Differential Ability Scales
The Differential Ability Scales (DAS) is a nationally normed (in the US), and individually administered battery of cognitive and achievement tests. Into its second edition (DAS-II), the test can be administered to children ages 2 years 6 months to 17 years 11 months across a range of developmental levels.
The diagnostic subtests measure a variety of cognitive abilities including verbal and visual working memory, immediate and delayed recall, visual recognition and matching, processing and naming speed, , and understanding of basic number concepts.
The original DAS was developed from the BAS British Ability Scales both by and published by Harcourt Assessment in 1990.
Test Structure[]
The DAS-II consists of 20 cognitive subtests which include 17 subtests from the original DAS.
The subtests are grouped into the Early Years and School-Age cognitive batteries with subtests that are common to both batteries and those that are unique to each battery. These batteries provide the General Conceptual Ability score (GCA), which is a composite score focusing on reasoning and conceptual abilities.
Core Cognitive Tests | Diagnostic Tests |
---|---|
Pattern construction | Recall of designs |
Word definitions | Recognition of pictures |
Similarities | Recall of objects |
Matrices | Speed of information processing |
Sequential & quantitative reasoning | |
Recall of design |
Ages 6-17 only
Early Years Cognitive Battery[]
The Early Years core battery includes verbal, nonverbal, and spatial reasoning subtests appropriate for ages 2 years 6 months to 6 years 11 months.
There are three optional diagnostic subtests — Recall of Objects Immediate and Delayed, Recall of Digits Forward, and Recognition of Pictures. There are also two optional diagnostic clusters — working memory and processing speed.
School-Age Cognitive Battery[]
The School-Age core battery contains subtests that can be used to assess children ages 7 years to 17 years 11 months. These subtests measure verbal, nonverbal reasoning, and spatial reasoning abilities. The subtests can also be used to assess children ages 5 years to 6 years 11 months who may be cognitively gifted. In addition there are up to nine diagnostic subtests for this age group that feed into three possible diagnostic cluster scores — working memory, processing speed and, for the youngest ages, school readiness.
Uses for assessing giftedness[]
Both DAS editions are suitable for evaluation of intellectual giftedness, and high scores are accepted as qualifying evidence for high IQ societies such as Intertel (min. GCA 135 on DAS-II) and American Mensa (min. GCA 130 on DAS-II).[1][2]
References[]
- Pearson Clinical. Differential Ability Scales-II (DAS-II) Product Page.
- Harcourt Assessment. Differential Ability Scales-II (DAS-II) Product Page.[dead link].
Further reading[]
- Daniel, Mark H. (1995). "Differential Ability Scales". In Sternberg, Robert J. (ed.). Encyclopedia of human intelligence. 1. Macmillan. pp. 350–354. ISBN 978-0-02-897407-1. OCLC 29594474.
- Elliott, Colin D. (2012). "Chapter 13: The Differential Ability Scales—Second Edition". In Flanagan, Dawn P.; Harrison, Patti L. (eds.). Contemporary Intellectual Assessment: Theories, tests, and issues (Third ed.). New York (NY): Guilford Press. pp. 336–356. ISBN 978-1-60918-995-2. Lay summary (29 March 2014).
- Urbina, Susana (2004). Essentials of Psychological Testing. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780471679011. Lay summary (10 October 2013).
- Urbina, Susana (2011). "Chapter 2: Tests of Intelligence". In Sternberg, Robert J.; Kaufman, Scott Barry (eds.). The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 20–38. ISBN 9780521739115. Lay summary (9 February 2012).
- ^ "Intertel - Join us". www.intertel-iq.org. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
- ^ "Qualifying test scores". American Mensa. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
- Cognitive tests
- Intelligence tests