The objective of this paper is to comment on the think-aloud methods presented in the three papers included in this special issue. The commentary offered stems from the author's own psychological investigations of unobservable information processes and the conditions under which the most defensible claims can be advanced. The structure of this…

Think alouds are valuable tools for academicians, test developers, and practitioners as they provide a unique window into a respondent's thinking during an assessment. The purpose of this special issue is to highlight novel ways to use think alouds as a means to gather evidence about respondents' thinking. An intended outcome from this special…

There is a need for assessment items that assess complex constructs but can also be efficiently scored for evaluation of teacher education programs. In an effort to measure the construct of teacher attentiveness in an efficient and scalable manner, we are using exemplar responses elicited by constructed-response item prompts to develop…

Response process validity evidence provides a window into a respondent's cognitive processing. The purpose of this study is to describe a new data collection tool called a whole-class think aloud (WCTA). This work is performed as part of test development for a series of problem-solving measures to be used in elementary and middle grades. Data from…

We describe the use of think alouds to examine substantive processes involved in performance on a formative assessment of computational thinking (CT) designed to support self-regulated learning (SRL). Our task design model included three phases of work on a computational thinking problem: forethought, performance, and reflection. The cognitive…

Numerous diagnostic studies have been conducted on large-scale assessments to illustrate the students' mastery profile in the areas of math and reading; however, for science a limited number of investigations are reported. This study investigated Iranian eighth graders' competency mastery of science and examined the utility of the General…

We investigated examinees' cognitive processes while they solved selected items from the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), a high-stakes professional certification examination. We focused on ascertaining those mental processes most frequently used by examinees, and the most common types of errors in their thinking. We compared the relationships between…

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing indicate that multiple sources of validity evidence should be used to support the interpretation of test scores. In the past decade, examinee response processes, as a source of validity evidence, have received increased attention. However, there have been relatively few methodological studies…

Glossary and reading aloud test items are commonly allowed in many states' accommodation policies for English language learner (ELL) students for large-scale mathematics assessments. However, little research is available regarding the effects of these accommodations on ELL students' performance. Further, no research exists that examines how…

The objective of the present investigation was to compare the adequacy of two cognitive models for predicting examinee performance on a sample of algebra I and II items from the March 2005 administration of the SAT[TM]. The two models included one generated from verbal reports provided by 21 examinees as they solved the SAT[TM] items, and the…

Studied the cognitive equivalence of computerized and paper-and-pencil reading comprehension tests using verbal protocol analysis. Results for 48 college students indicate that the only significant difference between the computerized and paper-and-pencil tests was in the frequency of identifying important information in the passage. (SLD)