In recent years, readability formulas have gained new prominence as a basis for selecting texts for learning and assessment. Variables that quantitative tools count (e.g., word frequency, sentence length) provide valid measures of text complexity insofar as they accurately predict representative and high-quality criteria. The longstanding…

Mastery behaviours -- seeking out challenging tasks and continuing to work on them despite difficulties -- are integral to achievement but difficult to measure with precision. The current study reports on the development and validation of the computer-based persistence, effort, resilience, and challenge-seeking (PERC) task in two demographically…

A recurrent trend in higher education research has been to identify additional predictors of college success beyond the traditional measures of high school grade point average (HSGPA) and standardized test scores, given that a large percentage of unaccounted variance in college performance remains. A recent study by Wyatt, Wiley, Camara, and…

There is much debate on the merits and pitfalls of standardized tests for college admission, with questions regarding the format (multiple-choice vs. constructed response), cognitive complexity, and content of these assessments (achievement vs. aptitude) at the forefront of the discussion. This study addressed these questions by investigating the…

There is much debate on the merits and pitfalls of standardized tests for college admission, with questions regarding the format (multiple-choice versus constructed response), cognitive complexity, and content of these assessments (achievement versus aptitude) at the forefront of the discussion. This study addressed these questions by…

This study investigates the validity of a newly developed computerized cognitive assessment system (CCAS) that is equipped with rich multimedia to generate simulated testing situations and considers both test item difficulty and the test taker's ability. It is also hypothesized that better predictive validity of the CCAS in self-care of persons…

This study used principles underlying item generation theory to posit competing perspectives about which features of situational judgment tests might enhance or impede consistent measurement across repeat test administrations. This led to 3 alternate-form development approaches (random assignment, incident isomorphism, and item isomorphism). The…