Understanding Cognitive Skills Testing: What Is It? Why Have It Admin? & Where To Find It?"

 I am reprinting an earlier version, 2010 article of mine, regarding the value of cognitive skills, standardized, longitudinal testing, still applicable today. 

Later, interestingly, in 2014, the University of Pennsylvania's Brain Behavior Lab created a simple, normed test, computerized, self-administered in one hour, called Mindprint Learning. It gives a direction for personalized learning plans in 10 skill levels.

While helpful for parent/teacher/student planning, the Mindprint Learning self-awareness test, therefore, differs greatly from the rigorous pre-post-post standardized test batteries I discuss, and administered at 13 learning sites.

 I work from the Guilford Intellgence model for backbone theory,  with a reformulated, brief, puppetry playbook model on downloadable film.

Lesson 1 preview is now available on Utube under "Jan Kuyper Erland".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yBvAnGjJeI    (paste link in your browser)

All of my lessons and content are original. The article goes well with my following July article on "Digital Transformation."

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2010

We can now all move forward to new learning and achievement heights, providing we understand how our own information processing works. Our reluctance to be the very best we can be, can now be left behind us. 

My work is based upon the premise that “intelligence” is trainable, and that skills, like reading, writing, mathematics and problem solving are dependent on cognitive information processing basic blocks called “primitives.”

Why understand what these blocks are? Because all work proficiency, including academic achievement, depends upon how our “mind works” operate. 

The renowned psychologist, J. P. Guilford, identified 150 cognitive skills cubes, called the Structure of Intellect theory (SOI), which has been used as a foundation and measurement of general intelligence for decades. (See footnote).

Why should we care? Because our future endeavors, how we cope with everyday life and our achievements/life styles will depend upon our information processing capabilities. 

It will become our lifetime path we lead, and how contented we will be with what we end up doing as a livelihood.

How do we find out what capabilities we have? It is through standardized cognitive skills testing and evaluations can show information processing strengths and weaknesses of the individual.

Why is testing and evaluation not routinely prescribed? Why do we not know about it? It is because testing can only be administered by highly trained, state certified, professionals at the masters/doctoral degreed levels. 

These people include psychologists, school psychologists, and learning disability specialists. 

Testing companies will not sell testing materials to anyone other than these highly qualified and trained professionals, who are trained to do measurement and evaluations.

Subsequently, the testing requires trained expertise, money, and takes time. One set of cognitive skills tests usually runs from $2,500. - $3,000. 

Therefore, parents often go to physicians or psychiatrists who can prescribe medication to calm the learner, which may appear to be a quick, inexpensive solution. 

Yet, this intervention is not low-cost, and can run $100. a month or more depending upon insurance coverage. And, prescribed medication can become habit-forming.

There is little, scientific knowledge, summarizing the life-long effects of any kind of stimulant medication on the brain and body that is used to increase focus and concentration needed for learning new material.

Cognitive skills training and cognitive skills assessment has been available for some time. In 1975, Guilford's student, Dr. Mary Meeker, formed the "Structure of Intellect" (SOI) Institute and trained educators how to measure cognitive skills according to task. 

She and her husband, Robert, designed tests and materials. The SOI Institute exists today (as of July 2023) with clinicians in every state that have been trained at their "Advanced Level" out of four levels of experienced practice and training. 

The program has focused on reading, math, and learning problems, early childhood weaknesses, Gifted instruction with remediating missing blocks, and career counseling.

Yet, cognitive skills measurement and standardized testing has not been mainstreamed for the average, yet ambitious person, due to training, time, professional qualifications, and cost constraints. 

Generally speaking, individuals needing remediation were tested either privately, in schools, clinics, or within learning institutions.

Subsequently, many who who were fortunate enough to obtain low-cost assessments and training, or at no cost through their school, later felt embarrassed that they might be considered as "inadequate or a slow learner." 

Yet, they could subsequently experience giant steps forward in perceiving and learning new information faster and reaching greater career heights. 

Now, this sense of "being singled out as imperfect or having a problem " is no longer the case, as we move forward with a new dimension of identifying learning skills strengths and weaknesses to create the high performing, confident individual. 

