Research funders and policymakers increasingly focus on societal benefits of their investments in research. Research institutions thus face increasing pressure to demonstrate their societal impact to prove their legitimacy and worth. To this end, research institutions need reliable, quantitative methods to measure societal impact. This article…

A growing body of research documents the positive outcomes of research experiences for undergraduates, including increased persistence in science. Study of undergraduate lab learning experiences has demonstrated that the design of the experience influences the extent to which students report ownership of the project and that project ownership is…

The ability to reason scientifically and communicate research appropriately is central to psychological literacy. Scientific research has little value unless scientists are able to convey results and their consequences clearly to others. In this study, we outline a method of assessing the development of psychological literacy in undergraduate…

The conventional focus of validity in educational measurement has been on intended interpretations and uses of test scores. Empirical studies of test use by teachers, administrators and policy-makers show that actual interpretations and uses of test scores in context are invariably shaped by local users' questions, which frequently require…

This document describes the breadth of the research that the ETS (Educational Testing Service) Research & Development division is conducting in 2010. This portfolio will be updated in early 2011 to reflect changes to existing projects and new projects that were added after this document was completed. The research described in this portfolio falls…

Laboratory courses serve as important gateways to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. One of the challenges in assessing laboratory learning is to conduct meaningful and standardized practical exams, especially for large multisection laboratory courses. Laboratory practical exams in life sciences courses are frequently…

Kapes and Sievert's (1973) research on the difference between wooden and plastic peg boards for the GATB is replicated. The results indicate that individuals tested on the wooden equipment perform significantly higher than those tested on the plastic equipment. (Author/PC)

This paper reports on a successful attempt to understand success avoidant motivation and behavior by the development of an empirically sophisticated scoring system of success avoidant motivation and the observation of its behavioral correlates and situational determinants. Like most of the work on achievement motivation, the study was carried out…

The Job Knowledge Survey (JKS) is a new instrument that measures job knowledge across two sets of dimensions. Results provide support for its validity. The JKS, therefore, appears to have strong potential as an effective measure of job knowledge. (Author)

The study was designed to explore two areas: (1) the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college degreed women using two different operational definitions (Vocational Preference Inventory and the Self-Directed Search) of vocational orientation; and (2) the relationships among same named scales across the VPI and the SDS. (Author)

To evaluate the Significant Other Elicitor, data were gathered by an administration of the Wisconsin Significant Other Battery and related instruments to 98 rural Illinois high school students and their significant others. (GW)

Devised a classroom observation code that would identify hyperactive children reliably. Children referred for hyperactivity had significantly higher scores than comparison children on 12 categories. There was greater within-subject variability in the hyperactive group. Motor activity for both groups was significantly inversely related to age.…

The validity of various laboratory and field tests of the physical working capacity of college males was investigated. (GW)

A novel statistical technique was used to look at the interactions of the reliabilities of personality measures with each other and with the personality scores themselves. (Author)

The effects of age and education on Halstead test performance were examined in this cross-validation of the Vega and Parsons study. Differences between correlation in psychiatric patients and medical-surgical control subjects are discussed, as is the importance of age, and differences in reference groups when making clinical inferences about brain…