Description: The TVPS-4 is the latest update of the standard comprehensive assessment of visual analysis and processing skills. The TVPS is used by many professionals, including occupational therapists, learning specialists, optometrists, and school psychologists.
The TVPS-4 remains an easy-to-use assessment for determining visual-perceptual strengths and weaknesses. Norms are based on a nationally representative sample. Additional lower-level items were added to address the needs of younger or more impaired individuals, and norms now extend through 21 years of age, making the TVPS-4 useful for a wider range of examinees.
The TVPS-4 utilizes black-and-white line drawings, bound in a convenient easel-style booklet. The items are still presented in a multiple-choice format, requiring only minimal verbal or motor (pointing) responses. This format is ideal for use with individuals who have impairments in motor, speech, neurological, or cognitive functions.
The TVPS-4 now includes 18 items in each of the following seven perceptual areas:
Visual Discrimination: the individual is asked to find the one image, in a field of five similar images, that exactly matches the presented target image.
Visual Memory: the individual is presented with a target image for five seconds, is asked to remember it and then find the image, in a field of four images, on the following page.
Spatial Relationships: the individual is asked to find the one image, in a field of five images, that is different from the rest.
Form Constancy: the individual is asked to find the one image, in a field of four or five images, that matches the presented target image. The matching image may be larger, smaller, rotated, and/or embedded within a larger design.
Sequential Memory: the individual is presented with an image of a sequence of elements for five seconds, is asked to remember it and then find the image with the same sequence, in a field of four images, on the following page.
Visual Figure-Ground: the individual is asked to find a target image that is embedded in one of a field of four complex designs.
Visual Closure: the individual is asked to match an incomplete target image to the correctly completed image in a field of four.
Ceilings minimize fatigue and ensure that more difficult items do not unduly tax younger students, while allowing for reliable and accurate assessment across the age range.
The TVPS-4 is consistent with current methods of visual information processing used in occupational therapy and optometry. The TVPS-4 also measures the following Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory narrow abilities.
Visualization
Flexibility of Closure
Visual Memory
Memory Span
Administration and Scoring The TVPS-4 is individually administered, is untimed, and takes about 25 minutes to complete. Scoring is quick and uncomplicated. Raw scores are reported as scaled scores and percentile ranks for each subtest; the overall total score is reported as a standard score and percentile rank. Age equivalents are also provided for the subtest and overall scores.
Difference from TVPS-3:
The TVPS-4 utilizes the 112 black and white designs from the TVPS-3, plus an additional 14 new images. The new images were added to expand the range of easier items and improve the discriminative ability of the test for younger or more impaired individuals.