We must all excel. Tomorrow's world is demanding it of us.

How can I get started with solid, eye-opening measurement of my own or my children’s cognitive skills if it is expensive and time consuming? Is this beneficial, and worth the time and trouble?

Soon there will be available online options that will offer access to finding the right professional in your area, who will now charge less for solid evaluations. 

And, the online options will give you the information you need and want, and point you in the right direction for not only testing, measurement and evaluations, but for instructional, learning solutions.

My dream is that most of us will want optimum mental fitness in the future for our children and ourselves the same way we want physical fitness and personal well-being. 

It will be our choice to move forward to higher levels. We can be competitive in the new, global world.

Footnote: Guilford, J.P. (1967). The Nature of Human Intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill. In Guilford's Structure of Intellect (SOI) theory, intelligence is viewed as comprising operations, contents, and products. 

There are 5 kinds of operations (cognition, memory, divergent production, convergent production, evaluation), 6 kinds of products (units, classes, relations, systems, transformations, and implications), and 5 kinds of contents (visual, auditory, symbolic, semantic, behavioral). 

Since each of these dimensions is independent, there are theoretically 150 different components of intelligence.

"Can Puppetry With Musical Choral Speech Serve as a Tool to Enhance Memory and Intelligence?"

Today, there are many brain exercise programs, and most expect the client to have the motivation and interest to stay with a new, often tedious program. Many are random exercises without a specific goal in mind, and are no more than mere visual memory improvement of some sort. The various types of memory are not completely pre tested or delineated, and if they do, they are with the pretests primarily visual in nature and deliberately made difficult so the applicant performs poorly.

What is obviously missing from this paradigm is the crucial "listening-auditory memory" facet. Researchers have long written that auditory memory must couple with visual memory for comprehension to ensue. But how to teach auditory memory and the various subcategories of it?

My program has always used recognized nationally standardized cognitive skills tests. We did pretests and posttests to see and compare the improvement after twenty-four hours of intensive cognitive skills brain-skill practice. The results always showed improvement, and yet, every person's profile was different; pre- to posttest. That was most interesting to me and the client, and remains to be so, even today.

None of us have perfect profiles, although we would like to think that we do have them.

To teach rapid auditory-visual memory, and to make the training palatable and exciting, we used a family of ventriloquist puppets, speaking in tonal sequences.

Puppet characters have the following qualities: 1) they offer a non-threatening, stress free presence. The student remains in an abstract "one-up" position. Puppets do not challenge or intimidate you.

2) Their messages are rapidly understood. For example, they are used in political cartoons and comic strips.

3) With the recent surge of ventriloquist puppets as entertainment (America's Got Talent), they are now, and have been accepted for a long time, as a sophisticated arts medium for adults (remember Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy? and puppetry in the Czech Republic and India?).

Now, we can learn from them, too. They can improve our cognitive skills, which include visual and auditory memories. And, if puppet characters do give us "guff," we really do not mind!

Jan on: Those Who Have Improved Intelligence

Can Intelligence Be Improved?

Many eminent psychologists and brain scientists have worked on improving intelligence - making people smarter, and success was obtained! Even teacher practitioners, like myself, have created effective applications, with much effort, of course. 

Most research conducted through university research institutions find that with constant rotating doctoral staffs, and difficulty in obtaining longitudinal measurement in schools that can not always furnish this important data tracking, discover creating intelligence enhancement programs is a difficult undertaking. This, coupled with the 1997 federal privacy act of students’ records, plus checking with each individual student for annual outcomes, makes continual monitoring difficult, if not impossible.

Additionally, learning institutions of higher education are focused on their own system capacity building by creating a long series of research with their applications. Therefore, faced with disconnects, they can lack the capability of developing innovations of raising cognitive intelligence, and taking a new system to the marketplace. 

Robert Sternberg, formerly of Yale University, now Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, has long given technical discourse about raising intelligence in the classroom. Howard Gardner, Harvard University, offered a directed design of “Seven Intelligences” modules for classroom application. 

