As part of an effort to provide more economical methods for job-skill evaluation in the Army Enlisted Personnel Management System, a study investigated the use of television as a means of presenting test items for a sample of tests from the job field of tank crewman. The television scene provided the job setting for each item and then posed a…

A previously published discussion of the ACER "Australian Studies in School Performance" suggests that the performance of students constitutes a concern; however, it is possible to be encouraged by evidence from the study that 97% of 10 year olds and 99% of 14 year olds have mastered the abilities to understand simple written sentences.…

A multi-faceted study followed up 800 children originally administered SCREEN, a comprehensive early identification screening battery. Ss were given an individually administered diagnostic battery: The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA), The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) Verbal Scale, The Beery Visual Motor…

Formulas are presented for decision reliability and for classification validity for mastery/nonmastery decisions based on criterion referenced tests. Two item parameters are used: the probability of a master answering an item correctly, and the probability of a nonmaster answering an item incorrectly. The theory explores the relationships of…

The reliability and validity of three measures of infant temperament were compared in this study. The measures included the revised Carey (1978) Infant Temperament Questionnaire, a version of the Bayley (1969) Infant Behavior Record revised for completion by the parent, and a modified version of Buss and Plomin's (1975) EASI, an acronym standing…

The viewpoint is expressed that adding to test reliability by either selecting a more homogeneous set of items, restricting the range of item difficulty as closely as possible to the most efficient level, or increasing the number of items will not add to test validity and that there is considerable danger that efforts to increase reliability may…

The construct of spatial ability is discussed and it is suggested that some widely used and cited tests that are called spatial ability tests may not be valid measures of that ability. Instead, their items may be solved using mental processes that are clearly analytical and not spatial in nature. Four studies involving the analysis of subjects'…

Intended for parents, this guide discusses the effects of standardized tests on children, using test items from recent standardized reading tests which have been administered to children aged 7 to 13 and children's responses to these items. For each item, comments are made about the ambiguity of the item; the various interpretations that can be…

IN DISCUSSING A RELIABLE AND VALID PRESERVICE PREDICTOR OF TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS, IT IS NOTED THAT MOST TEACHER SELECTION PROCEDURES DEPEND SOLELY ON PAPER AND PENCIL MEASURES OF VERBAL AND SYMBOL MANIPULATION ABILITY. THEREFORE, A NEW MULTIVARIABLE EVALUATION PROCEDURE IS OFFERED. IT CONSISTS OF (1) DEVELOPING EMPIRICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF CLASSROOM…

THE PURPOSE OF THIS SYMPOSIUM WAS TO CONSIDER SOME PROBLEMS FREQUENTLY ENCOUNTERED WHEN PREPARING INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES AND TO DISCUSS SEVERAL MEANS BY WHICH FUTURE EFFORTS AT IMPLEMENTATION MIGHT BE FACILITATED. TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE--(1) "IN DEFENSE OF INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES," (2) "SOME IMPORTANT WAYS IN WHICH PERFORMANCE…

THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK SCORES VERSUS IQ AS PREDICTORS OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT WAS INVESTIGATED, AND THE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN TASK SCORES AND IQ RE-EXAMINED. SUBJECTS WERE 99 UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN WITH A MEAN STANFORD-BINET IQ OF 126 (SD EQUALS 19). THE INSTRUMENTS USED WERE DUNN'S OBJECT SORTING TASK (OST),…

AN INVESTIGATION AND EVALUATION OF TOTAL INFANT AND PRESCHOOL MENTAL TESTING SITUATIONS AND SOME CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE CURRENT NEEDS IN THIS AREA ARE PRESENTED. THESE APPROACHES ARE MADE TO THE PROBLEM. FIRST, THE THEORETICAL THINKING ON THE NATURE OF INTELLIGENCE AND HOW IT DEVELOPS IN CHILDREN IS TRACED. THERE HAS BEEN DISAGREEMENT OVER THE…

SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR RESPONSES TO MULTIPLE-CHOICE ITEMS ON READING COMPREHENSION TESTS AND THE EFFECTS OF CONTENT WORDS AND FUNCTION WORDS IN SUPPLYING INFORMATION FOR THE CORRECT COMPLETION OF MULTIPLE-CHOICE ITEMS WERE STUDIED IN AN EXPERIMENT AT CAMPBELL COLLEGE. PARAGRAPHS WITH ACCOMPANYING MULTIPLE-CHOICE ITEMS SAMPLED FROM READING…

During the last 10-15 years, there has been a burgeoning interest in ethnicity as a variable in research on objective personality assessment, particularly with respect to black-white differences. Racial differences in responses to items on the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) were investigated to identify nonpathological differences…

Indices of appropriateness of a test for an individual are discussed, and two data sets are evaluated. With the first data set, three indices of test appropriateness are obtained for response patterns on achievement tests from an experimental study of the effects of test anxiety and time pressure with 173 3rd and 4th grade students. Relationships…