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7/28/2019 Short-Term Memory Test: An Assessment Method for Future Counselors
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Journal of Test Construction 1
Short-Term Memory Test:
An Assessment Method for Future
Counselors
Marlin Rusli, Edwin Sutamto, Lena Febriana, and Alice Ade
Faculty of Psychology Undergraduate Program
Atma Jaya Catholic University
Jakarta, Indonesia
Abstract
This paper discusses about a test construction based on the construct of short-term memory.
Specifically, this test was constructed as a reference to a university for selecting the student
candidates in the Guidance and Counseling Program from the Teacher Training and Education
Faculty. The construction of the test comes up from the awareness of the lacking basic skills
the students have. This situation may cause the low performance of the students in counseling
practice. Its not the matter of how well they speak, but mainly on how they receive their future
clients information and use it as a treatment reference.
Introduction
Nowadays, counselor has been a popular and promising profession for some people.
The reason why is life challenges has become harder each day. Those problems are not just
common in adults life, which most people think as a cause oftheir work problems, family, and
even love life. Life problems can occur in childrens daily life. Most schools in the large cities
have their own school counselors. Usually they are teachers who took counseling or
psychology major as a focus on their further studies.
A study in one of Jakartas leading Catholic University shows that school counselors are
created from its counseling major. Subjects that refer to the skills of the future counselors are
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basic counseling technic, approaches in counseling, counseling on social and individual aspects,
and a lot more. Most of the subject requires field activities. Students are challenge to learn not
only from textbooks, but also in real life practices. Carl Rogers theory talks about the basic
skills that are needed as a good counselor, empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive
regard. As for the Head of Guidance and Counseling Program from the Teacher Training andEducation Faculty, Yoseph Pedhu, CP, said that its not only the matter of theory but also the
real life practice itself. Students must have good listening and memory skills.
Short-term memory (primary memory) is the capacity to hold information in the brain
in a short time and under conditions that can be directly used (Miller, 1956). Short term
memory stores information for roughly 18-30 seconds, although the information can be stored
longer if a conscious effort is made to keep it there by rehearsing it.
According to several experiments conducted by Miller (1956), the capacity of short-term memory itself is limited to about seven units, plus or minus two. Each unit can be defined
differently, depending on the types of input and also whether the listener has any previous
knowledge on the particular type of input or not.
Counselors way of doing their job is by listening to their clients stories, whatever it will
be, and try to lead their client onto a solution. A study about listening comprehension shows
that short-term memory in auditory is the most important component in listening
comprehension. Therefore, counselors who mainly do their job by listening to peoples storiesfor the purpose of designing a treatment that suits the clients need to have a good auditory
short-term memory.
An auditory short-term memory or also called verbal memory functions to assist
individuals in understanding a certain language. Individuals use the memory to store, process,
understand, and assimilate a conversation (Alton, 2001). Auditory short-term memory is
associated with speed and articulation of words. The main function of auditory short-term
memory is important when individuals are listening.The Short-Term Memory Test is an ability/aptitude test that is made as tool for early
prognosis on future counselors. Implying from the definition of short-term memory, there are
three domains that can be break down: the sum of number elements in mind, the sum of letter
elements in mind, and the number of word elements in mind. The design of Short-Term
Memory Test is to consist of 21 made from numbers, letters, and word that have the range of
difficulty from 3 to 9. These items are given in a form of an audio recording and to be tested
individually.The main purpose of this test is to measure one of the important components in
counseling, which is memory skill. This tests outcome will be a score on the students level of
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Journal of Test Construction 3
auditory short-term memory. As said before that the auditory short-term memory play an
important role in listening comprehension, counselors should have this skill as their basic
foundation. The score from this test will act as a reference for the university in accepting the
new admissions.
Method
Attempting Try Out
Implementing from the definitions of short-term memory, we develop a set of numbers,
letters, and words that are used as stimulus to measure the subjects short-term memory. Each
element varies in the number of items in it. These items also act as the difficulty level of the
Short-Term Memory Test. This tests format is a recording that contains the items spoken in
Bahasa Indonesia. The sequence of the items was made from the lowest range (which is 3) to
the highest (which is 9) in an order from the numbers, letters, and the words element.
