Investigates students' conceptions on reliability and the ways of dealing with different sets of experimental data. Tests students' understanding of how to handle experimental data from three aspects; doing replicates, handling data, and judging the quality of data with respect to spread. Includes 12 references. (YDS)

Study reviewed measures that can be used for personality assessment with the Referral Question Consultation (RQC). Each review addressed the reliability of the scales and composite scores; validity; usefulness of results for planning interventions; empirical basis for analyses of individual items; and whether each item accounted for response…

Discusses how a Supreme Court decision last year in "The New York Times Company v. Jonathan Tasini" has led publishers to make massive purges of archival material in newspaper databases, rendering them unreliable for many scholars. (EV)

Derives three reliability estimates for the Bayes modal estimate (BME) and the maximum-likelihood estimate (MLE) of theta in computerized adaptive tests (CATs). Computes the three reliability estimates and the true reliabilities of both BME and MLE for seven simulated CATs. Results show the true reliabilities for BME and MLE to be nearly identical…

Analyzes approximately 4,800 independent evaluations of 796 essays written by 241 students in 13 first-year writing classes at two colleges. Finds very low consistency of holistically scored student performance from essay to essay, suggesting that drawing conclusions from one or even a few writing samples of a particular student is problematic.…

This article describes the development of the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and data exploring the reliability and construct validity of the subscales are provided. The results support the existence of three subscales with adequate internal consistencies and promising relationships with other…

Examines the reliability and validity of the Youth Support Inventory, a tool designed for community coalitions to assess the availability of local resources and supports that previous research indicates are important for preventing adolescent alcohol and other drug use. (BF)

Purpose: This study describes the development of a short version of the Expectations Regarding Aging Survey (ERA-38), a 38-item survey measuring expectations regarding aging. Design and Methods: In 1999, surveys containing the ERA-38 were mailed to 588 adults aged [greater than or equal to] 65 years who were recruited through physicians; 429…

Classroom assessment information should be the basis for important classroom processes and outcomes: students' study and work patterns, students' understanding of what they are learning, and teachers' instructional and grading decisions. Attention to principles of assessment quality, especially validity and reliability, increases confidence in the…

Participants (6- and 7-year-olds, "N" = 130) participated in classroom activities four times. Children were interviewed about the final occurrence (target event) either 1 week or 4 weeks later, during which half of the event items were described inaccurately. Half of these suggestions were consistent with the theme of the detail across…

In order to examine the cross-cultural consistency of several patterns of couple communication, 363 participants from four different countries (Brazil, Italy, Taiwan, and the United States) completed self-report measures about communication and satisfaction in their romantic relationships. Across countries, constructive communication was…

Three experimental studies were carried out in order to find within-subject consistencies as well as individual differences in a concurrent choice situation involving risk-taking. Four subjects were exposed twice, with a 4-month delay, to a horse-race game and a stock-exchange game, in order to evaluate their choices for a conservative versus a…

The extent to which the Comprehensive System for the Rorschach is reliably scored has been a topic of some controversy. Although several studies have concluded it can be scored reliably in research settings, little is known about its reliability in field settings. This study evaluated the reliability of both response-level codes and protocol-level…

The primary purpose of this study was to test for the validity of a Chinese version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (C-BDI-II) for use with Hong Kong community (i.e., nonclinical) adolescents. Based on a randomized triadic split of the data (N = 1460), we conducted exploratory factor analysis on Group1 (n = 486) and confirmatory factor…

A sample of 202 students filling in a student evaluation of teaching (SET) questionnaire were asked to complete another questionnaire asking about the specific reasons for awarding a score to the specific SET questionnaire items. The aim was to find out what influenced students' judgements on those items. It was found that students' interpretation…