The concept of Matthew effects in reading development refers to a longitudinally widening gap between high achievers and low achievers. Various statistical approaches have been proposed to examine this idea. However, little attention has been paid to psychometric issues of scaling. Specifically, interval-level data are required to compare…

The purpose of the study was twofold: first, to determine the reliability of a paired-associate (PA) task when used as a test of learning proficiency; and second, to assess the relationship between performance on the PA task and on IQ tests as a function of grade level (kindergarten, first, third) and socioeconomic status (high, low). The…