The effects of sample size, number of variables, and population value of the congruence coefficient on the sampling distribution of the congruence coefficient were examined. Sample data were generated on the basis of the common factor model, and principal axes factor analyses were performed. (Author/LMO)

This article considers various kinds of probability and non-probability samples in both experimental and survey studies. Throughout, how a sample is chosen is stressed. Size alone is not the determining consideration in sample selection. Good samples do not occur by accident; they are the result of a careful design. (Author/JAZ)

Tested the hypothesis that increasing library services would increase returns of a questionnaire generated by that library. Students and faculty were surveyed before and after new services were offered at Wharton School. Results suggest source of sponsorship should be related to user group to be surveyed to maximize return rate. (CDD)

A survey of speech communication departments and a review of the literature indicate that most speech communication researchers continue to use college students as their primary source of subjects. The problem of sampling is discussed and methods for dealing with generality are offered. (PD)

Responding to doubts about the validity of test results that showed the Pittsburgh School District's school improvement project to be highly successful, the district validated its results by administering a different test to a representative sample of students in secure conditions. (MCG)

This investigation examined the effect contextual variables had on a national sample of school board members' information needs for decision making. Importance, conflict, and content were found to be associated with board members' needs for time, information, and consultation. (Author/LMO)

A statewide survey of operative dentistry in North Carolina was conducted to provide an update of operative dentistry practice and to assist the operative department at the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry in making informed curricular decisions. The results of the survey are discussed. (Author/MLW)

Thorndike's Stanford-Binet data suggest that from 1932 to 1971-72 preschool children enjoyed greater IQ gains than older children, possibly due to the rise of television. Additional analysis indicated that gains were either due to sampling error or totally antedated 1947. Gains of 12 IQ points were found for Americans. (Author/EGS)

Attempts to demonstrate that, in children's writing, emotion is communicated more effectively when it is expressed through words signifying a person's attitude towards some specific object or external situation, than it is by verbal reports on either his own internal feelings or his empathic identifications with the feelings of others. (Author/RK)

As part of a research project on students' understanding of variability in statistics, 272 students, (84 middle school and 188 secondary school, grades 6-12) were surveyed on a series of tasks involving repeated sampling. Students' reasoning on the tasks predominantly fell into three types: additive, proportional, or distributional, depending on…

This paper summarizes the thinking of 84 middle school mathematics students' about variability in three stochastics tasks that involve repeated trial. Differences in students' acknowledgment of variability were found, depending on whether the task was from a sampling environment, or a probability environment. Students tended to neglect variability…

Two studies investigated upper elementary school students' informal understanding of sampling issues in the context of interpreting and evaluating survey results. The specific focus was on the children's evaluation of sampling methods and means of drawing conclusions from multiple surveys. In Study 1, 17 children were individually interviewed to…

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was conducted in 1994 in seven European countries with the aim of producing literacy profiles to be used in individual national analyses as well as in international comparisons. It was assumed that the test items could be divided into three unidimensional scales corresponding to the aspects…