Attention span, verbal list learning, and memory test performance were examined in relation to Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) measures of depression, anxiety, and psychotic thinking in 128 male head-injury and psychiatric patients. Results support the view that MMPI-2 scores are relevant to neuropsychological test…

Does recognition memory rely on discrete recollection, continuous evidence, or both? Is continuous evidence sensitive to only the recency and duration of study (familiarity), or is it also sensitive to details of the study episode? Dual process theories assume recognition is based on recollection and familiarity, with only recollection providing…

This article argues that the validity of standardized achievement test-score interpretation and use is problematic; consequently, confidence and trust in such test scores may often be unwarranted. The problem is particularly severe in high-stakes situations. This essay provides a context for understanding standardized achievement testing, then…

Performance assessment is a type of educational assessment in which judgments are made about student knowledge and skills based on observation of student behavior or inspection of student products. In dealing with the issue of fairness in performance assessment, educators are confronted with some dilemmas. Assuring equality in performance…

The development of a scoring tool to be used with alternative and authentic assessment strategies is discussed, describing the parts of such a tool and the development process. The design is based on the Innovation Configuration (IC) process of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model. To begin, components of the test task are identified. Variations that…

The realities of inappropriate and sometimes unethical testing practices must be confronted to make sure that current assessments are as reliable and effective as possible. While this paper does not attempt to provide practical guidelines for ethical and appropriate testing, it does draw a picture of appropriate and ethical testing practices. All…

In the 1991-92 school year, the Ontario (Canada) Ministry of Education conducted a province-wide writing review of Grade 12 students. The purpose was to provide public accountability at the school board and provincial levels, by gathering information on school program implementation and student achievement in English. Results of this survey,…

In contrast to multiple choice, alternative modes of assessment afford varying degrees of openness in the allowable responses. Prominent among the alternatives is the assessment of performance, sometimes in its own right where the issue is the quality of the particular performance per se, but more often as a vehicle for the assessment of…

The feasibility of quick norms derived by the procedure described by B. D. Wright and M. H. Stone (1979) was investigated. Norming differences between traditionally calculated means and Rasch "quick" means were examined for simulated data sets of varying sample size, test length, and type of distribution. A 5 by 5 by 2 design with a…

This monograph describes the third edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) and its relationship to reading/learning disabilities. It is designed for educators and students in education who want to go beyond the numerical values of the WISC-III intelligence quotients and understand the implications of the scores for the…

This paper recommends an evaluation procedure for gifted children which uses test results only to confirm the conclusions resulting from clinical evaluation that involves observation, discussion with the child, an interview with the parents, developmental milestones, and family history. It suggests that traditional test interpretation may lead to…

Intercorrelations among the 1985 occupational scales of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) for 1985 for each of the six Holland groups are presented. These intercorrelations are based on large recent samples of entering college students. A second objective was to determine the extent to which the 1985 occupational scales are correctly…

The literature on validity provides much more guidance on how to collect various kinds of validity evidence than it does on which kinds of evidence to collect in specific cases. An argument-based approach to validation redresses the balance by linking the kinds of evidence needed to validate a test-score interpretation to the details of the…

This paper addresses the problem of whether two-dimensional solutions with different apparent meanings and different implied interpretations of the number-correct scale could be produced from the same test data set by simply shifting the orientation of the two-dimensional projection plane. An artificial data set of 3,000 response vectors and a…

After establishing a theoretical depiction of the domain of literature learning, a study developed test packages which examined: (1) the relationship among multiple choice, short open-ended, and long open-ended responses; (2) whether there would be differences according to the genres; (3) the relationship between literary and non-literary texts,…