The Beta III provides a quick assessment of adults’ nonverbal intellectual abilities. It is easy to administer and score and is useful for screening large numbers of people for whom administering comprehensive test batteries would be time consuming and costly. It is especially useful when assessing low-functioning or low skilled individuals. Beta III can be administered to groups or individuals.

Beta III is the latest revision of an instrument with a long and distinguished history. The original version was developed by the U.S. Army during World War I to assess the intellectual ability of illiterate recruits. In 1934, Kellogg and Morton revised it to make it suitable for civilian use. Beta III is an updated version of the Revised Beta Examination, Second Edition, Published in 1974.

 

 

Beta III is easy to use. Professionals familiar with Beta II can administer Beta III with minimal training. Technicians, paraprofessionals, and others in the fields of psychology and education can administer Beta III with training and supervision. It is easily hand scored with a key.

 

Beta III Features

• New norms

• Contemporary and larger artwork

• New items

• New Subtest (Matrix reasoning)

• Extended (upward) age range

• Low floors for individuals with average and lower cognitive abilities

• Higher ceiling with more challenging items

 

Beta III is reliable and valid.

Extensive reliability and validity studies were conducted with Beta III. The normative sample included 1,260 adults. Validation data were collected using individuals with Mental retardation and more than 400 prison inmates. The standardization sample was stratified by age, gender, race/ethnicity, educational level, and geographic region according to 1997 U.S. census data.

Beta III was validated using other well-known tests, including the WAIS®-III, ABLE-II, Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices, Revised Minnesota Paper Form Board Test (RMPFBT), Personnel Tests for Industrial-Oral Direction Test (PTI-ODT), Bennet Mechanical Comprehension Test® (BMCT®), and Revised Beta Examination, Second Edition (Beta II).

 

Beta III has a variety of occupational and educational applicants.

Appropriate uses for the Beta III include prison systems assessing the intellectual ability of inmates, companies evaluating the employment readiness of potential new hires, and vocational schools determining placement of students. Beta III also is appropriate for use with ESL individuals, as no reading is required. Administration instructions are available in English and Spanish.

Four subtests have been retained from Beta II: Coding, Picture Completion, Clerical Checking, and Picture Absurdities, Matrix reasoning, a measure of fluid reasoning, is new to Beta III.