Words and pseudowords recognition test: content and external validity

Abstract

Abstract: Abstract: The aim of this study is to provide the theoretical framework and psychometric evidences of content and external validity for the ‘Word Recognition Test’ (TRP) and ‘Pseudoword Recognition Test’ (TRPp). A total of 598 participants, 52% male, from the 2nd up to the 5th year of Elementary Education, 7 up to 11 years old, stratified in 102 classrooms of eight state schools. The TRP was generated from a database of words, analyzed via Item Response Theory, which considers Accuracy and Reaction Time, with medium to high discrimination index and three levels of difficulty (low, medium and high). The words were balanced with the psycholinguistic variables of:  occurrence frequency (High vs. Low), regularity grapheme–phoneme (Semiregular vs. Irregular) and extension (Short vs. Long). The pseudowords have the same orthographic structure and number of letters as the reference word. The scores for both instruments are given terms of Accuracy (words percentage read correctly) and Accuracy Rate (words number read correctly per minute). Content validity was strengthened by the stimuli phonemic transcriptions and the lexicality significant effects (Words vs. Pseudowords), occurrence frequency, regularity and extension. External validity (convergent, discriminant and criterion) was verified. In conclusion, the TRP and the TRPp demonstrated satisfactory psychometric evidences of content and external validity.

Keywords: dyslexia; educational measurement; learning disabilities; validation study; psychometrics.