Employing G-theory and rater interviews, the study investigated how a high-stakes writing assessment procedure (i.e., a single-task, single-rater, and holistic scoring procedure) impacted the variability and reliability of its scores within the Turkish higher education context. Thirty-two essays written on two different writing tasks (i.e.,…

To evaluate the fit of a confirmatory factor analysis model, researchers often rely on fit indices such as SRMR, RMSEA, and CFI. These indices are frequently compared to benchmark values of 0.08, 0.06, and 0.96, respectively, established by Hu and Bentler (1999). However, these indices are affected by model characteristics and their sensitivity to…

It is common to see mirror errors in letters in early stages of reading due to the mirror-generalization process that allows a visual stimulus to be identified independently of its orientation. To avoid such errors, this process must be inhibited. A special case would be children with dyslexia since their difficulties with the alphabetic code may…

Frequent forced switching between tasks has been shown to reduce switch costs and increase voluntary switch rates. So far, however, the boundary conditions of the influence of forced task switching on voluntary task switching are unknown. Thus, the present study was aimed to test different aspects of generalizability (across items, tasks, and…

This study, taking into consideration of teachers' as well as students' judgments, explored the generalizability and consistency of the results of linking speaking test of IELTS to China's Standards of English Language Ability (CSE). Nine college English teachers and 81 undergraduate students judged the degree of congruence between the IELTS…

In judgment and categorization, the task is to infer the criterion value of an object based on cues. The cognitive mechanisms underlying such inferences are often distinguished in terms of whether they rely on an abstracted cue-criterion rule or on retrieving exemplars. The use of cue-based and exemplar-based strategies (and the associated…

This paper critically explores how survey and routinely collected data could aid in assessing the generalisability of public health evidence. We propose developing approaches that could be employed in understanding the relevance of public health evidence, and investigate ways of producing meta-analytic estimates tailored to reflect local…

How strongly a verb is associated with a construction plays a crucial role in the learning of argument structure constructions. We examined the effect of verb-construction association strength on second language (L2) constructional generalization by analysing L2 learners' production and comprehension of two complex constructions (i.e. ditransitive…

The University of Reading Learning Gain project is a three-year longitudinal project to test and evaluate a range of available methodologies and to draw conclusions on what might be the right combination of instruments for the measurement of Learning Gain in higher education. This paper analyses the validity of a measure of critical thinking…

The article is devoted to the analysis of the peculiarities of organizing and conducting trainings in the system of professional training of personnel of the Federal Police of Germany (BPOL). The main focus is on the organization of training on the use of weapons, coercive means, situational training. It has been found out that during the…

Summative assessment of interpretation is widely conducted in interpreting courses/programs to inform high-stakes decision making, such as the selection, certification, and conferral of academic degrees. Yet there has been very limited empirical research to investigate the score dependability of summative interpretation assessment. The present…

Knowing the way children and adolescents assess the risk of disease transmission is important because this kind of knowledge may allow health caregivers to better communicate with them. We had 587 students in Spain and France aged 7-16 judge the risk of disease transmission in 28 scenarios of students visiting a sick friend. The scenarios were…

The recorded text test (RTT) is commonly used to test dialect intelligibility, often to inform language development decisions. More than 25 papers using the RTT method were published on www.sil.org/silesr from January 2009 to March 2013. As introduced by Casad [1974. "Dialect Intelligibility Testing." Summer Institute of Linguistics…

Using generalizability (G-) theory and rater interviews as both quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study examined the impact of scoring methods (i.e., holistic versus analytic scoring) on the scoring variability and reliability of an EFL institutional writing assessment at a Turkish university. Ten raters were invited to rate 36…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out if the characteristics, traits and leadership style of an effective university leader in Lebanon match those of a transformational one. Moreover, it is intended to shed light on the possible transferability of the transformational leadership's success to the Middle-Eastern society where norms and…