We conducted an individual try out to sort out which items that are acceptable for this
test. Participants of the try out were 72 students from different majors in the university. For
the try out, we prepared 63 items, which consist of 21 items formed in numbers, 21 items
formed in letters, and 21 items formed in words.
Each participant was given a headset that is attached to an audio player device.
Participants were to re-write the items they heard from the recording in the right order as
given. Scoring is based on the correct answers written by the participants. The value for each
correct answer is given a score of 1 and 0 for every incorrect answer.
Results
Item Analysis
The function of the try out is to decide which of the 63 items that will qualify in the
Short-Term Memory Test. In the item analysis, we used item difficulty and item discrimination
as the parameter of the qualified items. The item difficulty of each item should be in the range
of 0.30 p 0.80 or else, it must be eliminated. If an item has a proportion below 0.30, it
indicates that the item is very difficult. And also if the proportion of the item is above 0.80, then
it is very easy.
Point-biserial correlation was used to examine the item discrimination. The point-
biserial shows the correlation between each items score and the total score. The higher it
correlates, it shows that the item manage to discriminate the participants who have high short-
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term memory and who dont. Each items point-biserial correlation value should be higher than
0.20 to be qualified.
Based on the analysis of the items that have been carried out, there are 23 out of 63
items that were accepted and can be used. From the calculation of item difficulty, there are 27
items that qualify. Items that qualify are items that have a moderate level of difficulty (0.30 p 0.80). The rest, 11 items that are rejected for being too difficult (p 0.8).
In the point-biserial calculation, there are 32 items accepted and 31 rejected. Items that
are denied have point-biserial correlation value which is lower than 0.2. It means that these
items do not represent the measurements of short-term memory. As a result, these items
couldnt discriminate participants who have high or low short-term memory capabilities.
Validity
The validation methods used for this test are construct validation and criterion
prediction validation. Construct validation method is used in order to see whether this test has
fulfilled its function to measure the construct in the form of short-term memory theoretically.
While the criterion prediction validation is used to see whether this test is able to fulfill its
function to predict individual performance in the practice of counseling in the future.
For the construct validation, we used internal consistency as the internal validation ofthis test. We determined the limits of internal consistency by using the limits used in the
calculation of item-total correlation, which is greater than 0.2 (Field, 2013). Another method
used for computing the construct validation is convergent-discriminant method. The
convergent test used by the group is one of the sub-tests in Wechsler-Bellevue test: the digit
span. Meanwhile the discriminant test used is the sub-test also from Wechsler-Bellevue test:
the information processing. When the correlation with convergent method has a value of 0.5-
0.7, then this test can be said to be valid. Meanwhile, when the correlation with discriminantmethod has a negative value then this test can be said to be valid (Gronlund, 1982).
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Journal of Test Construction 5
Table 1
Construct Validation
Domain Item No. Domain Correlation Construct Correlation
The sum of number
elements in mind
1 0.000 0.000
4 0.000 0.000
7 0.309 0.468
10 0.440 0.595
13 0.772 0.786
16 0.673 0.706
19 0.567 0.528
The sum of letter
elements in mind
2 0.403 0.380
5 0.417 0.218
8 0.398 0.339
11 0.447 0.478
14 0.476 0.772
17 0.489 0.518
20 0.113 0.244
The sum of word
elements in mind
3 0.000 0.000
6 0.239 0.113
9 0.346 0.645
12 0.38 0.356
15 0.456 0.444
18 0.368 0.212
21 0.468 0.243
Pearson
STMT - Digit Span
Pearson STMT
Information Processing
Internal
Consistency
0.521 0.371 0.383
The calculation result of discriminant validity, the total scores of STMT are correlated
with the information processing sub-test of Wechsler-Bellevue test is equals to 0.371.
Meanwhile the results of the convergent validity, which is by correlating the total score of
STMT with digit span sub-test of Wechsler-Bellevue test is equals to 0.521. Aside from that, the
calculation result for the internal consistency is equals to 0.383. Referring to the restrictions
provided by Gronlund, the Short-Term Memory Test is not valid by the discriminant validity
but said to be valid by the convergent validity and internal consistency.
