Visuospatial processing speed underlies several cognitive functions critical for successful completion of everyday tasks, including driving and walking. While it is widely accepted that visuospatial processing speed peaks in early adulthood, performance across the lifespan remains incompletely characterized. Additionally, there remains a lack of…

Taking a test improves memory for that tested information, a finding referred to as the testing effect. Multiple-choice tests tend to produce smaller testing effects than do cued-recall tests, and this result is largely attributed to the different processing that the two formats are assumed to induce. Specifically, it is generally assumed that the…

In the current article, we describe the development and validation of the Mistake Rumination Scale as a supplement to existing trait and cognitive measures of perfectionism. The Mistake Rumination Scale is a seven-item inventory that taps the tendency to ruminate about a past personal mistake. Psychometric analyses confirmed that the Mistake…

This study aims to reveal the trends and foundations in research on students' conceptual understanding in science education. The literature was selected from three recognized journals in science education. The Structural Topic Model (STM) method was used to categorize articles into ten topics considering information about the semantic cohesion and…

This study was conducted to create a reliable and valid low- to medium-inference, multidimensional measure of instructor clarity from seminal work across several academic fields. Five hundred and sixty six students responded to an initial pool of 87 items and were split into two samples to investigate the factor structure of the new measurement…

The Next Generation Science Standards propose a multidimensional model of science learning, comprised of Core Disciplinary Ideas, Science and Engineering Practices, and Crosscutting Concepts (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Accordingly, there is a need for student assessment aligned with the new standards. Creating assessments that validly and reliably…

The following report describes an assessment instrument called the Mathematics Performance and Cognition (MPAC) interview. The MPAC interview was designed to measure two outcomes of interest. It was designed to measure first and second graders' mathematics achievement in number, operations, and equality, and it was also designed to gather…

This report provides an overview of the development, implementation, and psychometric properties of a student mathematics interview designed to assess first- and second-grade student achievement and thinking processes. The student interview was conducted with 622 first- or second-grade students in 22 schools located in two public school districts…

The aim of this study was to create an instrument to measure elementary teachers' interest in teaching chemistry. The interest in chemistry teaching instrument (ICTI) was created to measure both the affective and cognitive components of interest. After establishing the face and content validity of the instrument, the internal consistency of the…

A new multidimensional measure of test anxiety, the Test Anxiety Measure for Adolescents (TAMA), specifically designed for U.S. adolescents in Grades 6 to 12 was developed and its psychometric properties were examined. The TAMA consists of five scales (Cognitive Interference, Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Concerns, Task Irrelevant Behavior,…

This article considers the design process for new formative history assessments. Over the course of 3 years, my colleagues from the Stanford History Education Group and I designed, piloted, and revised dozens of "History Assessments of Thinking" (HATs). As we created HATs, we sought to gather information about their cognitive validity,…

The aim of the present study was to examine the validity and reliability of a multi-dimensional measure of trait anxiety specifically designed for the physical education lesson. The Physical Education Trait Anxiety Scale was initially completed by 774 high school students during regular school classes. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the…

The goal of this study was to create and validate a brief multidimensional scale of teacher engagement--the Engaged Teachers Scale (ETS)--that reflects the particular characteristics of teachers' work in classrooms and schools. We collected data from three separate samples of teachers (total N = 810), and followed five steps in developing and…

Background: Interpersonal staff behaviour is one of the instigating factors associated with challenging behaviour in clients with intellectual disabilities (ID). There are several studies focusing on the influence of intrapersonal staff characteristics--such as beliefs, attributions and emotional reactions--on staff behaviour. Little is known,…

Need for closure, as formulated by Kruglanski and colleagues [Kruglanski, A. W. (1990). Lay epistemic theory in social-cognitive psychology. "Psychological Inquiry," 1(3), 181-197; Kruglanski, A. W., & Webster, D. M. (1996). Motivated closing of the mind: Seizing and freezing. "Psychological Review," 103, 263-283; Webster,…