This book discusses the motivations that cause adults to go to the public library. It is grouped into eight sections concerning: (1) the research methodology and results used to determine four motivators that were good predictors of library use; (2) the development of library research; (3) several characteristics of library users in terms of…

In this study, the performance of apologies among 20 non-native speakers (NNSs) of English and 20 native speakers (NSs) of English was examined. Two questions were addressed: How did NNSs' apologies compare with NSs' in identical situations? What relationship existed between the performance of apologies by NNSs and Test of English as a Foreign…

This paper examines whether individuals who train themselves to score a performance assessment will rate acceptably when compared to known standards. Research on the efficacy of rater self-training materials developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics for the Texas Oral Proficiency Test (TOPT) is examined. Rater self-materials are described…

The student placement test in English as a Second Language used for the Eurocentres schools in the United Kingdom differs from traditional placement tests in that it is a vocabulary test and does not attempt to measure other aspects of learner knowledge of English. The test attempts to measure absolute size of the learner's English vocabulary. The…

This paper examines the proposed use of student self-report data as proxies for College Basic Academic Subjects Examination (College BASE) scores and as policy indicators of good educational practice. A recent study by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems had recommended this use of student self-reports. For this study 540…

A study was conducted that attempted to show changes in electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns (identified using topographic EEG mapping) when children were required to perform the relatively simple task of button pressing during an eyes-open baseline session of low cognitive demand and a complex reaction time (RT) task of high cognitive demand.…

This report describes states' eligibility policies for developmentally delayed and at-risk children, aged birth to 3 years to be served under Part H of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The report is based on policy analysis of 49 states' eligibility policy documents. Results indicated that the wording in states' definitions…

The passage comprehensibility of three diagnostic reading tests--the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, the Spache Diagnostic Reading Scales, and the Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty--was evaluated using the following text variables: content familiarity, vocabulary, the number of idea units in the text, the number of text-based inferences…

Based on the assumption that the kind of instruction provided during testing is important when examining children's zones of proximal development, two methods of dynamic assessment, "graduated prompt" and "mediation," were compared to each other and to static assessment. In dynamic assessment, the examiner sets up a learning…

The correlations of each of the 22 tests in the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation battery with all other tests in the battery are listed. Four fairly large samples are used, each including cases of one sex and a narrow age range. These cases come from a file of 3,555 examinees tested between June 1981 and the fall of 1982. The purpose of…

In order to ascertain the extent to which older persons' levels of behavioral functioning parallel their levels of intellectual functioning, 42 female patients, aged 61-99, of an outpatient comprehensive care geriatric clinic, completed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADL), the…

This investigation of the effect of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) on the learning of library skills hypothesized that there would be a substantial difference in the achievement of library skills by those students who received additional drill and practice through the use of CAI and those who received additional drill and practice only from…

All teacher education students in Texas must pass three minimum competency examinations to be admitted to a teacher education program. The Pre-Professional Skills Tests (PPST) contains three separate tests in reading, mathematics, and writing. West Texas State University requires all entering freshmen to submit scores from the American College…

This study investigated the extent to which participation by high school students in a computer programming course leads to improved critical thinking skills, and whether a significant difference exists in critical thinking skill development between participants in Pascal and BASIC classes. Three groups of high school students were tested using…

In a study to determine whether a shift from Formula scoring to Rights scoring can be made without causing a discontinuity in the test scale, the analysis of special administrations of the Scholastic Aptitude Test and Chemistry Achievement Test and the variable section of an operational form of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is…