretation compares correctly and accurately. I would say the test developers and everyone who were involved really thought out the age groups and the difficulty level of the words chosen for the specific age and grade levels. Covering the demographics and how simple it is to administer the PPVT-4 as well as the time it takes to administer the test. When dealing with younger children you do not have their attention very long.

In Kush’s summary he mentioned how the test sample sizes were small, I’m not sure what a normal or suitable test sample size is but I would have to agree that the time span in which the test were given should definitely be adjusted and made longer. In a four week span only so much growth can happen. The validity of the test was not very well met considering the evidence concerning the consequences of the test (Shaw, 2010).