Examined reliability of United States Employment Service Interest Inventory (USES-II) by twice administering USES-II to 100 vocational rehabilitation clients. Retest reliability coefficients for the 12 scales of the USES-II ranged from .73 to .88 with a median of .83 for this population. Findings support use of USES-II in occupational exploration…

Some of the most commonly used item response theory models for ordered polychotomous data are described using the taxonomy of D. Thissen and L. Steinberg (1986) as a framework. An empirical study found the graded response model and an extension of the partial credit model very similar in a practical application. (SLD)

Reviews Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised (PIAT-R), a revision of the 1970 PIAT. Describes administration and scoring criteria, psychometric properties, and new features of test design. Emphasizes implications for the practitioner. Concludes that PIAT-R may be useful screening tool when general information concerning student achievement…

Evaluates the extent to which newer IQ tests represent an improvement over their historical predecessors, the Binet and Wechsler scales, in terms of the potential for improved educational and psychological service delivery. Discusses three conceptually relevant criteria: theoretical foundations, psychometric integrity, and implications for…

Reviews issues, raised in part because of "Educational and Psychological Measurement" (EPM) policies, regarding "test reliability," which is psychometric terminology, and "score reliability," score-centric terminology. Discusses datametrics and provides a critique of T. Vacha-Haase's proposed meta-analytic reliability generalization via…

Responds to criticisms of some "Educational and Psychological Measurement" policies and the reliability generalization meta-analytic methods of T. Vacha-Haase. Explores consequences of misunderstanding score reliability. (SLD)

B. Thompson and T. Vacha-Haase have examined the statement "the reliability of the test" with emphasis on the following three words: (1) the first "the"; (2) "test"; and (3) the second "the." This discussion focuses instead on the word "reliability." (Author)

Describes determining student responses to teaching through their drawings of the class situation. (SLD)

The classification capabilities of the one-dimensional Kohonen neural network (T. Kohonen, 1995) were compared with those of two partitioning and three hierarchical cluster methods in 2,580 data sets with known cluster structure. Overall, the performance of the Kohonen networks was similar to, or better than, that of the others. Implications for…

The accuracy of Kendall's chi square approximation (M. Kendall, 1962) to circular triad distributions was assessed by comparing estimated indices to enumerated values across upper and lower tails of cumulative proportions of circular triad distributions. In general, the approximation was found to be quite good, and its use is discussed. (SLD)

As examples of models that are not based on normality or its approximation, the logistic positive exponent family of models is discussed. These models include the item task complexity as the third parameter, which determines the single principle of ordering individuals on the ability scale. (SLD)

Discusses two forms of separability of item and person parameters in the context of response time models. The first is "separate sufficiency," and the second is "ranking independence." For each form a theorem stating sufficient conditions is proved. The two forms are shown to include several cases of models from psychometric…

For trinary partial credit items, the shape of the item information and item discrimination functions is examined in relation to the item parameters. Conditions under which these functions are unimodal and bimodal are discussed, and the locations and values of maxima are derived. Practical relevance of the results is discussed. (SLD)

Traditional and innovative uses of the Rasch model in the development and validation of both small- and large-scale psychological instruments are illustrated and discussed. Advantages of the model in maximizing scale interpretability and validity are presented. Both mathematical and conceptual explanations are provided using counseling psychology…

An initial evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Central Relationship Questionnaire (CRQ) is presented. Central relationship patterns refer to people's characteristic ways of relating to others. Results indicate that the CRQ components could be differentiated into meaningful subscales. Validity, reliability, and specific suggestions for…