The process of writing test items is analyzed, and a blueprint is presented for an authoring system for test item writing to reduce invalidity and to structure the process of item writing. The developmental methodology is introduced, and the first steps in the process are reported. A historical review traces the advances made in the field and the…

Four discussions of test construction based on item response theory (IRT) are presented. The first discussion, "Test Design as Model Building in Mathematical Programming" (T. J. J. M. Theunissen), presents test design as a decision process under certainty. A natural way of modeling this process leads to mathematical programming. General…

Gender differences were examined on three computer-administered spatial processing tasks: (1) the Intercept task, requiring processing dynamic or moving figures; (2) the mental rotation test, employing rotated asymmetric polygons; and (3) the integrating details test, in which subjects performed a complex visual synthesis. Participants were about…

This study presents data augmenting the validity studies of the Wheatley Cube (McDaniel and Kroll, 1984), a computer managed test of spatial visualization. Twenty-one students in pilot training are administered several instruments designed to measure the ability to construct a cognitive three-dimensional space, including: (1) the Wheatley Cube,…

The use of computers to build diagnostic inferences is presented in two contexts: (1) closed world, exemplified by the space shuttle launch monitoring system; and (2) open world, represented by computerized diagnostic testing of reading comprehension. The analysis shows that the closed world provides a substantially cleaner environment within…

The answer-until-correct procedure has made comparatively little impact on the field of educational testing due to the absence of a sound theoretical base for turning the response data into measures. Three new latent trait models are described. They differ in their complexity, though each is designed to yield a single parameter to measure student…

Two related studies were conducted to determine whether students read all-capital text and mixed text displayed on a computer screen with the same speed and accuracy. Seventy-seven college students read M. A. Tinker's "Basic Reading Rate Test" displayed on a PLATO computer screen. One treatment consisted of paragraphs in all-capital type…

Based on the premise that teaching basic writing involves first understanding what tends to go wrong when students write, a computer assisted system of error prediction and analysis was designed to improve college students' writing skills in both English and French. Students were to complete a sequenced series of writing assignments first in…

The Multnomah County Education Service District (MCESD) provides the following support services to the 12 school districts in its jurisdiction in the metropolitan Portland area: (1) curricular support in terms of developing measurable goals and objectives; (2) support for nationally and locally developed group tests; (3) development and field…

The theory and technology of item characteristic curve (ICC) response theory and adaptive testing were applied to judging individuals' competencies against a prespecified mastery level to determine whether each individual is a "master" or "nonmaster" of a specified content domain. Items from two conventionally administered mastery tests…

When criterion-referenced tests are used to assign examinees to states reflecting their performance level on a test, the better known methods for determining test length, which consider relationships among domain scores and errors of measurement, have their limitations. The purpose of this paper is to present a computer system named TESTLEN, which…

Judgments that favorably set an individual apart from others tend to be made more rapidly, suggesting that the self-concept is both an effective and a cognitive entity. Subjects rated the self-applicability of traits on a 100-point scale. As in other studies using dichotomous judgements, judgement speed increased with increasing self-applicability…

Two methods of interactive, computer-assisted testing methods for multiple-choice items were compared with each other and with conventional multiple-choice tests. The interactive testing methods compared were tailored testing and the respond-until-correct (RUC) item response method. In tailored testing, examinee ability is successively estimated…

An earlier study was extended and replicated to examine the feasibility of generating multiple-choice test questions by transforming sentences from prose instructional material. In the first study, a computer-based algorithm was used to analyze prose subject matter and to identify high-information words. Sentences containing selected words were…

The use of computer-produced materials remote from the terminal can revitalize teaching devices and techniques such as graded exercises, precision teaching, and even conventional text. Teachers need to be aware of inconsistencies in the quality of computer software and of logistical factors involved in the adoption of computer assisted instruction…