Five studies of holistic writing assessment procedures examined interactive relationships of the participants, processes, and products of writing assessment episodes. The first study examined practices in designing writing test prompts. The second study investigated the effects of variation in the specification of audience in a writing test prompt…

This report discusses five issue areas in which it is believed substantial improvements in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) might be achieved. The unifying themes among these issues are to increase the visibility of NAEP, its relevance to policymakers, and its utility to state and local agencies. The first of five substantive…

The aim of this paper is to explore the Rasch model as a criterion of test homogeneity. Two empirical studies are presented to demonstrate this usage. From these studies it is argued that statistical tests of item characteristic curve (ICC) slopes are not sufficient in testing for heterogeneity. Tests of equality of ICC's over groups of subject…

Research into mathematical processes and their development is first viewed from the perspective of previous research that was directed towards the reading process. It is felt that the study of mathematics affords the experimental psychologist a well-specified domain of information with which to examine the full range of cognitive processes.…

The purpose of this study was to determine how cognitive style instructions to respondents of a survey instrument affected the resulting psychometric properties of the scale. It was hypothesized that a group which is instructed to carefully respond will have a mean score further from the neutral point, a larger standard deviation, and a higher…

The Self-Report Jealousy Scale was developed to measure individual differences regarding a person's propensity to reach in a jealous manner to a variety of jealousy-evoking situations. The scale possesses good psychometric properties. Studies are reported which administered the Self-Report Jealousy Scale with various personality scales. The…

By analyzing different language tests currently in use for elementary school children, the article criticizes psychometric means of evaluation and ideas about language and language acquisition resulting from psychometric evaluation. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Compares the performances on psychometric and Piagetian measures of intelligence at school entry of children of different ethnic groups living within a dominant Western-type culture. In general, few significant differences between the ethnic groups are found. (Author/AM)

Report No. 67-18, supported by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Navy Department, under Research Work Unit MF 022.01.03-9002.

Factor analysis can be a valuable tool for assessing validity; however, the reliabilities of identified factors must be attended to. This study examined the impacts of item variance on factor stability and structure. The attempt was to determine empirically whether unnumbered graphic scales scored using a larger number of scale steps produce more…

A report is given of research conducted to determine the relationship between the response of the human body to stress and the incidence of physical diseases. Seven areas of the nervous system were tested in the study: cardiovascular, electrodermal, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, piloerectors, pupilomaetric, and respiratory. The results of the…

Two studies were made of the validity and reliability of a Learning Style Inventory (LSI) for postsecondary deaf individuals. The study's a priori definition of learning style was multidimensional and included aspects of field dependence/independence and perceived locus of Nineteen students were administered the LSI and immediately interviewed on…

The problem of establishing appropriate passing scores is one of evaluation rather than estimation and not amenable to exact solution. It must therefore be approached by (1) identifying criteria for judging the acceptability of the passing score, (2) collecting the data appropriate to assessing each relevant criterion, and (3) judging how well the…

The project described was conducted to study how young children proceed to the acquisition of mastery in making films, how teaching technique is related to these forms of mastery, and what perceptual, cognitive, and affective changes occur in children as a result of these experiences. The development of a methodology for the study and problems…

Challenges to classical psychometric theory are examined in the context of a broader range of fundamental, derived, and intuitive measurements in psychology; the challenges include content-referenced testing, latent trait theory, and generalizability theory. A taxonomy of psychological measurement is developed, based on: (1) purposes of…