McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities - Verbal Memory

Assessments
McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities - Verbal Memory
Created variables
VERBAyyyy. VERBAL MEMORY: PARTS A & B (WORDS) RAW SCORE
VERBAPyyyy. VERBAL MEMORY: PARTS A & B (WORDS) PERCENTILE SCORE
VERBAZyyyy. VERBAL MEMORY: PARTS A & B (WORDS) STANDARD SCORE
VERBCyyyy. VERBAL MEMORY: PART C (STORY) RAW SCORE
VERBCPyyyy. VERBAL MEMORY: PART C (STORY) PERCENTILE SCORE
VERBCZyyyy. VERBAL MEMORY: PART C (STORY) STANDARD SCORE
(Note that this assessment was included in 1986-1994 only.)
The Verbal Memory subscale of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities was last administered in the NLSY79 Child survey in 1994. This assessment taps a child's short-term memory in response to auditory stimuli. The Verbal Memory subtest selected for use in the NLSY79 Child is only one of six scales that form the complete McCarthy assessment battery. Verbal Memory was administered by first asking the child, age three through six years, to repeat words or sentences said by the interviewer (Parts A and B). Then the child listens to and retells the essential aspects of a short story read aloud by the interviewer (Part C).
Administration of Verbal Memory
From 1986 to 1990, both the word and sentence components as well as the story part of the assessment were administered. In 1992 and 1994, administration was limited to the word/sentence component of the assessment. This means that in 1992 and 1994, only the first two parts (A and B) of Verbal Memory were administered. After 1994, due to cost reasons and concerns about data quality, administration of this assessment was discontinued.
Scoring Verbal Memory
In the first half of the word-sentence component of the assessment (Part A), the score that the child received was contingent on the child repeating a series of words, ideally in the same sequence that they were uttered by the interviewer. In Part B of this first section, the child was scored according to the number of key words that he or she repeated from a sentence read by the interviewer. The combined total score for Parts A and B determined whether the story (Part C) was administered. In Part C, the child was read a story paragraph and then scored on the basis of his or her ability to recall key ideas from that story. National norms are available for this assessment, so children were assigned normed scores based on his or her performance in comparison with a nationally representative sample.
The number of correct responses to the words and sentences on pages 50 and 51 in the 1994 Child Supplement (the last year the assessment was administered) were combined to generate one total raw score.
As noted in the 1986 through 1990 rounds of data collection, the Verbal Memory assessment included a "Part C" or a "Story" section. Children who received this assessment in 1986-1990 received two scores in each year. Entry into the "Story" was contingent upon receiving a minimum combined score of 8 on Part A plus Part B. The researcher may note that there were a few instances of children entering and receiving a score on Part C who had received an invalid skip score on Part A and Part B. While it may not have been possible to score A and B for various reasons, the available information was sufficient for the scorer to be confident that the A and B score was at least 8. Children who received a valid score of less than 8 on Part A and Part B were automatically assigned a zero on Part C. This explains the considerable heaping at the zero outcome for Part C.
The scoring on Part C is a simple summation of the number of key words/phrases identified correctly from the paragraph on page CS-36 of the 1990 Child Supplement. No proration was attempted for missing responses. The individual items appear on page CS-38 of that supplement.
Age Eligibility for Verbal Memory
Verbal Memory has typically been completed by children between the ages of three and six, although in 1990, administration was limited to ages four to six. In all child survey years it was only administered to age-eligible children who had not previously (in a prior round) completed the assessment. The precise administration pattern by year is noted in Table 4 in the Child Assessments--Introduction section.
Norms for Verbal Memory
Appropriate national norms are available in the McCarthy manual (McCarthy, 1972: 205). Thus, percentile and standard scores are available for linking with the raw scores. A total raw score and two normed scores were generated for Part C in 1986 through 1990. From an analytical perspective, the prospective user may note that the distributions of the percentile and standard scores for Part C are somewhat uneven, reflecting the fact that the Part C outcome allowed for only 12 possible responses (0 and 1 through 11) with a major heaping as noted, at the zero category. The fact that the percentile/standard scores assigned to the various raw scores vary by the age of the child helps to smooth the normed pattern somewhat. However, the user is encouraged to examine the pattern of normed responses before proceeding with his or her research. As with all of the assessments in the Child Supplement, the Child Supplement age variable (CSAGE) should be used when stratifying the sample by age of child.
