Researchers across many fields have called for greater attention to heterogeneity of treatment effects--shifting focus from the average effect to variation in effects between different treatments, studies, or subgroups. True heterogeneity is important, but many reports of heterogeneity have proved to be false, non-replicable, or exaggerated. In…

Over the past decade, the LLAMA language aptitude test battery has come to play an increasingly important role as an instrument in research on individual differences in language development. However, a potentially serious problem that has been pointed out by several scholars is that the LLAMA has not yet been carefully validated. We addressed this…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the four sources of self-efficacy in music performance and examine responses from the Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale (MPSES). Participants (N = 290) were middle and high school music students from 10 schools in two regions of the United States. Questions included the following: (1) How much…

This study examined the second language (L2) development of adult learners of Spanish at three levels of proficiency during and after a semester of instruction. A fundamental goal was to identify cognitive and psychosocial individual differences (IDs) that can explain between-learner variation over time in order to expand our understanding of the…

Several issues about component validity are examined by using covariance modeling to test hypotheses about the relationships between components, aptitude, and achievement. Support was found for cognitive components to model individual differences in verbal aptitude, decompose test validity, and differentially predict achievement. (Author/GK)

Alternate forms of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) were administered five separate times to 57 men and women of military service age. The objective was to determine to what extent means and cross-session correlations are stable over several administrations. Ten individual subtests, the derived ASVAB area composites and the…

Validation of an Air Force vocational interest inventory in the enlisted force was conducted to develop improved job placement techniques with a view toward practical application of results during initial counseling and job placement of enlisted personnel. The Vocational Interest-Career Examination (VOICE) was administered to 18,000 recruits…

This paper discusses applications of intelligence tests in schools, considering Binet's original warnings that his tests were primarily useful for identifying students needing intervention and inappropriate for classifying normal students. American applications of Binet's work for ranking are seen as stages of shifting from remedial to custodial…

Research on job analysis and on the application of that data to the problem of selection test construction has grown out of its infancy. However, there is insufficient evidence for the sole use of any method for the construction of a content valid test. Proposes that multiple methods of job analysis be used and specifically that a task-oriented…

Draws from validity generalization research to summarize evidence disputing theories that objective employment tests are either biased against minorities or lack utility. Argues that group differences in test scores do not result from deficiencies in tests, but in skills they measure. Suggests that measurement-based research does not provide…

An information processing approach was applied to the development and validation of a test battery intended for personnel selection, classification, and guidance; and design of training programs. The approach specifies that tests should measure specific cognitive processes and basic abilities, rather than prior experience. Tests should be short,…

Fifty Navy recruits were given 11 paper-and-pencil tests of cognitive styles, abilities, and aptitudes. Visual, auditory, and bimodal brain event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes were recorded from each of these subjects. Product-moment and canonical correlational analyses, as well as principal-factor analysis and varimax rotation, were…

An information processing approach was applied to the development and validation of a test battery intended for personnel selection, classification, and guidance; and design of training programs. The approach specifies that test should measure specific cognitive processes and basic abilities, rather than prior experience. Tests should be short,…

A 15-stage pyramidal test and a 40-item two-stage test were constructed and administered by computer to 111 college undergraduates. The two-stage test was found to utilize a smaller proportion of its potential score range than the pyramidal test. Score distributions for both tests were positively skewed but not significantly different from the…

This essay presents arguments in favor of continuing individualized intelligence testing in schools. Issues discussed include questions of validity in the concept of intelligence and its testing, ethical issues, legal issues, racial/minority and cultural issues, poor correlation between test results and teaching, and alternatives proposed by…