Research on psychometric methods is heavily dependent on software. The quality, availability, and documentation of such software are critical to the advancement of the field. In 2000, an ad hoc committee of NCME recommended that NCME adopt policies that promote greater availability and better documentation of software. This article follows the ad…

The ability to scan retention data over a wide range of eluent composition opens up the possibility of a computerized selection of the optimal separation conditions. The major characteristics of retention behavior, peak-shape effects and pH effects evident in ion chromatography (IC) using common stationary phases and eluents are illustrated.

Performance in 2 versions of a computer-animated task was compared. Participants either indicated the time of arrival of a target that rolled off a horizontal surface and fell--hidden from view--onto a landing point (production task) or judged flight time on a rating scale (judgment task). As predicted, performance was significantly better in the…

Although cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs) can be useful in the analysis and interpretation of existing tests, little has been developed to specify how one might construct a good test using aspects of the CDMs. This article discusses the derivation of a general CDM index based on Kullback-Leibler information that will serve as a measure of how…

Robots make a wonderful context for teaching students about many concepts important to technological literacy. They can provide an authentic context and produce high levels of motivation. According to Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology (STL) (ITEA, 2000, 2002), there are six core concepts that should be…

Describes a classroom simulation designed to allow students to directly experience the contradictory motivations underlying collective action problems. States this exercise provides students with tangible experience that is not usually found in pedagogical techniques. Discusses issues, such as rationality, self interest, social solidarity, and…

Describes a modified version of the Paper River exercise that appeared in the spring 1999 journal issue. Illustrates the application of the Coase theorem for solving an externality problem. Indicates students share a single productive resource and work in groups rather than pairs as they did in the earlier version. (JEH)

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new method for fitting item response theory models with the latent population distribution estimated from the data using splines. A spline-based density estimation system provides a flexible alternative to existing procedures that use a normal distribution, or a different functional form, for the…

Virtual reality (VR), as an emerging visualization technology, has introduced an unprecedented communication method for collaborative design. VR refers to an immersive, interactive, multisensory, viewer-centered, 3D computer-generated environment and the combination of technologies required to build such an environment. This article introduces the…

Domain scores have been proposed as a user-friendly way of providing instructional feedback about examinees' skills. Domain performance typically cannot be measured directly; instead, scores must be estimated using available information. Simulation studies suggest that IRT-based methods yield accurate group domain score estimates. Because…

This paper proposes a multidimensional generalization of Coombs' (1964) parallelogram model for "pick any/'n'" data, which result from each of a number of subjects having selected a number of objects (s)he likes most from a prespecified set of "n" objects. In the model, persons and objects are represented in a low dimensional space defined by a…

This paper comments on the article by Plaut and Booth. Plaut and Booth's first simulation shows that there is essentially perfect discrimination between word and nonwords sharing the same orthographic structure when the simulation is carried out in the way we suggested. We take the view that Plaut and Booth's new simulation work settles little…

The SNARC (spatial numerical associations of response codes) effect reflects the tendency to respond faster with the left hand to relatively small numbers and with the right hand to relatively large numbers (S. Dehaene, S. Bossini, & P. Giraux, 1993). Using computational modeling, the present article aims to provide a framework for conceptualizing…

Recently developed accounts of language comprehension propose that sentences are understood by constructing a perceptual simulation of the events being described. These simulations involve the re-activation of patterns of brain activation that were formed during the comprehender's interaction with the world. In two experiments we explored the…

Current distance learning systems are increasingly packing highly data-intensive contents on servers, resulting in the congestion of network and server resources at peak service times. A distributed learning system based on faded information field (FIF) architecture that employs mobile agents (MAs) has been proposed and simulated in this work. The…