An instrument, "The Assessment of Cognitive Transfer in Science Inventory," was designed to evaluate cognitive performance in biology. The instrument is based on students' verbal responses to a structured sequence of situations and questions. Items were classified in terms of a modification of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The…

A sample of 22 multiple-choice questions is provided to point up the potentialities of this type question, as well as to dispel the myth that "objective" tests require no thought, insight, or understanding. The questions have been taken from a variety of tests constructed by Educational Testing Service, and are presented as they appeared in the…

Forty-one 10th grade biology tests prepared by commercial publishers, test bureaus, and the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study were analyzed using the six major categories of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. Of the 2,689 test items classified, 71.88% were Knowledge, 15.17% Comprehension, 11.49%…

A study attempted to determine the usefulness of skin resistance and other physiological measures as indicators of a simple cognitive skill such as the immediate recall of digits. Subjects were placed in a sound attenuated chamber and wired for heart rate and skin resistance recordings. The task involved immediate recall of a 10 alternative digit…

Performed confirmatory factor analyses of Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) using subtest correlations for standardization samples provided in manuals to test hypothesis that factors underlying K-ABC are substantially intercorrelated at all age levels for two- and three-factor models. Findings suggest K-ABC cannot distinguish between…

Presents new analysis of Planning-Arousal-Simultaneous-Successive (PASS) model of information integration and provides new results to support operationalization of model. Results of factor analysis of data from PASS test battery responses of 434 students in grades 2, 6, and 10 support utility of assessing planning, simultaneous, and successive…

Fifteen cognitive abilities tests of the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition were factor analyzed concerning between-family means and within-family differences, using 370 sibling pairs of Americans of European ancestry and 116 sibling pairs of Japanese ancestry. The similarity of between-family and within-family structures suggests that the genetic…

This study examined whether familiarity with content influences performance on conditional reasoning problems of the form P implies Q independently of ease of generation of specific examples of "Q and not-P." Results indicated that increased content familiarity resulted in higher performance levels. (Author/JAZ)

Preliminary results of a survey of 10-year-old children (N=12.905) given a variety of educational and cognitive tests relevant to diagnosis of dyslexia have shown that distributions of scores are incompatible with the hypothesis of normal variation, suggesting that dyslexia involves some kind of anomaly. (Author/DB)

Examined whether less experienced judges could also produce accurate estimates of the validity of cognitive tests. Shows that the estimates of less experienced judges contain less information than those of experts, but also that average of estimates of several less experienced judges are as accurate as those obtained from small-sample empirical…

The integration of neuropsychological (NP) methods into the comprehensive assessment of preschool children is examined. It is concluded that NP assessment serves as a powerful tool for individual case planning only when used in combination with information gathered in other settings. (Author/LMO)

In this study 126 high school students were administered the Karplus Island Puzzle and interviewed individually to determine if the puzzle measured Piagetian-type operational thinking. Results indicated that the puzzle did not characterize an individual's cognitive level. (SL)

The Wechsler Memory Scale[R] (WMS-III) is a widely used measure of memory functioning that is useful in the assessment of individuals with dementia, traumatic brain injury, and substance abuse problems, among others. This book is designed to help mental health professionals acquire the knowledge and skills to use the WMS-III. The chapters are: (1)…

This book is designed to help mental health professionals acquire the knowledge and skills to use the Cognitive Abilities battery of the Woodcock-Johnson[TM] comprehensive assessment system (WJ III). The WJ III was recently divided into the Cognitive Abilities and the Achievement batteries. The chapters are: (1) "Overview"; (2) "How…

Gender, racial, and ethnic differences occur in vocational and cognitive ability assessments when the average scores of various groups are not equal. Results of such assessments indicate that not all groups are equally represented at all points of the assessment continuum. Many attempts to reduce or minimize existing group differences have been…