Questions repeatedly arise about whether evaluations of research papers are systematically influenced by factors unrelated to quality, such as gender or prestige of the authors or reviewers. This study examined the reliability of reviews of proposals submitted for inclusion in the 1984 American Educational Research Association annual meeting…

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children is reviewed in terms of technical and theoretical aspects, the issue of cultural bias, its procedure for comparing cognitive performance and academic achievement, and its predictive validity for academic achievement. The paper concludes by summarizing the test's characteristics that should be considered…

Presents data on the translation, reliability, concurrent validity, and norms of the Spanish, Hebrew, and Chinese versions of three equivalent forms of the Depression Adjective Check Lists, compared with the English version. Reliability estimates for the four versions were quite similar in magnitude. (NRB)

Provides new American age norms for Raven's Progressive Matrices, based on screening of 500 vocational counseling and 2,992 psychiatric veteran patients newly admitted to hospital. Reliability data were acceptable, but indicated need for revision of the Raven. Within limits set by current reliability, validity data presented were positive.…

Presents an overview of qualitative methods, an analysis of the relationship between qualitative and quantitative approaches in social and cultural research, and a brief discussion of the issues of reliability, validity, and researcher objectivity in qualitative research. Discusses the application of qualitative methods to occupational therapy,…

Confirms previous findings that the word recognition criterion for instructional reading level should be set at about 95 percent for students reading at grade levels one through six. (FL)

The Vowel Matching Test (VMT) measures primary grade children's ability to discriminate medial vowel sounds. Based on the responses of 43 first-grade pupils, the results indicated that the VMT correlated .76 with a word recognition test. It exhibited an internal consistency coefficient of .78. (Author/BW)

This paper provides a list of 10 salient features of the standard error of measurement, contrasting it to the reliability coefficient. It is concluded that the standard error of measurement should be regarded as a primary characteristic of a mental test. (Author/DWH)

Occasionally situations arise in which a measurement does not lend itself to such traditional methods of reliability estimation as the test-retest, parallel-test, or internal consistency methods. This paper proposes basing reliability estimation in such situations on estimates of validity coefficients as lower bounds. (Author/LMO)

The consistency of factor structure of Osgood's semantic differential was examined in three different adult samples, aged 18 to 87. Three different concepts were used: the University of West Florida, Myself, and Death. Results indicated consistency for the evaluation factor and moderate consistency for potency and activity. (Author/GDC)

Examined the four-year test-retest reliability of Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) scores for 77 college women who responded to the instrument as freshmen and again as seniors. The BSRI was judged to be as reliable as other paper-and-pencil instruments which attempt to measure similar personality variables and to have adequate reliability for…

Due to grade inflation, transcripts reveal little more than courses a student has completed. Recommendation letters have become an important criterion in teacher candidate selection. Suggestions for writing a subjective recommendation are offered. (DF)

Examines five structured interview formats for assessing psychopathology in children. Presents information illustrating specific characteristics of each interview. Includes reliability and validity data, and draws implications for use of interviews in school settings. Offers suggestions for the development of structured formats and for avenues of…

Developed a 33-item, situation-specific instrument that measures assertiveness of adolescents. Based on data from 682 elementary and secondary school students, adequate reliability and validity of the Assertiveness Scale for Adolescents (ASA) were obtained when tested against several variables about which predictions could be made. (BH)

Assessed the adequacy of reporting the use of observers in counseling research. Each sampled article was classified according to the use made of the observer, the type and length of training given the observer, and the assessments made of the observers' reliability and validity. (Author/JAC)