Expectancies for drug effects predict drug initiation, use, cessation, and relapse, and may play a causal role in drug effects (i.e., placebo effects). Surprisingly little is known about expectancies for caffeine even though it is the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world. In a series of independent studies, the nature and scope of…

Recently, integrative, hierarchical models of personality and personality disorder (PD)--such as the Big Three, Big Four, and Big Five trait models--have gained support as a unifying dimensional framework for describing PD. However, no measures to date can simultaneously represent each of these potentially interesting levels of the personality…

In a number of psychological studies, answers to reasoning vignettes have been shown to result from both intuitive and deliberate response processes. This paper utilizes a psychometric model to separate these two response tendencies. An experimental application shows that the proposed model facilitates the analysis of dual-process item responses…

A program of research is necessary to examine the psychometric properties of instruments designed to measure individuals' achievement goal orientations. Recently, research on achievement goal orientation has examined the stability of achievement goals to assess how context might influence individuals' achievement goals. Accordingly, studies are…

Psychopathology prior to the last four decades was generally viewed as a set of problems and disorders that did not occur in persons with intellectual disabilities (ID). That notion now seems very antiquated. In no small part, a revolutionary development of scales worldwide has occurred for the assessment of emotional problems in persons with ID.…

A multinormal partial credit model for factor analysis of polytomously scored items with ordered response categories is derived using an extension of the Dutch Identity (Holland in "Psychometrika" 55:5-18, 1990). In the model, latent variables are assumed to have a multivariate normal distribution conditional on unweighted sums of item…

Starting from an explicit scoring rule for time limit tasks incorporating both response time and accuracy, and a definite trade-off between speed and accuracy, a response model is derived. Since the scoring rule is interpreted as a sufficient statistic, the model belongs to the exponential family. The various marginal and conditional distributions…

The Gain-Loss model is a probabilistic skill multimap model for assessing learning processes. In practical applications, more than one skill multimap could be plausible, while none corresponds to the true one. The article investigates whether constraining the error probabilities is a way of uncovering the best skill assignment among a number of…

Although most psychological assessments are based on measures related to an individual's average level of performance, it has been proposed that measures of variability around one's average may provide unique individual difference information and have clinical significance. The current study investigated properties of within-person variability in…

The development and validation of the Brazilian Temperament Scale for Students (BTSS) are examined through the use of data from 1,258 children and adolescents, ages 10 through 21 (M = 15.0, SD = 2.1, 56% females). Three psychometric properties of BTSS are reported: its internal structure (e.g., validity), its reliability, and cut points to best…

This study describes the cross-cultural applicability of a multidimensional inventory of students' evaluation of critical thinking dispositions (California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory). The goal was to assess the cross-cultural psychometric equivalency of the CCTDI through testing measurement invariance across American and Turkish…

Data produced by psychometric instruments are often used to inform understanding about a certain population's knowledge of ideas or perspectives about specific topics. Concept inventories are an example of psychometric instruments used to probe students' content knowledge within a defined framework. Concept inventories have been used as…

This study was designed to examine the factor structure and psychometric properties of the English as a Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Inventory (EFLRAI). A total of 939 non-English major students responded to the EFLRAI. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed using a principal component analysis and structural equation…

The aim of this study is to develop a scale determining the visual literacy levels of university students. After reviewing the relevant literature a 75 item draft scale was prepared. The scale was applied to 3rd and 4th year students of Education Faculty of Amasya University. Non-functional items have been excluded from the scale as a result of…

The idea of Matthew effects in reading--the widening achievement gap between good and poor reader--has attracted considerable attention in education research in the past 25 years. Despite the popularity of the topic, however, empirical studies that have analyzed the core assumption of Matthew effects in reading have produced inconsistent results.…