In this interview, JD Brown reflects on language testing/assessment. He suggests that language testing can be seen as a continuum with hard core positivist approaches at one end and post modernist interpretive perspectives at the other, and also argues that norm referencing (be it proficiency, placement, or aptitude testing) and criterion…

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)

A lognormal model for the response times of a person on a set of test items is investigated. The model has a parameter structure analogous to the two-parameter logistic response models in item response theory, with a parameter for the speed of each person as well as parameters for the time intensity and discriminating power of each item. It is…

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…

The stimulus for this colloquium was the convergence of several significant developments bearing on the construct validation of standardized tests and other assessment methods. Of these developments, some were fundamental to psychology as a science; others reflected socio-political pressures on measurement in education and employment. The ten…

A description is made of the first steps taken towards the development of a model of epistemic beliefs, which is conceptually based on the learning process. In two studies, which were conducted in the domains of mathematics and physics, a quest was made to secure the first evidence of the usefulness of the model. The most important results of the…

Purpose: To scale language milestones in a group of 527 children to provide an instrument for screening language development. Procedure: The questionnaire regarding these milestones was completed by parental report. It was evaluated whether the scaled milestones satisfied the assumptions of the Mokken item response model. Results: The scalability…

The United States Training and Employment Service General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB), first published in 1947, has been included in a continuing program of research to validate the tests against success in many different occupations. The GATB consists of 12 tests which measure nine aptitudes: General Learning Ability; Verbal Aptitude; Numerical…

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…

A model of verbal performance was developed which defined cognitive processes thought to underlie performance on the Word Knowledge and Paragraph Comprehension subtests of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). The items from two forms of these ASVAB verbal subtests were rated on five conceptualized cognitive storage processes:…

This report examines how selection fairness is influenced by the item characteristics of a selection instrument in terms of its distribution of item difficulties, level of item discrimination, and degree of item bias. Computer simulation was used in the administration of conventional ability tests to a hypothetical target population consisting of…

This collection of articles on vocational guidance and counseling is one of the NATCON series produced by the Canadian Employment and Immigration Commission to improve the methodology of vocational guidance and employment counseling. Ten articles are included in the book. They cover the following subjects: a processing of counseling psychology for…