The University of Kansas, my alma mater, and number one school internationally for learning disabilities, offers a series of learning strategies for secondary school students. The success of these strategies requires the student’s selective application, which can not always be determined or measured. All of these intelligence building programs, which are comprised of study skills, are most beneficial, but unfortunately give just measured steps toward desired elevated and permanent intellectual change. 

However, in 1965, J. P. Guilford, professor of psychology at the University of South California (USC), and then president of The American Psychological Association, (APA) defined an intelligence cube, or model, of 128 components, which evolved into a program that did increase intelligence successfully. 

His doctoral student, Mary Meeker, applied it to a workable program in 1967 called “Bridges Learning.” It operated successfully in many school districts until recently, when Bob and Mary Meeker passed away. Their problem, however, was not only the cumbersome teacher training and lengthy teaching aspects, but the testing, evaluation, and tracking; as they used Meeker’s own designed set of assessments, which were not nationally standardized. But,there was success in this construct. Children's intellectual abilities improved. 

Based upon the Guilford Intelligence Model, but not interested in applying Meeker’s lengthy, labor-intensive applications, in 1981, I created a creative cognitive skills training program which included the fine arts of prosody, rhythm and music using filmed, media-driven historical vaudevillian puppets. It became Edutainment for the classroom, called "The Bridge To Achievement." 

Twelve national locations served as initial test sites, featuring a short 15-day, 1 ½ hrs per day, small group intervention, (based upon age and pre-tested cognitive ability levels). It consisted of 24 hours of intensive media based verbal repetition, called "The Bridge To Achievement." (The BTA) This time format was based on the earlier 1960s findings of biophysicist, Marian Diamond, University of California - Berkeley, who revealed that brain dendrites in rats could be developed in just 24 hours of treatment. 

The bottom line is longitudinal practice and research development success over time. Any program should be researh-based with years of field testing and publications. That is why it takes twenty-five or more years to realize whether any particular system really works and how effective it is in the long run. Long-term outcomes become overly evident. 

Jan's Brainy Insight

Commentary: "Common Sense: A Mystery for Some of Us "

        

Following my last blog, I have had interesting conversations with professionals from all fields regarding this topic. Although common sense may be related to logic, critical thinking with its consequences and implications, stays in a realm all its own. Logic and common sense can even be trumped by fast, sudden reactions.        

        

Without delving into the scientific literature on the topic, there have been some interesting comments from both a nero-surgeon that I came in contact with recently, and also an artist-poet. They concluded the same thing, although they haven't met.         

        

Their comments were, that with aging, common sense is "the first to go." Psychological data shows that information processing capability begins to decrease as early as age 35, assuming you had the capability in various brain areas in the first place.        

        

They commented that common sense is locked in a very fine line between our sensibilities of fantasy and reality. And, throw in tainted, emotional bias and habit, we may have a problem. In other words, as we age, we can easily fool ourselves with bad decisions, and can not, do not, recognize such. Let alone acknowledge that we may be way off base.        

        

I find this assumption and observation quite disturbing. Perhaps we should be aware of this hidden dilemma, and consciously make meaningful decisions. My last commentary discussed fluid intelligence, which is trainable to a significant and meaningful degree.         

        

       

        

        

Weeks of January 23, 2009 - February 7, 2009

 

 

Commentary: "Is Common Sense a Natural Trait, or Is It Developed? "

        

I have always wondered why some highly intelligent people appear to not have any common sense. It amazes me how they continue to blunder in their lives, making continuous personal and professional mistakes that set them back., They go through their lives making more of them, and don't seem "to get it."          

        

It boils down to "seeing the big picture" (a right-brain capability) and being pragmatic (a left-brain function).

        It also ties into critical thinking, which according to my last commentary relates to fluid intelligence, which is trainable to a significant and meaningful degree.         

        

Critical Thinking has been a hot topic for years, which includes seeing implications, making inferences, and understanding consequences to any action. Unfortunately, many people operate from their emotional side and make snap judgments, paying for it later. They are not critical thinkers, nor do they use common sense (which would be like "getting out of the rain"). There used to be an old saying, "he doesn't have enough sense to get out of the rain." 

