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Documentation · 1959

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test: Most-used picture vocabulary test

Show a page with 4 pictures; examiner says a word; child points to the matching picture. Brief (15 min), non-reading-required, scored as a receptive vocabulary "IQ" on a mean-100 SD-15 metric. One of the most-administered intelligence-correlated tests in US schools for 65 years.

Read About the Test

About the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test

Lloyd Dunn at George Peabody College developed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test as a brief alternative to administering a full Stanford-Binet or WISC for screening purposes. The PPVT presents the child with a 4-picture stimulus card; the examiner says a stimulus word; the child points to (or says the number of) the matching picture. The test has 175+ items arranged in increasing difficulty; testing stops after the child makes 6 errors in 8 consecutive items.

The PPVT requires no reading and minimal verbal expression - just pointing - making it ideal for young children, non-native English speakers, and individuals with motor/speech impairments. Administration takes 10-15 minutes. Scoring produces a standard score with mean 100 and SD 15, directly comparable to Wechsler IQ.

PPVT correlates highly with Verbal IQ from the Wechsler scales (typically r=0.7-0.8) and is widely used as a brief proxy for verbal intelligence in research and clinical screening. It has been revised in 1981 (PPVT-R), 1997 (PPVT-III), 2007 (PPVT-4), and 2018 (PPVT-5). Pearson holds all copyrights. The PPVT-5 is one of the most-administered ability tests in US schools.

Copyright note: PPVT items and pictures are copyrighted (Pearson/AGS). We document the test format.

The 1 subtests

#1
Receptive Vocabulary Point to the picture matching the spoken word; 175+ items in difficulty order.
Copyrighted

Sample Items (Illustrative)

Items are presented as a series of spoken prompts where the test taker must select the correct image from four options. Scoring is based on the number of correct selections, with items increasing in difficulty.

Sample 1 · Receptive Vocabulary
Point to the picture that shows a 'bicycle'.
Example response: The test taker points to the picture of a bicycle among four images.
Sample 2 · Receptive Vocabulary
Point to the picture that represents 'umbrella'.
Example response: The test taker points to the picture of an umbrella among four images.
Sample 3 · Receptive Vocabulary
Point to the image that depicts 'giraffe'.
Example response: The test taker points to the picture of a giraffe among four images.
Sample 4 · Receptive Vocabulary
Point to the picture that illustrates 'airplane'.
Example response: The test taker points to the picture of an airplane among four images.
Sample 5 · Receptive Vocabulary
Point to the picture that shows 'telephone'.
Example response: The test taker points to the picture of a telephone among four images.

These are illustrative samples, not actual items from the protected test.

Source

All test materials and historical content on this page are transcribed from:

Dunn, L.M. (1959). Manual for the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. American Guidance Service.

Original PPVT was published by American Guidance Service (1959). Current PPVT-5 (2018) is published by Pearson/NCS. All editions are copyrighted; we document the test format.

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