Completion Rates for Verbal Memory
The 1994 completion rate for Parts A and B was only about 82 percent, below the completion rate for all of the other child-administered assessments. Hispanic children had a completion rate of only 77 percent, substantially below that for other children. Thus, as with some of the other assessments, there is surface evidence that language constraints come into play when evaluating the reliability and potential validity of this assessment. With regard to this assessment, it is important to note that a Spanish translation was not utilized. Since this test measures English language verbal retention, a language bias is likely for at least some children. Hispanic children and children of less educated mothers are heavily over-represented among those who could not be scored in the "invalid response" subset.
Validity of Verbal Memory
While this subscale has a high face validity regarding what it purports to measure, the user should be sensitive to the fact that the scoring of Part C, the story section, undoubtedly includes an element of subjectivity. Interviewers can, in some instances, disagree regarding whether or not a child's specific response was indeed a "correct" or "incorrect" interpretation of an aspect of the story. Also, to some extent, the verbatim verbal responses recorded by the interviewer could, in some instances, be coded in different manners by different interviewers. In order to test this latter premise, NORC had the 1986 verbatim responses for about 400 children independently coded by two coders. There was complete agreement between coders for 92 percent of the respondents.
At a different level, there is also some possibility that the Part A response patterns reflect a lack of precision in the instruction, an ambiguity that also exists in the McCarthy manual. The instructions (for Part A) only ask the child to repeat the words that the interviewer reads to him or her, but do not specify that the words should be repeated in the same sequence. However, in the scoring, the respondent loses a point if the words are repeated out of sequence. Thus, the extent to which the words were repeated in or out of sequence may have been a function of how the instructions were understood, an artifact that could attenuate the reliability of the Part A score.
Additional Information about Verbal Memory
Verbal Memory has been one of the most difficult of the assessments to administer because of the ambiguity involved in determining whether a child does not know an answer or is just shy (see Baker and Mott, 1995 for a discussion of this issue and its impact on the assessment). This is primarily an issue with younger children who had not previously been tested or had not been in a formal school environment. With the introduction of the CAPI administration procedures in 1994, one additional problem became apparent. The number of cases scored "zero" increased substantially, but interviewer comments suggest that many of these cases really should have been "non-completions." This is discussed in detail in Baker and Mott (1995). For the reasons noted above, this assessment should be used cautiously. Additional discussion relating to the reliability and validity of this assessment, as well as how it has been used by other researchers, can be found in the NLSY Child Handbook: 1986-1990 and in The NLSY Children, 1992:Description and Evaluation, both available on the Research/Technical Reports page.
Areas of Interest | ASSESSMENT CHILD SUPPLEMENT |
Cohorts
- NLSY97
- Topical Guide to the Data
- Asterisk Tables
- I. Employment, Unemployment, and Job Search (age restrictions as of interview date)
- II. Schooling (age restrictions as of 12/31/96)
- III. Training (age restrictions as of interview date)
- IV. Income, Assets, and Program Participation
- V. Family Formation (age restrictions as of end of previous calendar year--12/31/96 in rd 1, 12/31/97 in rd 2, and so on)
- VI. Family Background (age restrictions as of 12/31/1996)
- VII. Expectations
- VIII. Attitudes, Behaviors, and Time Use
- IX. Health (age restrictions as of 12/31/96)
- X. Political Participation
- XI. Environmental Variables (in main data set)
- Education
- Employment
- Household, Geography & Contextual Variables
- Family Background
- Marital History, Childcare & Fertility
- Income
- Health
- Attitudes
- Crime & Substance Use
- Asterisk Tables
- Intro to the Sample
- Using & Understanding the Data
- Other Documentation
- Codebook Supplement
- Introduction to the NLSY97 Created Variable Appendices
- Appendix 1: Education Variable Creation
- Enrollment Status and Highest Grade/Degree - Appendix 1
- Date Received Diploma or Degree - Appendix 1