        

Common sense also connects to one's "personality" and "perspective", but of which are affected and developed by life experiences and influences. Personality is also created through our inherited genes, and how we would react to circumstances. 

        

I recently viewed a documentary on former President, Harry S. Truman, who was said to have had great common sense,  

        because he ended World War II, and fired General Douglas MacArthur on Wake Island for wanting to invade China. Unfortunately, these events were very controversial for some time, but later in history, are marked as President Truman having great "common sense." 

        

Perhaps we all need to have "common sense" called to our attention, give it some consideration, and consciously develop it to a greater extent by applying the elements of critical thought. 

        

        

 

        

        

        

        

        

Weeks of January 5, 2009 - January 19, 2009

 

Commentary: "New Research Documents Brain Exercise Transfers to Fluid Intelligence Improvement"

        

Proceedings from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America released April 2008 the work of the Department of Psychology of the University of Michigan, and the Department of Psychology of Bern, Switzerland, stated that increasing fluid intelligence is possible after all through working memory training. It was followed by a May 13, 2008 article by the eminent psychologist, Robert Sternberg, Tufts, University reviewing the same.     

        

According to Sternberg, fluid intelligence is trainable to a significant and meaningful degree." According to Sternberg's article (Increasing Fluid Intelligence Is Possible After All", May 13, 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Vol 105, 19), robust results were not obtained because psychologists failed to use the  cognitive-theoretical basis for their training purposes.        

        

Fluid intelligence may be described as the ability to problem solve, learn new information, and succeed at taking tests. It is closely related to educational and professional success.

        

Changing working memory is through information processing activation of the various cognitive skill abilities -- primarily visual and auditory memories -- which need to be integrated for test-taking, and following and understanding directions. This entails specific brain exercise applications.        

        

Yet, interestingly, few tested curriculums exist, with the exception of "The Bridge To Achievement," which as 28 years of documented experimentation at 13 national test sites following the cognitive psychologists' research work of the 1960s and 1970s. 

        Most of today's psychologists had left these earlier theories for behavioral applications.

        

As stated in my previous blog article: It is often difficult for those unfamiliar with the field of cognitive psychology, how important it can be to change a person's functioning level, by improving visual and auditory memories. Yes, input modalities can be changed and/or enhanced to higher levels. This does not happen by taking a pill, or by having a tutor. Creating a higher proficiency level  occurs through intensive mental exercise through a specific documented system.        

        

This researcher has long advocated that both visual and auditory memory with other important cognitive skills, can be improved in an efficient manner. 

        

Now we can all become mentally sharper than we have been. It just takes the will and motivation to do so. 

        

       

        

Weeks of December 1, 2008

 - December 15, 2008

 

Commentary: "Getting to the Root of the Problem - More Than Tutoring "

        

It is often difficult for those unfamiliar with the field of cognitive psychology, how important it can be to change a person's functioning level, by improving visual and auditory memories. Yes, input modalities can be changed and/or enhanced to higher levels. This does not happen by taking a pill, or by having a tutor. Creating a higher proficiency level  occurs through intensive mental exercise through a specific documented system applying Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA).        

        

This researcher has long advocated that both visual and auditory memory can be improved in an efficient manner. Unfortunately, everyone does not know how to do this -- I created a specific, workable system that has been in practice for nearly 30 years. Children to teens and adults have benefited, from low to high ability levels. Everyone stepped forward, some with giant leaps. 

        

Brain exercise is now becoming  popular. Brain exercises feature crossword puzzles and repeating strings of numbers. Unfortunately, random exercises, while better than nothing, will not correct clefts. They will sharpen your abilities as they are now, and may prevent some deterioration. But, what if you want to jump to a higher realm of learning proficiency? 

        What if you like being especially sharp? 

        

"Handwriting Reveals Visual Memory Perceptual Changes Through Whole-Brain Activation" is an article in publication review process (2008). There are seven examples of clients of various ages' assessment samples pre- and-posttest. The first four pages are technical testing explanations. For the average reader, peruse on to pages 5-8 to see before, during treatment, and after training handwriting samples. These samples will demonstrate brain activation stages and the changes as they occurred.

