Basic precepts for test development are described and explained as they are presented in measurement textbooks commonly used in the fields of education and psychology. The five building blocks discussed as the foundation of well-constructed tests are: (1) specification of purpose; (2) standard conditions; (3) consistency; (4) validity; and (5)…

In self-adapted testing (SAT), examinees select the difficulty level of items administered. This study investigated three variations of prior information provided when taking an SAT: (1) no information (examinees selected item difficulty levels without prior information); (2) view (examinees inspected a typical item from each difficulty level…

A study investigated the attitudes of adult university students of English as a Second Language (ESL) toward use of closed captioned television (CCTV) as an instructional tool. Students at the intermediate (n=51) and advanced (n=55) levels of ESL study in classes using CCTV were administered a questionnaire concerning their perceptions of the…

A study was conducted that attempted to show changes in electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns (identified using topographic EEG mapping) when children were required to perform the relatively simple task of button pressing during an eyes-open baseline session of low cognitive demand and a complex reaction time (RT) task of high cognitive demand.…

A study of children's acquisition of the auxiliary verb system in English is reported. The first section describes the operation of the auxiliary system, and proposes that the behavior of auxiliaries is so complicated that if children were to generalize from one auxiliary to another, they would make predictable errors. The second section reviews…

The traditional system of letter grades discourages college-bound students from taking difficult courses. Many colleges look closely at an applicant's grade point average (GPA). When a student's GPA is computed, a grade from an easy course carries as much weight as a grade from a difficult course. Since a student can achieve a higher grade with…

The expansion theory, which maintains that an individual has unlimited energy to expend in work or marital involvement, and the drain theory, which maintains that an individual's energy for work can be depleted by overcommitment to family, compete with each other in explaining the effect of worklife on the adult male's family relationships. To…

Three examinations administered to medical students were analyzed to determine differences among severities of judges' assessments and among grading periods. The examinations included essay, clinical, and oral forms of the tests. Twelve judges graded the three essays for 32 examinees during a 4-day grading session, which was divided into eight…

The study investigated the oral reading self-correction behaviors of three grade levels of readers (fifth, eighth, and eleventh) and three ability levels (normal readers reading in the instructional range, and learning-disabled readers reading in the instructional and frustration range.) Three locations of self corrections were measured: immediate…

The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which collaboration with a more competent peer aids children's ability to solve mathematical balance beam problems under feedback and no-feedback conditions. Subjects were 61 children whose pretest scores on 14 balance beam problems that allowed reliable assessment at five increasingly…

The effect of dimensionality on an adaptive test's ability estimation was examined. Two-dimensional data sets, which differed from one another in the interdimensional ability association, the correlation among the difficulty parameters, and whether the item discriminations were or were not confounded with item difficulty, were generated for 1,600…

Female college students (N=59) filled out the Bem Sex Role Identity Scale, and were told that they would be asked to do an anagram task. Half of the subjects, assigned on a random basis to the masculine task condition, were told that males do very well on the task, and that it seemed to be related to the masculine personality. The other half of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect that large within-examinee item difficulty variability had on estimates of the proportion of consistent classification of examinees into mastery categories over two test administrations. The classification consistency estimate was based on a single test administration from an estimation procedure…

A collection of 56 classroom games to be used in grammar instruction in English as a second language includes five game categories: (1) traditional, competitive games modified to allow students to work in small groups and show themselves and the teacher how much or how little grammar they know; (2) Silent Way or Silent Way-inspired exercises in…

When people say that what they hear is "over their heads," they are describing a severe information-based complexity (I-BC) problem. They cannot understand what is said because some of the information needed is missing, contaminated, and/or costly to obtain. Students often face these I-BC problems, and teachers often exacerbate them. Yet…