- Number of Grades Repeated or Skipped - Appendix 1
- Number of Schools Attended - Appendix 1
- Credits Earned toward Bachelor's/Associate's Degree - Appendix 1
- Date Left High School and Highest High School Grade - Appendix 1
- Private or Parochial School - Appendix 1
- SAT/ACT Scores - Appendix 1
- Training: Receipt of Certificate or Vocational License - Appendix 1
- Appendix 2: Employment Variable Creation
- Appendix 3: Family Background and Formation
- Household Size as of Survey Date - Appendix 3
- Marital Status and Marital/Cohabitation History - Appendix 3
- Fertility and Child Status - Appendix 3
- Number of Residences since Age 12 - Appendix 3
- Current Citizenship Status - Appendix 3
- Mother's Age at First Birth/Respondent's Birth
- Relationship to Household Parent Figures (Round 1 Parent Interview) - Appendix 3
- Relationship to Household Parent Figures (Rounds 7-9 Childhood Retrospective) - Appendix 3
- Relationship to Household Parent Figures (Interview Date) - Appendix 3
- Appendix 4: Geographic Variable Creation
- Appendix 5: Income and Assets Variable Creation
- Appendix 6: Event History Creation and Documentation
- Appendix 7: Continuous Month Scheme and Crosswalk
- Appendix 8: Instrument Rosters
- Appendix 9: Family Process and Adolescent Outcome Measures
- Appendix 10: CAT-ASVAB Scores
- Appendix 11: Collection of the Transcript Data (High School)
- Appendix 12: Post-Secondary Transcript Study
- Attachment 1: Census Industrial & Occupational Classification Codes
- Geocode Codebook Supplement
- Introduction to NLSY97 Geocode Data
- Attachment 100: Census Bureau State and County Codes
- Attachment 101: Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)/Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA) Codes
- Attachment 102: IPEDS Data and College Identification Codes
- Attachment 103: Migration Distance Variables for Respondent Locations
- Attachment 104: Codebook Pages for Geocode and Zipcode Variables
- Questionnaires
- Errata
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 17 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 16 Release
- Addendum: Additional NLSY97 Speech & Post-Secondary Variables Available
- Addendum: NLSY97 Post-Secondary Data and Transcript Data Files Now Available
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 15 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 14 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 13 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 12 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 11 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 10 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 9 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 8 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 7 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 6 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 5 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 4 Release
- Errata for NLSY97 Round 3 Release
- Tutorials
- Technical Sampling Report
- Codebook Supplement
- Get Data
- Topical Guide to the Data
- NLSY79
- Topical Guide to the Data
- Asterisk Tables
- Education
- Employment
- Employment: An Introduction
- Work Experience
- Jobs & Employers
- Class of Worker
- Discrimination
- Fringe Benefits
- Industries
- Job Characteristics Index
- Job Satisfaction
- Job Search
- Labor Force Status
- Military
- Occupations
- Time & Tenure with Employers
- Wages
- Work History Data
- Employer History Roster
- Business Ownership
- Retirement
- Household, Geography & Contextual Variables
- Family Background
- Marital History, Childcare & Fertility
- Income
- Health
- Attitudes
- Crime & Substance Use
- Intro to the Sample
- Using & Understanding the Data
- Other Documentation
- Codebook Supplement
- NLSY79 Attachment 3: Industrial and Occupational Classification Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 4: Fields of Study in College
- NLSY79 Attachment 5: Index of Labor Unions and Employee Associations
- NLSY79 Attachment 6: Other Kinds of Training Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 7: Other Certificate Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 8: Health Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 100: Geographic Regions
- NLSY79 Attachment 101: Country Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 102: Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)
- NLSY79 Attachment 103: Religion Codes
- NLSY79 Attachment 106: Profiles of American Youth (ASVAB Data/AFQT Scores)
- NLSY79 Appendix 1: Employment Status Recode Variables (1979-1998 and 2006)
- NLSY79 Appendix 2: Total Net Family Income Variable Creation (1979-2014)
