The present study investigated whether facial expressions modulate visual attention in 7-month-old infants. First, infants' looking duration to individually presented fearful, happy, and novel facial expressions was compared to looking duration to a control stimulus (scrambled face). The face with a novel expression was included to examine the…

Elementary school children's word guessing is studied, and the results from individual and collective testing conditions are compared. The participants are 764 students from the second, third, and fourth grades (ages 8-11, 541 students from mainstream regular classes and 223 students with learning disabilities). About half of these students are…

The practice of not sharing tests results with clients may soon be in conflict with the Ethical Standards for Psychologist (sic). Studies using self-validation of feedback information to study feedback parameters have shown that the form of feedback is less important than the content. To investigate direct feedback of test results by computer, the…

Two independent studies were conducted to investigate possible differences in General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) aptitude M resulting from the use of different test equipment (wooden vs. plastic apparatus.) As part of a ten-year longitudinal study of Vocational Development being conducted in the Department of Vocational Education at The…

As part of a neuropsychological assessment, 95 adult patients completed either standard or computerized versions of the Category Test. Subjects who completed the computerized version exhibited more errors than those who completed the standard version, suggesting that it may be more difficult. (SLD)

Effects on computerized adaptive test score of using a paper-and-pencil (P&P) calibration to select items and estimate scores were compared with effects of using computer calibration. Results with 2,999 Navy recruits support the use of item parameters calibrated from either P&P or computer administrations. (SLD)

Administered a questionnaire focusing on examinees' computer familiarity to 90,000 Test of English as a Foreign Language test takers. A group of 1,200 low-computer-familiar and high-computer-familiar examinees' worked through a computer tutorial and a set of TOEFL test items. Concludes that no evidence exists of an adverse relationship between…

This study investigated the equivalence of scores from computerized and paper-and-pencil formats of a series of K-3 reading screening tests. Concerns about score equivalence on the computerized formats were warranted because of the use of reading passages, computer unfamiliarity of primary school students, and teacher versus computer…

The Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices Test (APM) is a well-known measure of higher order general mental ability. The time to administer the test, 40 to 60 minutes, is sometimes regarded as a drawback. To meet efficiency needs, the APM can be administered as a 30-or 40-minute timed test, or one of two developed short versions could be used. In…

In the context of reviewing an article for this journal (van der Linden & Sotaridona, this issue, pp. 283-304) the topic of unconditional and conditional hypothesis testing came under consideration. While this is hardly a new issue (consider, for example, arguments regarding the chi square vs. Fisher exact test of independence for a 2 x 2…

The history of American schooling is replete with the interplay between politics, economics and social behavior. This has never been more evident than in the current environment of high stakes testing on core subjects that largely ignores other important noncognitive outcomes of education. Within this context, the present study built on previous…

This article describes the equivalency testing results of a 12-week behavior change program on targeted determinates of physical activity (PA) and self-reported health status. Participants (n = 192) were randomized to face-to-face, combined Internet and face-to-face, and Internet-only groups. Equivalency testing was used to examine differences and…

In this paper, we identify key challenges faced by computer-based assessment (CBA) in secondary education and we put forward a framework of design considerations: design with the students and teachers, select the most appropriate media platform and plan an evolution rather than a revolution of prior practices. We present the CBA application…

This paper presents a strategy for measuring cognitive gains in reading during the early school years. It is argued that accurate estimates of gain scores and their appropriate interpretation requires the use of adaptive tests with multiple criterion referenced points that mark learning milestones. It is further argued that two different measures…

Recent research on executive function (EF) deficits in autism has led investigators to conclude that EF deficits are secondary to the disorder. The current study has two major goals: (1) Examine whether specific EF deficits are present in the youngest autism group to date (mean = 22.9 years), and (2) examine whether such deficits are secondary to…