Reports on a study comparing student performances and test reliabilities for the German Speaking Test, a semi-direct tape-mediated oral proficiency test (GST) developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics, and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Oral Proficiency Interviews. (Author/VWL)

Five criteria are proposed for evaluating performance in research studies: the directness of sampling, the responsiveness of the target, the reliability of the observers, the frequent assessment of the target during the intervention period, and the critical nature of the target. A case study illustrates effectiveness of the criteria. (Author/CR)

Explored applicability of the Loevinger conception of ego development for early adolescence and developed a measure of earliest ego levels: Sentence Completion Test for Children and Youth. Found oral administration of test did not yield essentially different responses or significantly differing ego-level scores from the written version, regardless…

This article provides in-depth information regarding the most commonly used instruments for the screening or diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorders. Reliability, validity, format, and target population are presented to help clinicians select appropriate diagnostic measures. Future directions in the development of new instruments are discussed.…

Assessed psychometric properties of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional (ASQ:S-E), a screening instrument for 3- to 63-month-olds. Found that internal consistency was generally high. Test-retest reliability between parents' classifications was .94. Overall sensitivity was .82; overall specificity was .92. Parents reported easy…

Examined psychometric properties of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales with preschoolers. Found that cross- informant correlations were poor for social skills, low for internalizing behaviors, and modest for externalizing behaviors. Parents and teachers rated boys as having more externalizing behaviors than girls. Parents identified…

This review describes the theory behind two new measures of spoken word recognition for children with sensory aids, the Lexical and the Multisyllabic Lexical Neighborhood Tests. It then summarizes data concerning the tests' word familiarity, interlist equivalency, and test-retest reliability. Results indicate that deaf children with cochlear…

Examined psychometric properties of Caregiver Inventory of Self-Concept (CISC) used with a largely Latino sample of 6- to 66-month-olds, and Tasks for Observation of Self-Concept (TOSC) used with 15- to 48-month-olds. Coefficient alpha and factor analysis provided evidence for test reliability and validity. Self-concept development followed…

Investigated the psychometric integrity of scores from the LibQUAL+ evaluation of perceived library service quality conducted by ARL (Association of Research Libraries). Examines score structure, score reliability, score correlation and concurrent validity coefficients, scale means, and scale standardized norms, and considers the potential of the…

This replication study continued the examination of the psychometric properties of the Foundation Practice Self-Efficacy scale (FPSE) with a sample of MSW students. As in the original study, evidence was found regarding the reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change of this measure. First, internal reliability estimates for the FPSE all…

This study examined the relationship between witness age, narrative features in testimony, and the perceived credibility of witnesses. Ninety older and young adult witnesses to a staged theft were videotaped as they freely recalled crime events. Later, participant-jurors viewed the videos and assessed the witnesses' credibility. Operational…

A series of studies extended psychometric research on the Adjustment Scales for Preschool Intervention (ASPI). The ASPI is a multidimensional measure of preschool emotional and behavioral adjustment for use within formal early childhood educational programs. These studies used a multiple method, multisource approach to provide additional evidence…

The reliability and construct validity of ratings for the Autism Behavior Checklist were examined with a sample of 198 children diagnosed with autistic disorder and conditions often confused with autism. Alpha coefficients for the five scales of the ABC as well as the Total Score were reported and the factor structure of the ABC was examined…

In recent years, ethics has become part of most tertiary biotechnology curricula. There is, however, considerable variation in the extent and manner of ethics education provided to students in different institutions. In addition, the perceived need that students and employers have regarding ethics education, and the aims and expected outcomes of…

The authors describe the preliminary development and validation of the Authenticity in Relationships Scale. An initial pool of 37 items addressing various elements of the proposed definition of "relationship authenticity" was administered to 2 independent samples of undergraduates (N = 487) who acknowledged being in a current romantic…