Cross-Battery Assessment of Nonverbal Cognitive Ability

Abstract

The Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Cross-Battery approach, originally known as the Gf-Gc Cross-Battery model of assessment, has been defined as “a time efficient method of intellectual assessment that allows practitioners to measure validly a wider range (or a more in-depth but selective range) of cognitive abilities than that represented by any one intelligence battery in a way consistent with contemporary psychometric theory and research on the structure of intelligence” (McGrew & Flanagan, 1998, p. 357). The CHC Cross-Battery approach provides at least two unique advantages: (a) data gathered both within and across test batteries can be interpreted theoretically and empirically within meaningful patterns; and (b) cognitive test data lead to examination of empirically validated links between specific cognitive abilities and specific academic areas (Flanagan & Ortiz, 2001). The approach provides practitioners with a classification system of cognitive abilities; existing cognitive tests can be evaluated according to the model, that is, subcomponents/subtests can be described based on their ability to assess cognitive abilities within the CHC model.