title: Reliability of a method for establishing the capacity of individuals with an intellectual disability to respond to Likert scales.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The study reported here was an examination of the reliability of a method for determining acquiescent responding and the capacity to respond to items using a Likert scale response format by adults with an intellectual disability.
  
  
  METHODS
  Reliability of the outcomes of these procedures was investigated using a test-retest design. Associations with receptive vocabulary were examined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of the participants did not demonstrate acquiescent responding. Individuals' responses to the Likert-type discrimination tasks were consistent, although this varied somewhat depending upon the abstractness of the task. There was some association between receptive language age equivalence scores and respondent performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is recommended that the pretest protocol (a) be modified to improve its reliability, and (b) this modified version be used with study participants who have an intellectual disability to ascertain the appropriate level of choice to be used for items that use a Likert response format.
authors.affiliation: The University of Queensland, School of Education , Brisbane , Australia.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cuskelly
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moni
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lloyd
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jobling
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003071:Cognition; D003657:Decision Making; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult