Digital Assessment Battery For Cognitive And Linguistic Functions:The Challenge Of Building Ecological Assessment Tools In Digital Format

SILVA, MARÍA LUISA; ESCHER, LEANDRO; GASPARINI, MARÍA VICTORIA; STAHRINGER, GERMÁN

Joao Pessoa

Congreso; VII Conference Linguistics and Cognition; 2015

Federal University of Paraíba João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil

This paper introduces theoretical and procedural guidelines that allowed the development of Digital Battery for Cognitive and Linguistic Functions Assessment (Silva, Escher, Gasparini, Stahringer,Injonque-Ricle, Plana, Barreyro& Minzi,2014 CONICET - Neuropsi), beta version. The battery includes twelve (12) tests, conceived as situated cognition tasks (Engeström& Cole, 1997), for evaluating children, adolescents and adults performance in Working Memory, Attention, General Intelligence and Language development and proficiency. The battery includes both the discriminated assessment of each of the skills involved, as their interrelationships. The uses projected would be in two areas: in the field of basic and applying research and in the Clinical area. The development of digital battery belongs to Innovation + Development projects (CONICET, Argentina). We have exploit contributions of Information and Communication Technologies for developing a digital assessment tool not only psychometrically valid and reliable, but also ecologically valid (Wittrock and Baker, 1997), ergonomic (Cañas & Waern, 2001)and attractive and user-friendly for the subjects and test administrators. We have also planned a numberof advantages of use (existence of Argentinean scales, automatic processing, automatic reporting, simple recovery of records, etc.) that seek to prove that the instrument will be a distinctive product in the market of psychological assessment tools.The battery has been tested during the last quarter of 2014 in 80 (eighty) 5 to 9 years old children population, belonging to Middle Socioeconomic Level of Buenos Aires, Argentina.The project has integrated the contributions of several basic and applying researching disciplines, enabling professional?s cognitive sciences address to build an instrument that will optimize assessment. The process also allowed us to reflect about the difficulties to overcome, in the current context of the institutions of Science and Technology, to carry out complex projects.