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Based on calculations performed using SPSS, the correlation value obtained for the
criterion prediction validity is equals to 0.322. The score indicates a significant relationship
between the Short-Term Memory Test and the Counseling subject scores in the 3rd semester
students. So it can be concluded that the Short-Term Memory Test can be used to predict
students performance in the future.
Reliability
The type of reliability testing used for the Short-Term Memory Test is one-time
administrative procedures by the method of Kuder Richardson 20. This method is used
because of the items score in this test is dichotomous and it consists of various degrees of
difficulty on each item.
Table 2
Reliability Testing
MethodReliability
CoefficientError
KR-20 0.827 0.173
The results obtained when using the method of KR-20 is equals to 0.827. Due to the
limit of the stated value on a reliable measuring instrument is 0.75, the Short-Term Memory
Test can be said to be reliable for measuring the short-term memory of the Guidance and
Counseling Program from the Teacher Training and Education Departmentstudent candidates.
Setting Norms
The standardization technique used for this test is setting standard by using norm. We
used the norms of the group to see the position of individuals within the group itself. We
computed the normality test to figure out which method will be used to define the norm. Then,
computing a standard score (z-score) of the raw data will be required when the score of the
distributions is generated in normal form.
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Journal of Test Construction 7
Table 3
Normality Testing
One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test
TOTAL
N 42
Normal Parametersa,bMean 11,60
Std. Deviation 3,683
Most Extreme Differences
Absolute ,132
Positive ,096
Negative -,132
Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z ,855
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) ,458
a. Test distribution is Normal.
b. Calculated from data.
Chart 1
Raw Score Distribution
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Table 4
Z-score and T-scale Calculation
Z-Score T-Scale Z-Score T-Scale Z-Score T-Scale
-2,06229 29,38 -,43315 45,67 ,65295 56,53
-1,79076 32,09 -,43315 45,67 ,92447 59,24
-1,51924 34,81 -,43315 45,67 ,92447 59,24
-1,51924 34,81 -,43315 45,67 ,92447 59,24
-1,24772 37,52 -,16162 48,38 ,92447 59,24
-1,24772 37,52 -,16162 48,38 1,19600 61,96
-1,24772 37,52 -,16162 48,38 1,19600 61,96
-,97619 40,24 ,10990 51,10 1,19600 61,96
-,97619 40,24 ,10990 51,10 1,19600 61,96
-,70467 42,95 ,10990 51,10 1,19600 61,96-,70467 42,95 ,38143 53,81 1,19600 61,96
-,70467 42,95 ,38143 53,81 1,19600 61,96
-,70467 42,95 ,65295 56,53 1,46752 64,68
-,43315 45,67 ,65295 56,53 1,46752 64,68
The interpretation for this test is divided into two categories, which are pass and fail. This was
made based on the purpose of the Short-Term Memory Test, as a reference on the qualified
student candidates. This categorization was done by using a cut-off score of the digit span sub-
test, which are
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Journal of Test Construction 9
RS SS Category
12 51,10 Pass
13 53,81 Pass
14 56,53 Pass
15 59.24 Pass
16 61,96 Pass
17 64,68 Pass
Discussion
Constructing the Short-Term Memory Test has its own challenges. Aside from its
various domains, the STMT lacks on objectivity in its items. For the word element items, there
was no previous assessment or studied indicating, which words can represent the mainconstruct of the test associating with the targeted participants. The words used as the items of
this test may have certain meanings or association for the participants. This may be the cause
of the discriminant validity to be said not valid. The subjective stimulus may cause the Short-
Term Memory Test to have an overlap to other test that measures different construct. Selection
for the discriminant validity test should also be given more attention. The wrong test may
cause the not valid result due to the overlapping main construct.
Aside from that, participants that were used for the try out and field have differentcriteria. This may affect the qualified items is really not that appropriate for this test. Another
factor that may cause defect to the try out and field is the place where the tests are held. This
should be more carefully controlled when conducting a test. Furthermore, in constructing a
test, researchers should pay more attention to every details of the process. A single small
mistake may cause invalid and unreliable test, which means a waste of energy and time for
nothing.
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