Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test

The Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT) is an individually administered test designed to measure the general intelligence and cognitive abilities of children and adolescents ages 5 through 17 years who may be disadvantaged by traditional language-loaded ability tests. The UNIT is intended to provide a fair assessment for children and adolescents who have speech, language, or hearing impairments; who have different cultural or language backgrounds (e.g., English as a Second Language); and who are verbally uncommunicative due to psychiatric (e.g., elective/selective mutism), developmental (e.g., autistic spectrum), or organic reasons (e.g., traumatic brain injury).

Although its administration and response formats are entirely nonverbal (i.e., no verbal directions, no verbal items, and no verbal responses), the UNIT employs eight standardized gestures to demonstrate the nature of each task and to guide test administration. The UNIT is a comprehensive measure of intelligence and assesses a broad range of complex memory and reasoning abilities, including those lending themselves to internal processes of verbal mediation (symbolic tasks) as well as those that are less conducive to such mediation (nonsymbolic tasks). UNIT memory subtests measure complex memory, with multiple salient characteristics to be recalled (e.g., color, object, location, and sequence). The UNIT reasoning subtests measure pattern processing, problem solving, understanding of analogic relationships, and planning abilities. Although the UNIT is a highly g-saturated measure of general intelligence, with five of six subtests having average g-loadings [Page 1027]above .70, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses support the test's 2 × 2 theoretical model (i.e., Memory/Reasoning; Symbolic/Nonsymbolic). Table 1 depicts the UNIT theoretical model in its entirety, including subtest representation and total sample alpha coefficients for the UNIT scale quotients and the full-scale IQ (FSIQ). As can be seen in Table 1, the UNIT is a highly reliable and comprehensive measure of general intelligence.

For additional versatility and practicality, the UNIT combines its three memory subtests and three reasoning subtests in a flexible manner that permits the use of three possible batteries. The 15-minute UNIT Abbreviated Battery includes only the first two subtests (i.e., Symbolic Memory and Cube Design); the 30-minute Standard Battery is a four-subtest configuration that adds Spatial Memory and Analogic Reasoning to the first two subtests. The 45-minute six-subtest Extended Battery adds Object Memory and Mazes to the first four subtests. Regardless of the desired length of administration, the UNIT's theoretical model underpins each of the three batteries.

The UNIT is a standardized, normreferenced measure. The normative data are based on a comprehensive national sample that closely matched the U.S. population on important demographic variables. The sample was composed of 2,100 children and adolescents, and included a proportional representation of students receiving services for identified exceptional needs as well as students receiving services for English as a Second Language (ESL) and bilingual education. The UNIT Examiner's Manual dedicates an entire chapter to the topic of fairness in testing, which highlights the authors' efforts to render the instrument as fair as possible for all students. Comparative reliabilities and factor analyses by age, race/ethnicity, and gender are reported in the manual, as well as a large number of matched-sample mean score comparisons between various groups.

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