By focusing on "appropriateness" and "adequacy" of inference and action, unified validity may be misused in rejecting valid test outcomes. The notion of levels of validity is challenged, the necessity of assumption is argued, and experience is proposed as the basis of validity. "Consequential validity" is interpreted as an optional predictive…

H. Wainer and L. Steinberg (1992) showed that within broad categories of first-year college mathematics courses (e.g., calculus), men had substantially higher average scores on the mathematics section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-M) than women who earned the same letter grade. However, Wainer and Steinberg's analysis may lead to…

Retrospective technology assessment (RTA) is the use of historical research to assess current and future technology issues. This paper uses the introduction of the videocassette recorder (VCR) as an RTA case study, focusing on the broadcasting and advertising trade presses and their forecasts of the VCR's potential impact on broadcasting. Trade…

The effectiveness of using the Perry Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development (PSIED) was assessed with vocationally undecided students. Erwin's 1981 Scale of Intellectual Development (SID) was administered to 290 vocationally undecided college students (131 males and 156 females ranging aged 17 to 42 years with a mean age of 20.2 years) at…

This paper discusses two techniques for improving the predictive validity of personality measures: (1) measuring dispositional levels of private self-consciousness, that is, one's tendency to habitually reflect on covert aspects of the self such as thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and motives; and (2) priming trait-relevant knowledge (temporarily…

Because prisoners are often denied a chance to take the General Educational Development (GED) test because of low scores on the General Education Performance Index (GEPI), a study was conducted to determine whether total standard scores on the GEPI of 220 or greater could be used to predict total standard scores of 220 or greater on the GED test.…

Stability and predictive validity in the language and play development of 41 toddlers were studied. Links between language and symbolic play of toddlers were examined at 13 and 20 months in terms of homotypic, heterotypic, or mediated models of association. In the homotypic model, performance on a variable is related to performance on the same…

Discusses a survey investigation of whether exposure to television violence is associated with an increased probability of engaging in violent behavior. Questionnaire data collected in 1970 in junior and senior high schools in Maryland, included self-reports of favorite television show, amount of violence in that show, and respondent's violent…

The purpose of this brief paper was not to question the basic findings of Fox and Lefkowitz (EJ 100 533) but simply to raise some questions about their study in terms of the data actually reported. Their original article presented evidence for differential validity between whites and Negroes from a test validation study of production-type jobs.…

The findings from a study of 117 students support the view of educators who rely on the NLN achievement test scores to predict student performance in State board examinations. (Author/BP)

Each year large numbers of children experience academic failure during the first 3 years of their public school involvement. Many studies have been done using demographic and norm-referenced tests to try to identify at-risk-for-failure youngsters either at the preschool level or early during their school experience. Most attempts have been costly…

A longitudinal study determined if children's invented spelling served as a viable predictor of reading achievement and compared the predictive value of assessing children's invented spelling relative to other notable predictors, such as letter names, letter sounds, a concept of a word, and phonemic awareness. Subjects, 52 kindergarten children…

Structure mapping theory is a way of characterizing analogies and certain classes of metaphors. The central claim of this paper is that all analogies and many metaphors are fundamentally devices for mapping relational structures from one domain to another. This theory differs from other theories in postulating that the interpretation rules for…

To justify its labor force quality requirements, the Army sought to demonstrate an empirical link between Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) scores and soldier performance. The first data set contained written and hands-on tests on several weapons systems from the Army's training schools. The second data set used the Skill Qualifications Tests…