In search of justice and equity in cognitive evaluation: Applications of the PASS theory and the Cognitive Assessment System

In September 1994 one of the authors of this introduction (Rodríguez-Arocho, 1994) had the opportunity to attend the International Conference on Lev S. Vygotsky and the Contemporary Human Sciences, held in Moscow. There she met J.P. Das and Jack A. Naglieri, who that year, and at the height of the so-called cognitive revolution in psychology, published (together with John R. Kirby) their text Assessment of cognitive processes: the PASS theory of intelligence. After interesting conversations on topics of common interest for six days, at the time of the farewell Dr. Jack A. Naglieri gave Dr. Rodriguez Arocho a copy of the book. It was impossible to foresee then the importance that the book would have in a research program on cognitive processes in Puerto Rico and the development of a collaborative relationship and friendship that the two authors of this paper would establish with Dr. Naglieri to this day.Eight research articles were included in Volume 29, Issue 2 and on this issue of Volume 30, three more articles are presented. These special sections are part of the studies conducted in Puerto Rico that are based on the PASS theory and use a cognitive assessment instrument based on it, the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS). This instrument has its original version in English and currently has a translation and adaptation to Spanish (Naglieri, Moreno & Otero, 2017). Its use has produced a body of research that has been used in educational applications aimed at the modification of cognitive functions with diverse populations. Before briefly describing the theory and the instrument to facilitate the compression of the articles in these volumes, we proceed to share some data on the historical background of the research program