Identifies and discusses ten factors that contribute to the difficulties that language learners may have in dealing with false cognates. Provides suggestions for minimizing confusion. (Author/VWL)

Explores possible individual differences effects on school mathematics performance and feelings of difficulty (FOD) of 243 subjects, ages 13 to 15 years. Considers cognitive ability, affect, age, and gender. Finds that ability directly influenced performance whereas both ability and affect influenced FOD. Discusses the results. (CMK)

Time limits on some computer-adaptive tests (CATs) are such that many examinees have difficulty finishing, and some examinees may be administered tests with more time-consuming items than others. Results from over 100,000 examinees suggested that about half of the examinees must guess on the final six questions of the analytical section of the…

In the bookmark standard-setting procedure, judges place "bookmarks" in a reordered test booklet containing items presented in order of increasing difficulty. Traditionally, the bookmark difficulty location (BDL) is on the trait continuum where, for dichotomous items, there is a two-thirds probability of a correct response and, for a score of "k"…

When teaching a new skill to learners, physical educators present a progression of tasks to facilitate student learning. Each task within the progression adds to the level of difficulty or the complexity of the skill being performed. However, physical education teachers do not commonly apply knowledge about task progressions when employing new…

Pictorial space can be conceptualized as aggregate space (where figures compete for limited available space) or as axial space (where space is infinite and exists independently of figures). That these two kinds of space concepts follow a developmental sequence was tested by investigating size regulation mechanisms in 7- to 12-year-old children's…

Two psychometric models are presented for evaluating the difficulty of the distractors in multiple-choice items. They are based on the criterion of rising distractor selection ratios, which facilitates interpretation of the subject and item parameters. Statistical inferential tools are developed in a Bayesian framework: modal a posteriori…

Personalized service is important on the Internet, especially in Web-based learning. Generally, most personalized systems consider learner preferences, interests, and browsing behaviors in providing personalized services. However, learner ability usually is neglected as an important factor in implementing personalization mechanisms. Besides, too…

The current study examined attachment style, strengths, and difficulties in institutionalized and non-institutionalized children with below-average intellectual abilities. Parents/caregivers and teachers of the children completed a brief measure of attachment style and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, which assesses the most important…

This article presents a psychometric model for estimating ability and item-selection strategies in self-adapted testing. In contrast to computer adaptive testing, in self-adapted testing the examinees are allowed to select the difficulty of the items. The item-selection strategy is defined as the distribution of difficulty conditional on the…

To a visually impaired individual the physical world presents many challenges. For a person with impaired sight, way finding through a complex environment is fraught with dangers, both actual and imagined. The current generation of mobility aids have the possibility of addressing a broad range of physical issues through technological solutions.…

This article considers the touching, or rather, not touching, of children and young people in professional settings. Some have argued that many schools and other childcare environments are becoming "no touch" zones. Formal guidelines in the UK are centrally concerned with "child protection" issues, and "force and…

The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities test (ABLA) is a useful tool for choosing appropriate training tasks for persons with developmental disabilities. This test assesses the ease or difficulty with which persons are able to learn six hierarchically positioned discrimination tasks. A visual-visual nonidentity matching prototype task was…

For the thirty-seventh year, the Research and Theory Division and the Division of Instructional Design of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) sponsored the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. This year's Proceedings…

The relationship between the philosophical orientation of a high school citizenship education program and the kinds of competencies that students exhibit on a nationally administered civics knowledge assessment was investigated. The researcher imposed a philosophical paradigm of political perfectionism on the citizenship education curriculum in…