The purpose of this study was to determine whether item difficulty is significantly affected by language difficulty and response set convergence. Language difficulty was varied by increasing sentence (stem) length, increasing syntactic complexity, and substituting uncommon words for more familiar terms in the item stem. Item wording ranged from…

A type of item used frequently in standardized testing involves the recognition of a sentence. Examples of such items are the sentence completion items, used in both the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), and the sentence correction items used in the Test of Standard Written English. Tests that contain such…

A number of higher order cognitive skills are used in the task of evaluating arguments. Such skills should be assessed because the ability to evaluate arguments is an important one in all subject areas. In addition, it seems reasonable to assume that these evaluative skills will be representative of those required by other cognitively demanding…

Impromptu speech is characterized by the simultaneous processes of ideation (the elaboration and structuring of reasoning by the speaker as he improvises) and expression in the speaker. Other elements accompany this characteristic: division of speech flow into short segments, acoustic relief in the form of word stress following a pause, and both…

A study of language patterning as an indicator of higher cortical process focused on three matched comparison groups: normal pre-middle-aged, normal elderly, and elderly adults with senile dementia Alzheimer's type. In addition to tests of memory, level of cognitive function, and organic deficit, the formal aspects of language were analyzed in…

The effects of a multidimensional latent trait space on estimation of item and person parameters by the computer program LOGIST are examined. Several item pools were simulated that ranged from truly unidimensional to an inconsequential general latent trait. Item pools with intermediate levels of prepotency of the general latent trait were also…

Latent trait models are presented that can be used for test design in the context of a theory about the variables that underlie task performance. Examples of methods for decomposing and testing hypotheses about the theoretical variables in task performance are given. The methods can be used to determine the processing components that are involved…

A review of the implications for the validity of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) of scientific developments accompanying the revival of cognitive psychology provides insights into the importance of such changes. A distinction can be made between a process-oriented or diagnostic test and an outcomes-oriented test such as the SAT. Since the SAT…

Romanian is characterized by a richness of surface forms that are difficult to classify and even more difficult for the learner to assimilate. There is much instructional material available in Romanian, and in a survey of fifty works published outside the country, four categories emerged: teaching materials, pedagogical grammars, grammars, and…

A study examined the readability of vocational horticulture instructional materials used by 40 schools participating in the 1981 Ohio Horticulture Achievement Testing Program. During the first part of the study, researchers administered a mail questionnaire to 31 teachers to identify the materials that were used most frequently, to obtain…

A sample of slightly over 1,500 students from even-numbered grades in public schools of the U.S. Virgin Islands were given the 1973 edition of the Stanford Achievement Test (in grades 2, 4, 6, and 8) and the Test of Academic Skills (grades 10 and 12) in an attempt to assess student academic achievement in the basic skill areas of mathematics,…

In self-adapted testing, examinees are allowed to choose the difficulty of each item to be presented immediately before attempting it. Previous research has demonstrated that self-adapted testing leads to better performance than do fixed-order tests and is preferred by examinees. The present study examined the strategies that 29 college students…

Applied classical measurement theory was used to study the measurement characteristics of Forms A and B of the Finding Embedded Figures Test (FEFT) when the test is administered in a "no-guessing" or "supply" format. Data provided by 69 students at a private university in the southern United States were used. Both forms of the…

Examinees (N=1,233) at the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation (JOCRF) were administered one of three test forms in which only item order differed. The study was undertaken to determine the validity of the assumption underlying item response theory (IRT) that there are fixed item parameters that can predict performance. The Rasch IRT model was…

High school students (N=213) of various ability levels enrolled in first-year algebra classes were presented lessons concerning geometry concepts. The lessons were varied according to the degree of complexity of the examples that were presented. Students then were tested over their understanding of the concepts. The test questions ranged from…