Administered the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) to 160, first-year college students so as to ascertain its convergent and discriminant validities with respect to other psychological instruments. Results indicate that the internal consistency of the BDI-II is high with college students and it displays convergent validity with other…

Speeded cognitive processing tasks involving card sorting and reaction time were administered to 141 young adults aged 18 to 33 and to 142 elderly adults aged 58 to 73. Confirmatory factor analysis was unsuccessful, but independent analyses revealed different factors for the two age groups. (Author/GDC)

Explored validity of new clinical test of verbal memory incorporating constructs from normal and pathological memory research, to quantify the ways examinees learn verbal material. Factor analyses of normal subjects and neurological patients indicated that verbal memory consisted of a number of component factors, reflecting learning strategy,…

Since Howard Gardner proposed the theory of multiple intelligences as an alternative to the unitary concept of general intelligence, educators have been searching for an acceptable method of assessment. To help with this search, three studies that describe the development and validation of a self- (and parent-) report measure of children's…

In this study 6,942 items from two standardized achievement test batteries--the Stanford (Early School Achievement Battery, Achievement Battery, and Test of Academic Skills) and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills--were analyzed. Focus was on determining: (1) the extent to which these test batteries included general cognitive operations (GCOs)…

Investigated the factor structure of a battery of tasks hypothesized to measure the constructs of the planning, attention, and simultaneous-successive (PASS) process model of human cognition. Results suggest that the original PASS model provides an improper factor solution. Recommends further refinement of the PASS theory or tests. (RJM)

"The Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales" (MIDAS) is a self- (or other-) completed instrument which is based upon the theory of multiple intelligences. The validity, reliability, and utility data regarding the MIDAS are reported here. The measure consists of 7 main scales and 24 subscales which summarize a person's intellectual…

Four major problem areas inhibit the standardized assessment of critical thinking (CT): (1) content validity; (2) construct validity; (3) technical jargon; and (4) background knowledge. Practical examples of framing multiple-choice items for assessment are suggested. In the area of content validity, new agreement about the definition of CT now…