Review of Cornell-Coxe Performance Ability Scale

Abstract

Reviews the test, Cornell-Coxe Performance Ability Scale by Ethel L. Cornell (1934). No test is of psychometric importance unless it has been shown to predict or estimate some particular type of behavior. A standardized play situation can hardly be considered a test at all except as it offers a quantitative, mathematically stated score. That the present authors do not agree with this conception of testing is at once apparent, for they begin by saying that "Perhaps one of the chief reasons they have continued to use so-called performance tests, in spite of their frequent lack of adequate standardization, is simply that such tests offered additional opportunities for observation. The authors believe that this is the function of psychological tests as they are used in clinical examination." The reviewer heartily agrees that the observation of the child in the test situation or in any other situation may be of value, but the opportunities offered for observation have nothing to do with the value of the test as a quantitative measure. That clinicians lack a performance scale which can be used both as a substitute for and as a supplement to the Binet is well known. The reviewer regrets that he cannot recommend the present study as an answer to this long felt need. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)