Columbia Mental Maturity Scale

Social Processes: Methodology · Types of test

The Columbia Mental Maturity Scale (CMMS) is an individually administered measure designed to assess the general reasoning ability of children between 3 1/2 and 10

It consists of 92 items arranged in a series of eight overlapping levels. Each of the eight levels contain between 51 and 65 items that are appropriate for a specific chronological age

Scoring

Administration takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes and returns a number of scores in addition to the percentile rank, raw score, and stanine:

Age Deviation Score which is a standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 16
Maturity Index which is comparable mental age, although they are more global, employing the use of ranges of age rather than specific years.

Norms

Standardization was established on 2,600 children stratified on the basis of parental occupation, race, geographic location, and size of residence community. A sample of 200 children were selected for each age level closely reflecting the population of the U.S.

Reliability

The CMMS manual reports both split-half and test retest reliabilities.

Split-half reliabilities are reported for each of the 13 age levels, with the items divided in half forming two half-tests for each age level.Internal consistency coefficients range from a low of .85 to a high of .91 with a median split-half coefficient of .90 for the standardization group, indicating excellent internal consistency.
Test-retest reliability coefficients for three different age groups are reported for an interval of 7-10 days. A median test-retest reliability of .85 was obtained.

Validity

Correlational data between the CMMS and the subtests of the SATsuggest that the interlevel standard scores of the CMMS correlate substantially with the various subtest scores of the SAT with a median value of .57 (.31 to .61) for all Primary I Battery subtests and a median value of .47 (.43 to .61) for all Primary II Battery subtests. The correlation of CMMS scores and two measures of intellectual ability, the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test (OL) and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale(SB), provide concurrent vverbal response and only a minimal motor response, the CMMS is suitable for use with children who have cerebral palsy or other brain damage, mental retardation, visual handicaps, speech impairment, hearing loss, or language difficulties.

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