        

See: Handwriting Reveals Visual Memory Perceptual Changes Through Whole-Brain Activation.

Weeks of November 10, 2008

 - November 30, 2008

 

Commentary: "Tutoring -- Is It Always The Best Option?"

        

Mem-ExSpan retrains the brain so the learner is performing at a higher proficiency level. In contrast, tutoring helps the student perform a particular task, or complete an assignment. It does not retrain the brain or correct underlying deficiencies. It is difficult for most people to understand this difference.        

        

When cognitive skills are corrected, the learner can most often perform independently, at a higher success rate, and does not require a tutor to assist him with lessons. By enhancing the ability to "listen and learn well" students pick up what is taught them in the classroom.        

        

Schools receive large grant monies to provide for tutors, which are not only costly, but labor intensive, have to be trained, and the outcomes are often less than desirable. Effectiveness is often very marginal. Although the assignment is completed and turned in, the student remains at the same "brain power" level. 

        

Yet, this option is what most parents, school, and districts understand. Even with solid tutoring, schools still may not reach "Annual Yearly Progress" (AYP) standards, which means that each school must obtain a small amount of yearly improvement.         

        

School districts often spend 1 MM per building on para-professional "tutors," who sit and help students with poor information processing ability complete an assignment. Although tutoring does have its place in some circumstances, (like helping learn a specific subject) would correcting the problem and having a self-sufficient learner make more sense, than adding a band aid?

        

       

        

Weeks of October 13, 2008

 - October 27, 2008

 

Commentary: "Prioritizing"

        

Mem-ExSpan teaches how to rapidly sequence information as a key element of visual and auditory memory improvement. Those who have the training are rapid multi-taskers, read and learn faster, Most people do not realize this type of training even exists or is possible to have.        

        

I often wonder how people prioritize (or sequence) their daily existence. What do we do first in a sequence of actions - what do we complete last? We can observe people driving fast headed to unknown destinations. We are all in a hurry, and to where,  for what, and for what purpose? Are we wasting our time? Where does it all end?    

        

We need to stop and analyze what we are accomplishing, what is the most important factors in our lives, and if we are personally growing. It would be good to mentally contemplate and consider how we might improve our mental fitness and overall well-being as we grow older. Make a list of positive accomplishments you have made this week and the level of mental fitness it took to complete the task. Are you headed in the right direction? How are you affecting the lives of those around you? Are you making a difference?

        It is a matter of setting important priorities, which many of us may overlook. 

        

       

        

Weeks of September 22, 2008

 - October 6, 2008

 

Commentary: "Do You Apply Logical or Emotional Decision Making? Staying Out of Messes"

        

I have observed that many people do not always think as logically as they could have. In other words, they allow their emotions, attitudes, and behaviors play a big part in their decision-making. Quite frankly, this puzzles me, even though so many people operate in the emotional mode, which can put you at a distinct disadvantage.         

        

Those who are analytical, will outsmart you. If they have been lucky to have had my sequence training, which develops parallel thought, or are very intelligent naturally, they will assemble all of the negotiating components quickly in their head, and place you in jeopardy.        

        

This will be the case whether you are purchasing a house or automobile, deciding which area to reside in, or picking a mate. As current emotional intelligence research reveals (Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., and Caruso, D. R.  (September 2008). American Psychologist, pp. 503-517) that some individuals have a greater capacity to carry out sophisticated analytical processes while successfully integrating their emotions.  Yet, not all people have the ability to do this. They may let their emotions over-ride logical decision-making.         

        

These authors have defined this set of abilities as emotional intelligence (EI) p. 503.        

        They  conclude that all the parts of motives and emotions should come together successfully. These factors tie into your personality, and should fuse and blend in a coherent fashion.

        

This blog is  intended to provide not only interesting, new, high quality scientific information, but to also encourage the average individual to think about what affects them directly with a fresh perspective. By doing this, and becoming smart about your emotions, you improve the quality of your life by having fewer problems!