Mental Abilities

Mental abilities is one of the common area of assessment especially in case of children.Ability refers to what the person is capable of doing now.Mental ability is also commonly called as Intelligence.There are different types of intelligence tests such as verbal,non-verbal,group,individual tests are administered on one -to-one basis.Both can be verbal as well as nonverbal. However performance tests are always individually administered.Thus from the point of view of administration,intelligence can be classified as individual and group tests; whereas on the basis of nature of tests,intelligence tests can be verbal ,nonverbal and performance type test.

Intelligence is all round mental ability.It has been defined in various ways. Terman (1921) points out that intelligence is an ability to carry on abstract thinking. Munn defines intelligence as the flexibility of the mind to meet the new situations.According to Freeman (1923),intelligence is a capacity for successful adjustment by means of traits which we ordinarily call intellectual. The most widely used definition is given by Wechsler. According to him,intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his environment.

There are two aspects of intelligence: the innate potential of the individual and the functional expression of that potential in terms of the individual's behaviour. Intelligence tests measure the latter one.
 Some important tests of intelligence are Stanford Binet Test of Intelligence, Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices,Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Bhatia's Battery of Performance Test of Intelligence and Cattell's Culture Fair Intelligence Test.It was Binet who first developed the measure for assessing intelligence.

Assessment of Intelligence is done in terms of Mental Age and Intelligence Quotient (IQ). IQ is found by dividing the mental age by chronological age and multiplied  by 100.Thus ,the formula is IQ= MA/CA x 100.Performance on intelligence tests is also partially dependent on the culture in which the individual has been raised. Although culture free tests are there,but testing is still affected by culturally derived motives,attitudes and values.

Intelligence tests measure among other things ,a person,s ability to use and understand words,to handle quantitative data, to remember,to perceive similarities and differences, to reason logically,to handle abstract symbols and to do other things which are required for success in school.Thus,the assessment of intelligence finds usefulness in measuring scholastic aptitude,providing guidance to the learners,educational and vocational counselling,guiding students in cases of poor academic achievement, and understanding student misbehaviour and personality problems.