Obtaining Efficacy and Aptitude Measures from the ACID Profiles of Post-Secondary Students with and without Severe Scholastic Disabilities.

This study investigated how obtaining predicted and actual scores on aptitude tests can provide crucial information regarding personal beliefs about ability. The ACID profile of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (Revised) (WAIS-R) was used to collect the subjective and objective scores of 92 college students with severe scholastic deficits (SSD) and 40 typical college students. The group with SSD reported past severe, continual failure in verbal tasks, but not in performance tasks, whereas the contrast group did not report experiencing severe academic problems. The study hypothesized that in verbal subtests (Arithmetic, Information, and Digit Span), students with SSD would tend to have either veridical estimates or underestimates of ability, whereas the contrast group would tend to overestimate. Second, it was predicted that in the performance subtests (Coding/Digit Symbol), both groups would overestimate. For Arithmetic and Digit Symbol, hypotheses were supported. In Digit Span, the group with SSD underestimated significantly, whereas the contrast group had accurate estimates; this result was in the expected direction. For Information, however, both groups overestimated significantly. Implications of these findings and further research are discussed including using the ACD rather than the ACID profile with adults. (Contains 24 references.) (Author/CR) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ******************************************************************************** 1 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Running head: Obtaining Efficacy and Aptitude Measures Efficacy and Aptitude 1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement wilED :CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Obtaining Efficacy and Aptitude Measures from the ACID Profiles of Post-Secondary Students With and Without Severe Scholastic Disabilities Jill C. Slemon Centre for Lifelong Learning, London, ON Uri Shafrir Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto Poster presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA, August 17th, 1998. Jill Slemon obtained her Ed. D. from 0.I. S.E. , University of Toronto, and now works as Student Services Counsellor at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, London, Ontario. Uri Shafrir is a professor at 0.I. S.E. , University of Toronto. Correspondence may be sent to Jill Slemon, 34 Normandy Gardens, London, ON, N6H 4A9 or by email to aslemon@julian.uwo. ca. 2 BEST COPY AVAIIABLE Efficacy and Aptitude 2 Abstract Obtaining predicted and actual scores on aptitude tests provides crucial information regarding personal beliefs about ability. The ACID profile of the WAIS-R was used to collect students' subjective and objective scores. The ACID subtests have been used as profiles of children having severe scholastic deficits (SSD) (Kamphaus, 1993). In this study we examined ACID profiles of post-secondary students with and without SSD (Kaufman, 1990). Hypotheses were derived from Bandura's (1977, 1997) social learning theory of self-efficacy. Bandura (1986, 1989) argued that repeated failure may lead to self-limiting veridical beliefs. The group with SSD reported past severe, continual failure in Verbal tasks, but not in Performance tasks, whereas the contrast group did not report experiencing severe academic problems. We hypothesized that in the Verbal subtests (Arithmetic, Information, and Digit Span), students with SSD would tend to have either veridical estimates or underestimates of ability, whereas the contrast group would tend to overestimate. Second, we predicted that in the Performance subtest (Coding/Digit Symbol), both groups would overestimate. For Arithmetic and Digit Symbol, hypotheses were supported. In Digit Span, the group with SSD underestimated significantly whereas the contrast group had accurate estimates; this result was in the expected direction. For Information, however, both groups overestimated significantly. Implications of these findings and further research will be discussed including using the ACD rather than the ACID profile with adults.