Two experiments were conducted to determine: (1) whether fear of success, as measured by three different instruments, interacts with subjects' expectancies of success to affect performance on exams in college courses; (2) whether fear of success can be clearly distinguished from fear of failure; and (3) whether males and females differ on fear of…

Measurements of various parameters derived from different reaction time (RT) paradigms are found to be correlated with psychometric measurements of general mental ability. Such RT-derived measurements, when combined in a multiple regression equation, predict some 50 percent or more of the variance in intelligence. This relationship of intelligence…

The appropriateness of the use of the standardized residual (SR) to assess congruence between sample test item responses and the one parameter latent trait (Rasch) item characteristic curve is investigated. Latent trait theory is reviewed, as well as theory of the SR, the apparent error in calculating the expected distribution of the SR, and…

Forty-five graduate students in two educational psychology classes were randomly assigned to three groups for a classroom test on the course content. One group was asked to go to another room and then was privately excused from the test. The other two groups took tests with the same 32 items, but one group used a multiple-choice format and the…

Five statistical indices are developed and described which may be used for determining (1) when linear equating of two approximately parallel tests is adequate, and (2) whan a more complex method such as equipercentile equating must be used. The indices were based on: (1) similarity of cumulative score distributions; (2) shape of the raw-score to…

Goal-setting has been accepted as an effective motivational tool. Whether goals should be participatively set or assigned was examined by holding goal difficulty constant in an investigation based on previous results which suggested that participants in goal-setting set more difficult goals than those for whom goals are assigned. Results suggest…

This study examines the effects of three levels of visual complexity upon the learning of an instructional slide tape program about the functions of a human heart. The three levels of complexity were a simple line drawing in color, an illustration in color, and a realistic color photograph. The effects of visual stimulus complexity upon…

Number right and elimination scores were analyzed on a 48-item college level mathematics test that was assembled from pretest data in three forms by varying the item orderings: easy-hard, uniform, or random. Half of the forms contained information explaining the item arrangement and suggesting strategies for taking the test. Several anxiety…

Using estimates of item ease and item discrimination, procedures are provided for computing estimates of the reliability and percentage of failing scores for tests assembled from these items. Two assumptions are made: that the average item coefficient will be approximately equal to the average of the estimated coefficients and that the score…

The relationship between play unit complexity and the behavior of 24 normal 3- to 6-year-olds was examined in three Viennese kindergartens. Play units were rated as simple (a unit with one obvious use and no sub-parts or juxtaposition of two essentially different play materials, e.g., puzzles or clay), or super (a complex unit which has three or…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of age differences and differences in memory load on concept identification (CI) tasks of varying levels of complexity. Previous studies with young children found increasingly better performance on CI tasks with increasing age. This was in part due to the fact that older subjects categorize…

The Starkweather Target Game is designed to measure preschool children's willingness to try difficult tasks independent of ability. The game consists of a box-shaped target which responds, when the target is hit by a rolled ball, somewhat like a jack-in-a-box. When the bull's eye is hit, the lid opens and a surprise picture appears. After being…

Readability has been gauged by such means as determining the length of individual words in a passage, analyzing types of sentences, and assessing numbers of subordinate clauses, prepositional phrases, modifiers, and so on. Probably the most successful formula has been the Dale-Chall method, which measures readability by determining the percentage…

This study examines why the relational concepts of left and right are more difficult to learn than other relational concepts. A total of 72 children from kindergarten, third grade, and sixth grade, and an additional 24 college students were tested individually on a set of six realistic pictures. The task was to reconstruct the depicted scenes on a…

To determine to what extent children of preschool age comprehend the meaning of logical connectives, 64 5- and 6-year-olds were told to hand differently colored and shaped wooden blocks to an experimenter. The commands involved various English idioms used for conjunction (e.g. both black and round), disjunction (either black or round), and…