This article describes the development and validation of the new CATSS (Computer Adaptive Test of Size and Strength), which measures vocabulary knowledge in four modalities -- productive recall, receptive recall, productive recognition, and receptive recognition. In the first part of the paper we present the assumptions that underlie the test --…

To promote our theoretical understanding regarding the exploration process during adulthood, the current study focusses on this process as it relates to work and family life roles and the relations between them, during the transition to motherhood. Two instruments assessing vocational and maternal exploration, relating to self and environment…

This study explains mathematical difficulties of students who immigrated from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) vis-à-vis Israeli students, by identifying the existing bias factors in achievement tests. These factors are irrelevant to the mathematical knowledge being measured, and therefore threaten the test results. The bias factors were identified…

Describes a statistical method for evaluating the translation equivalence of language test items that are scored dichotomously. Provides an illustration of the method to a portion of the verbal subtest of the Psychometric Entrance Test, which is a large-scale postsecondary admissions test used in Israel. (VWL)

It has previously been shown by M. Beller (1990) that an additive tree (Addtree, a hierarchical tree representation of similarity data developed by S. Sattath and A. Tversky in 1977), may be useful for representing the structure between tests and items through the similarity among them as measured by their intercorrelations. In this study, the…

Gender differences in omitting items and guessing on multiple-choice tests were studied in Israel for 302 male and 302 female ninth graders and 150 male and 150 female university applicants. Females tended to omit more items and guess less often than did males. Implications for scoring are discussed. (SLD)

A study of the effectiveness of teaching science to 2 classes of 15 and 20 ninth-graders, respectively, illustrates 5 aspects of educational evaluation: age factors in teachability, test unidimensionality, comparison of 2 classes of students regarding mean ability, objective difficulty of test items, and objective ability of individual students.…

The performance of 254 Israeli twelfth graders on multiple-choice tests with positive or negative item stems was studied. For items requiring low cognitive reasoning, performance does not differ, but, for items requiring high cognitive reasoning, the negative mode is more difficult. Implications for test construction are discussed. (SLD)

A study investigated the effect of test item type (multiple-choice or open-ended) on performance reading comprehension tests given in both the student's native language and a second language. Subjects were 24 native Arabic-speaking and 38 native Hebrew-speaking students at Haifa University (Israel), all enrolled in a course in English as a second…