Research on child influence upon parent behavior motivated the development of a Parent Report of Child Behavior Toward the Parent Inventory. Internal consistency reliabilities of 31 five-item scales ranged from .69 to .95 with a median of .88. Varimax rotation of three principal component factors yielded dimensions of Control, Acceptance versus…

A high school population (N = 541) was administered the Rotter Locus of Control in April and again the following November. At the second testing the MacDonald-Tseng and Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scales were given to examine their concurrent validity. The AIM-ETS Survey and a demographic survey were also administered. Test-retest…

The known interval scale, referred to as the 7.8 scale, has been criticized as an invalid measuring instrument in the form of an attitude scale. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate that this scale can produce spuriously inflated correlation coefficients, high reliability, and false significance on statistical tests. The case will be…

An independent engineering evaluation was conducted of the Optical to Tactile Converter (Optacon), a reading aid for the blind which senses the contrast of printed text and converts the information into a tactile presentation. Tasks performed included: user evaluation, optical, electrical, mechanical, production costs, life tests, reliability, and…

Applied Performance Tests (APT) are defined as instruments designed to measure performance in an actual or simulated setting. They require at least a close approximation of the setting (if not the actual setting) to which the performance is expected to be transferred. This paper outlines measurement problems and issues that are unique to APT. It…

The use of the intraclass correlation in determining reliability is discussed and shown to be both appropriate and simple to use in the case of an observational measure, provided that observations are made on at least two occasions. The interpretation of such coefficients is explained in terms of generalizability theory, and real data are used to…

The Ohio Vocational Interest Survey (OVIS) has been used as an interest measurement tool measuring student interests toward jobs dealing with data, people and things. The purpose for the present paper was to determine the consistency of the OVIS for measuring these three dimensions through factor analysis. The research findings demonstrated which…

Weighting test scores by appropriateness of confidence, has almost without exception raised the reliability of test scores. Greater gains appear to occur for the less reliable tests, but that is at least partly because the more reliable a test is to begin with, the more difficult it is to improve it. If confidence-testing allows us to weight…

The evaluation of a testing program is necessary before or during a sound total project evaluation. Ideally, the testing program study should be concurrent with, and equal in magnitude to, the total project evaluation. Step one in an evaluation is to define the testing program's objectives in operational terms. Step two is a thorough description…

The variable of permissiveness developed and measured by Ira Reiss in the form of a Guttman scale of premarital sexual permissiveness was subjected to critical analysis. Both conceptual analysis and testing of questions regarding methodology and interpretation of the scale were used. Several questions were raised about the Reiss scale including:…

A course-instructor evaluation form, specifically adapted for this study, was administered to 775 undergraduates in 15 large and small section introductory courses after the second class meeting and again near the end of the semester. The median pretest posttest correlation was +.60. Although there were many systematic changes, students were…

A filmstrip with associated audio track has been developed to cover the major planning steps in the development of a measurement instrument such as a test or questionnaire. The filmstrip addresses the following six questions: Why am I testing? What should I test? Whom am I testing? What kinds of questions should I use? How long should my test be?…

The present study attempted to modify the latencies and errors of adult women on the Matching Familiar Figures test (MFF) by systematically altering task instructions. The results indicated that latencies of impulsive subjects could be altered with "reflective" instructions, while the latencies of reflective subjects were resistent to…

For two tests measuring the same trait, the program, BIV20, equates the scores using the two True score distributions estimated by the univariate method 20 program (see Wingersky, Lees, Lennon, and Lord, 1969) and, with these equated true scores and their distributions, estimates the bivariate distribution scores and the relative efficiency of the…

The Recruit Performance Test (RPT) was developed to meet a widely recognized need for an accurate measurement of achievement in learning the military/psychomotor skills in recruit training. It was hoped that the test would be of special value in assessing the achievement of Category IV personnel, who are thought to be penalized by the present…