Social scientists have long agreed that satisficing behavior increases error and reduces the validity of survey data. There have been numerous reviews on detecting satisficing behavior, but preventing this behavior has received less attention. The current narrative review provides empirically supported guidance on preventing satisficing by…

Evaluating students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (i.e., emergent bilinguals) presents challenges to evaluation teams, as distinguishing between a language disorder and typical second language development is more complex. The skills and knowledge required to do this task often exceed the level of training that evaluators…

Lissitz and Samuelsen (2007) have proposed an operational definition of "validity" that shifts many of the questions traditionally considered under validity to a separate category associated with the utility of test use. Operational definitions support inferences about how well people perform some kind of task or how they respond to some kind of…

Derived empirical descriptions of 113 adults independent of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory for profiles classified according to most frequently occurring two-point codes. Compared subjects of each code type group to remaining subjects on 255 behavior variables, resulting in development of interpretive narratives for 3-5/5-3,…

Communication performance of about 900 hearing-impaired adults was weakly related to 3 of the 4 content domains assessed by the Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired: namely communication environment, communication strategies, and personal adjustment. (Author/DB)

Issues regarding confidence and tolerance intervals are discussed within the context of educational measurement. Conceptual distinctions are drawn between these two types of intervals; and examples, under various error and true score models, are used to compare such intervals. It is shown that there tend to be only small differences in tolerance…

Current methods of obtaining reliability coefficients for mastery tests are laborious from a practitioner's perspective. Some methods require two test administrations; while others require access to computer facilities and/or advanced measurement and statistical procedures. This report provides tables from which practitioners can read such…

A profile analysis procedure was used with the Carrow Auditory-Visual Abilities Test to aid in the identification of systematic modality preferences in two preschool children with articulation disorders. Critical values are identified to facilitate the identification of the child's strengths and weaknesses at the subtest level. (Author/DB)

Both the attenuation paradox of traditional test theory and the assumption of local independence in person-item response theory have caused problems in interpretation. This paper demonstrates that the two are related concepts, and, through this demonstration, both are clarified. It is demonstrated that the breakdown of local independence leads to…

The Woodcock Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery (Revised) is reviewed in regard to its application with learning-disabled (LD) adults. Strengths of the revised test are identified as are concerns about the low representation of LD adults in the normative sample and the complex interpretation process. (DB)

The factor structure of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children was evaluated with 169 gifted students, aged 6-10. Results tentatively suggested that the factor solution for gifted students is dissimilar to that for the standardization sample, as subtests designed to assess sequential processing did not all load together, nor did those…

The joint factor structure of the Differential Abilities Scale (DAS) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) was investigated with 115 normal children (ages 8-15). Analysis supported the DAS structure and the WISC-III four-factor reinterpretation of the WISC-R. (Author/DB)

The original nine programs for semantic differential analysis have been condensed into three programs which have been further refined and augmented. They yield: (1) means, standard deviations, and standard errors for each subscale on each concept; (2) Evaluation, Potency, and Activity (EPA) means, standard deviations, and standard errors; (3)…

While scales assessing psychological well-being have been used both as criterion measures and as variables of interest in their own right, there has been little attempt to deal with the issue of the time-boundedness of perceived well-being. A study was undertaken to examine the combined factor structure of two measures of well-being, the…

This follow up study is in response to Miller, Fleming, and Brown-Andersons (1998) study of ethnic differences between Caucasians and African-Americans where the authors suggested that the Spiritual Well-Being (SWB) Scale may need to be interpreted differently depending on ethnicity. In this study, confirmatory factor analyses were conducted for…