A construct comparability analysis of cognitive ability tests in different languages

This research studies the construct comparability of the Woodcock-Johnson Battery - Third Edition Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ III COG; Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) and the BaterIa III Woodcock-Munoz: Pruebas de Habilidad Cognitiva - Third Edition (BaterIa III COG; Woodcock, Munoz-Sandoval, McGrew, Mather, & Schrank, in press-b), which are the English and Spanish versions of the same battery, respectively. These are measures of cognitive functioning that purport to be direct counterparts of one another. This study examined the degree of comparability and sources of incomparability of seven tests of cognitive ability that were translated from English to Spanish. The purpose of this study was to determine: (1) whether the dimensionality and structure of each of the selected tests of the WJ III COG and BaterIa III COG were the same; (2) whether there were specific items from the selected tests of the WJ III COG and BaterIa III COG that function differentially for English- and Spanish-speaking examinees; and (3) whether the sources of differences in constructs being assessed for the two language groups could be identified. Answers to the research questions stated above contributed to evidence relevant for determining the comparability of the inferences based on these test scores for two different language versions. Between the two language versions of the tests, at the scale as well as the item level, the results indicated that there were different levels of psychometric similarities and differences for some of the seven tests that may jeopardize the comparability of scores from these versions.