I am conducting an eye-tracking study into reading in high-functioning autism and I need to match the autistic and neurotypical participants for vocabulary level. I have been thinking about using Paul Nation's Vocabulary Size Test for receptive vocabulary (Nation, I.S.P. and Beglar, D., 2007), but as far as I could find, it has only been validated on 46 English-speaking people (details about their age have not been provided). I would appreciate any suggestions on what other test batteries would be suitable to measure vocabulary size in English-speaking adults (free to use, if possible) and where I could find them, as well as any opinions on the above mentioned test by Nation (you can have a look at the attached file for more information about the test). Thank you!
I don't know of any such tests that are both well constructed and free to use. After all, it costs a lot in professional time & resources to develop and standardize a test! But if you are after receptive vocabulary (how many words the person understands), then your best bet might be the Peabody Picture-Vocabulary Test. If you prefer to measure expressive vocabulary, there is a "twin" instrument, the Expressive Vocabulary Test. I would lean toward the PPVT in a study of autistic people, so as to reduce problems with memory retrieval or cooperation. Both of these measures have been normed on large, nationally representative samples. They are widely used clinically and in research, and either one can usually be administered in 15 minutes or so. Another option would be the Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV), which would be even quicker to administer but has fewer items (therefore somewhat lower reliability) and requires the person to actually define the word.
If you want to use a written test suitable for group administration, you might consider the Shipley IOL scale (now the Shipley 2): just use the vocabulary portion! Or you could use the Vocabulary subtest of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test the same way.
Agree with the previous answer. Depending on the sample and if you wanted to potentially create a latent variable you may want to consider the Gates MacGinitie Vocabulary test. Well established norm-referenced assessment.
The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Tests may be a good choice. It is well established, but not free. It may be less expensive and easier to administer than the GMRT.
What about LexTale (Lemhoefer and Broersma 2012)? A standardised measure and you can use without charges. This is frequently taken as standard in psycholinguistics.
I put the question to a colleague (Lisa Friedrich), who shared the following:
Not many tools have been developed specifically for assessment of anything relating to adults with ASD. That being said, what I can offer is an assessment that would work for mid-spectrum and high functioning adults with ASD. It's titled the Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT), available from Pearson. I reviewed it when I was teaching English several years ago. It does not require reading or writing, so issues like comprehension and/or dysgraphia would not be hindrances. There are several editions. The visuals are supposedly appropriate for ages 2 to 90. Visuals are critical for adults on the spectrum - not just for children - in any meaningful assessment. The mind with ASD "thinks in pictures."
I found a blog on Pearson's site that promotes it (of course) but it gives some of the favorable aspects. Here's the link:
http://www.speechandlanguage.com/ask-the-expert/how-to-measure-expressive-vocabulary-in-20-minutes-or-less
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