PASS theory – part 2

How can we shift perspectives, in the understanding of a case, from a PASS theory point of view to a CHC point of view – and vice versa?

This is the 2nd post about this subject.  It's advisable to read the first post, here, before reading this one.

Is it possible to "translate" concepts from PASS theory to CHC terms?  Not entirely, and this is good (because otherwise they cannot be regarded as different theories).

Here is the conversion used in KABC2 test:

PASS/LURIA THEORY	CHC THEORY
Planning	Fluid ability, especially executive functions
Simultaneous processing	Visual processing
Serial processing	Short term memory

You can find this conversion in this and other documents:

http://images.pearsonclinical.com/images/Assets/KABC-II/KABC-II-Brochure.pdf

This conversion should be qualified in two ways:

a.     Most tasks require a blend of planning, simultaneous processing, serial processing and attention, in varying degrees, according to task features.  Tasks that have a strong simultaneous component (for example the RCFT test, which requires seeing the whole beyond the details, seeing how the details create the whole), can be performed, when one's simultaneous processing is poor, by the application of serial processing  (copying each line separately without copying central elements in their entirety).  This way the result will usually be less good, or more time will be needed to achieve a good result.

Tasks with a strong serial component (for example, recalling a list of words or numbers immediately after their presentation) can be done in a simultaneous way, when one's serial processing is poor.  For example, one can create chunks or remember the words by categories.  This process takes more time and may lead to poorer results.

Thus, when making such a conversion from PASS  language to CHC language, we should look not only at the characteristics of the tasks but also at the processes the specific child uses in order to perform these tasks.  If the child has an average score on the RCFT test, but he performed this test in a completely serial fashion, we can hypothesize that this child has difficulty with simultaneous processing.

b.     Simultaneous processing tasks don’t have to be visual, and serial processing tasks don’t have to be auditory.

What about abilities not mentioned in the table above?

Here I merge knowledge from research with my conjectures.

Auditory processing – phonological processing tasks are classified in the literature into serial processing.  I think they also have a simultaneous component, for example in tasks of deleting or changing a phoneme in the middle of a word.  In these tasks the child has to see how the auditory parts create the whole word.

Long term storage and retrieval -  the learning scale in KABC2  test which consists of tests that measure long term storage and retrieval, is conceptualized by Alan and Nadeen Kaufman as measuring the integration of planning, serial – successive processing, and attention.  Beyond that it's best to look at each task separately.  It seems to me, that rapid naming tasks have a serial component.  Word fluency tasks have a serial and a planning component and semantic fluency tasks have a simultaneous and a planning component.  The degree to which both components, simultaneous and planning, affect performance depends on the degree to which the child employs a strategy for retrieval, for example by deciding to retrieve "sea animals" and then "farm animals" etc.  As for free recall tasks – the RCFT test has a strong simultaneous component, but as said before, it's better to look qualitatively at the performance process.  The REY – AVLT test has a strong serial component, but it's better to look qualitatively at the degree to which the child creates word clusters according to a common semantic feature.

Processing speed – we know that this ability is affected by attention difficulties.  So I hypothesize that it is related to attention/arousal processes.

Comprehension knowledge   is not conceptualized in PASS theory as a component of intelligence but as a product of the other processing systems.  So I will not map in into any PASS system.