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The visual motor integration test: High interjudge reliability, high potential for diagnostic error
Author(s) -
Snyder Peggy P.,
Snyder Robert T.,
Massong Stefan F.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6807(198101)18:1<55::aid-pits2310180112>3.0.co;2-x
Subject(s) - psychology , gross motor skill , raw score , test (biology) , reliability (semiconductor) , inter rater reliability , test validity , special education , developmental psychology , audiology , motor skill , clinical psychology , psychometrics , rating scale , raw data , mathematics education , statistics , medicine , paleontology , power (physics) , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , biology
Extending Pryzwansky's (1977) work on the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (VMI), this paper investigated scoring agreement among three levels of increasingly better trained VMI diagnosticians. Correlational data demonstrated high interexaminer reliabilities (.92, .93, and .98) between groups of Consumers (Special Education undergraduates), Experts (doctoral Psychology students), and Consensus‐Judges (experienced school psychologists) in their scoring of 39 subject protocols. However, gross errors in precision were discovered after the raw scores had been converted into the VMI age equivalent scores: fully 56% of the assigned age equivalent scores resulted in discrepancies of at least one year of age. These findings indicate that, despite high interexaminer reliabilities, great caution must be exercised when children are evaluated or placed by virtue of their age equivalent scores.