The construct validity and reliability of the child memory scale, the search and memory task, and the Toulouse-Pieron Test for a sample of South African primary school learners.
Date
2011-04-08
Authors
Van der Merwe, Hester Maria
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Abstract
In an effort to contribute to growing knowledge about measuring instruments’ applicability in different South African groups, the study attempted to ascertain the construct validity and reliability of three measuring instruments of memory. Furthermore, statistical properties and potential gender differences in a population of primary school learners in a school in KwaZulu-Natal between these instruments, namely the Child Memory Scale (CMS), the Search and Memory Task (SMT), and the Toulouse-Pieron Test (TPT), were explored. The internal reliability of the CMS was acceptable, but the Recognition section of the test was, on the whole, inconsistent and as such problematic. The SMT’s reliability estimate was lower, but acceptable. Some of the items on the test proved to be problematic in terms of the test’s overall reliability. Significant but weak relationships were found between the CMS and TPT, as well as between the SMT and TPT. However, no significant relationship was found between the SMT and the CMS. Furthermore, no significant gender differences were found between the three tests and no significant difference in correlation between the gender matrices was evident. These findings call the construct validity of the CMS, SMT and TPT in question, as literature (Gathercole & Martin, 1996; Logie, 1999) indicate probable significant inter-correlations between different aspects of memory.
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Keywords
Reliability, Validity, Child Memory Scale, Search and Memory Task, Toulouse-Pieron Test