An alternate-choice test item is a simple declarative sentence, one portion of which is given with two different wordings. For example, "Foundations like Ford and Carnegie tend to be (1) eager (2) hesitant to support innovative solutions to educational problems." The examinee's task is to choose the alternative that makes the sentence…

The goals of the visual arts program of the Attleboro (MA) public schools, its relationship with the rest of the curriculum, and a study of the effectiveness of the program in seventh grade are described. It is suggested that the visual conceptual skills that are developed through the visual arts program are essential to cognitive processes and…

Item content of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is catagorized using 100 items from a half-length sample TOEFL published by Educational Testing Service (ETS), 120 items from Section II and 150 from the Section IV of Test of English as a Foreign Language (Gruber and Gruber), and 200 items from How to Prepare for the TOEFL by…

The special case of the Piagetian model is discussed in relation to test theory. Problems connected with the construction and analysis of a test based on Piaget and Inhelder's The Child's Construction of Quantities are presented, and related to a method of representing the item discrimination which is consonant with Piagetian theory. Loevinger and…

This paper develops a model for generating sets of replicable items for testing a range of reading skills in the primary grades. The procedure is particularly concerned with tests to identify a child's profile in reading achievement and to inform a teacher, principal, or district of the actual level of achievement in reading. Although the model is…

A literature review and bibliography on questionnaire construction are presented. The broad definition of questionnaire includes scales, structured interview forms, survey forms, and similar paper and pencil instruments used to elicit responses and collect information. A comprehensive literature search of journal articles, books, and reports in…

The author compares traditional test items with modified versions of the same test items for the purpose of making test questions more pertinent to the realities of daily life. (RK)

The use of the standard deviation of item ratings as a criterion of scale anchor selection is criticized. An alternative criterion based on item intercorrelation procedures is suggested and tested. Results indicate that the alternative criterion does not lead to the negative outcomes of the standard deviation criterion. (Author/JKS)

Various experiments demonstrated that the difficulty level of several performance-type intelligence test tasks is determined directly by stimulus and task variables that vary the information to be processed. The implications of these findings for intelligence and the problems of an experimental approach to the measurement of intelligence are…

Through reference to the "Edmonton Grade 111 Achievement Study: 1956-1977 Comparisons" this research attempts to dispel the uncertainty associated with current curricular validity of old tests. Examines five standardized tests used in the Edmonton Study, which were first given in 1956 and designed to measure basic skills. (Author/RK)

The answer-until-correct (AUC) procedure requires that examinees respond to a multi-choice item until they answer it correctly. Using a modified version of Horst's model for examinee behavior, this paper compares the effect of guessing on item reliability for the AUC procedure and the zero-one scoring procedure. (Author/CTM)

The Bem Sex Role Inventory item selection strategy was reexamined, using Bem's anchored rating scale and instructions. The results replicated Bem's for 18 masculine and 19 feminine items and suggest that the failure to replicate reported by Edwards and Ashworth (TM 503 531) resulted from differences in the anchored rating scale and instructions.…

An attempt was made to replicate the selection of items for the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). The BSRI item-selection criterion was met by only two items. For a considerable number of other items, differences between mean desirability ratings were in a direction opposite to that predicted. (Author/CTM)

To test the hypothesis that item-selection artifacts may distort data from the overt-rehearsal procedure in single-trial free recall, a controlled procedure was used where to-be-rehearsed items were presented to the subject rather than selected by him. No differences were found between the two procedures. (SW)

Discusses a survey to investigate discrepancies between high school social studies teachers' knowledge of and attitudes toward test item-types such as true-false, multiple-choice, and essay. Findings indicate that teacher perceptions of the relationship between item-type and cognitive skill assessed are incongruent with the perceptions of authors…