This paper highlights the current findings and issues regarding the role of computer-adaptive testing in test anxiety. The computer-adaptive test (CAT) proposed by one of the Common Core consortia brings these issues to the forefront. Research has long indicated that test anxiety impairs student performance. More recent research indicates that…

Response to Intervention provides a continuum of instruction across intensity levels through multitiered intervention models. A lot of work to date has been devoted to how to configure tiers to ensure the appropriate increases in intensity. Much less work has been devoted to making adjustments "within" tiers to attempt to forestall the need for…

The relationships between the characteristics of human tasks and the abilities required for task performance are investigated. The goal of the program is to generate principles which can be used to identify ability requirements from knowledge of the characteristics of a task and of variations in the conditions of task performance. Such knowledge…

Research was conducted to improve applicant selection procedures in the Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps (AFROTC) scholarship program. The objectives were to document predictive relationships, if any, between student aptitude measures, academic major, institutional selectivity, and eventual completion of the scholarship program. The…

The characteristics of unidimensional ability estimates obtained from data generated using multidimensional compensatory models were compared with estimates from non-compensatory item response theory (IRT) models. The least squares matching procedures used represent a good method of matching the two multidimensional IRT models. (TJH)

A joint maximum likelihood estimation algorithm, based on the partial compensatory multidimensional logistic model (PCML) proposed by L. Zeng (1989), is presented. The algorithm simultaneously estimates item difficulty parameters, the strength of each dimension, and individuals' abilities on each of the dimensions involved in arriving at a correct…

This article presents a psychometric model for estimating ability and item-selection strategies in self-adapted testing. In contrast to computer adaptive testing, in self-adapted testing the examinees are allowed to select the difficulty of the items. The item-selection strategy is defined as the distribution of difficulty conditional on the…

The effect of dimensionality on an adaptive test's ability estimation was examined. Two-dimensional data sets, which differed from one another in the interdimensional ability association, the correlation among the difficulty parameters, and whether the item discriminations were or were not confounded with item difficulty, were generated for 1,600…

According to item response theory (IRT), examinee ability estimation is independent of the particular set of test items administered from a calibrated pool. Although the most popular application of this feature of IRT is computerized adaptive (CA) testing, a recently proposed alternative is self-adapted (SA) testing, in which examinees choose the…

During the academic year of 1978-1979, a system for the early identification of students who were likely to have difficulty with the core curriculum in language and/or mathematics was introduced into the London, Canada, system at the kindergarten and grade 1 levels. In the two subsequent years the early identification system was extended to grades…

Computerized adaptive (CA) testing uses an algorithm to match examinee ability to item difficulty, while self-adapted (SA) testing allows the examinee to choose the difficulty of his or her items. Research comparing SA and CA testing has shown that examinees experience lower anxiety and improved performance with SA testing. All previous research…

Multidimensional item difficulty (MID) is proposed as a means of describing test items which measure more than one ability. With mathematical story problems, for instance, both mathematical and verbal skills are required to obtain a correct answer. The proposed measure of MID is based upon three general assumptions: (1) the probability of…

The optimal allocation of Air Force talent requires, among other considerations, the measurement of both enlistee aptitudes and job aptitude requirements. Although objective procedures are available to measure aptitudes accurately, the procedure presently employed for establishing relative aptitude requirements is both unsystematic and subject to…

As a measure of musical aptitude, a new 90-item Pitch Discrimination Test was developed, and its internal structure was examined. Each of the three sections of the test measures an individual's aptitude for pitch discrimination in a different frequency range using square-wave tones generated by a personal computer. A total of 1,303 examinees,…