- NLSY79 Appendix 3: Job Satisfaction Measures
- NLSY79 Appendix 4: Job Characteristics Index 1979-1982
- NLSY79 Appendix 5: Supplemental Fertility and Relationship Variables
- NLSY79 Appendix 6: Urban-Rural and SMSA-Central City Variables
- NLSY79 Appendix 7: Unemployment Rate
- NLSY79 Appendix 8: Highest Grade Completed & Enrollment Status Variable Creation
- NLSY79 Appendix 9: Linking Employers Through Survey Years
- NLSY79 Appendix 11: Round 12 (1990) Survey Administration Methods
- NLSY79 Appendix 12: Most Important Job Learning Activities (1993-94)
- NLSY79 Appendix 13: Intro to CAPI Questionnaires and Codebooks
- NLSY79 Appendix 14: Instrument Rosters
- NLSY79 Appendix 15: Recipiency Event Histories
- NLSY79 Appendix 16: 1994 Recall Experiment
- NLSY79 Appendix 17: Interviewer Characteristics Data
- NLSY79 Appendix 18: Work History Data
- NLSY79 Appendix 19: SF-12 Health Scale Scoring
- NLSY79 Appendix 20: Round 20 (2002) Early Bird and Income Recall Experiments
- NLSY79 Appendix 21: Attitudinal Scales
- NLSY79 Appendix 22: Migration Distance Variables for Respondent Locations
- NLSY79 Appendix 23: Revised Asset and Debt Variables and Computed Net Worth Variables
- NLSY79 Appendix 24: Reanalysis of the 1980 AFQT Data from the NLSY79
- NLSY79 Appendix 25: Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale
- NLSY79 Appendix 26: Non-Response to Financial Questions and Entry Points
- NLSY79 Appendix 27: IRT Item Parameter Estimates, Scores and Standard Errors
- NLSY79 Appendix 28: NLSY79 Employer History Roster
- Geocode Codebook Supplement
- Appendix 7: Unemployment Rates
- Appendix 10: Geocode Documentation
- Attachment 100: Geographic Regions
- Attachment 101: Country Codes
- Attachment 102: State FIPS Codes
- Attachment 104, Part A: 1981 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs)
- Attachment 104, Part B: 1983 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)
- Attachment 104, Part C: 1983 Consolidated MSAs and Associated Primary MSAs (CMSAs and PMSAs)
- Attachment 104, Part D: 1983 PMSAs and Associated CMSAs
- Attachment 104, Part E: 1988 MSAs, CMSAs, and Associated PMSAs
- Attachment 104, Part F: 2004 MSAs, CMSAs, and Associated PMSAs
- Attachment 104, Part G: 2006 Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs)
- Attachment 105: Addendum to FICE Codes
- Attachment 106: Codebook Pages for Geocode and Zipcode Variables
- Questionnaires
- Tutorials
- Errata
- Technical Sampling Report
- School & Transcript Surveys Documentation
- Codebook Supplement
- Get Data
- Topical Guide to the Data
- NLSY79 Child/YA
- Topical Guide to the Data
- Intro to the Sample
- Using & Understanding the Data
- Other Documentation
- Codebook Supplement
- Appendix A: HOME-SF Scales (NLSY79 Child)
- Appendix B: Composition of the Temperament Scales (NLSY79 Child)
- Appendix C: Motor & Social Development (NLSY79 Child)
- Appendix D: Behavior Problems Index (NLSY79 Child)
- Appendix D, Part 1: Composition of the BPI subscales
- Appendix D, Part 2a: BPI Anxious/Depressed Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2b: BPI Antisocial Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2c: BPI Dependent Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2d: BPI Headstrong Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2e: BPI Hyperactive Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2f: BPI Peer Conflicts/Withdrawn Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 2g: BPI Full Scale
- Appendix D, Part 3a: BPI Internalizing Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 3b: BPI Externalizing Subscale
- Appendix D, Part 3c: BPI Total Scores
- Appendix E: Sample SPSSx Program for Merging NLSY79 Child/YA & Mother Files
- Appendix F: Sample SAS Program for Merging NLSY79 Child/YA & Mother Files
- Appendix G: NLSY79 Child Assessment Scores, Reference Numbers (2010-2014)
- Appendix H: Identification Codes in the Child and Young Adult Database
- Attachment 100: Codebook Pages for Young Adult Geocode Data
- Questionnaires
- Errata
- Errata for 2014 Child/Young Adult Release
- Data Addition: New Work and School Status Variables Created
- Errata for 2012 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2010 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2008 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2006 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2004 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2002 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for 2000 Child/Young Adult Release
- Errata for NLSY79 Child Interview Dates 1986-1992
- Research/Technical Reports
- Codebook Supplement
- Get Data
- NLS Mature and Young Women
- NLS Older and Young Men