The detection of differential item functioning (DIF) has become an important psychometric research topic in recent years. A number of item response theory (IRT) methods for solving this problem have been suggested. A common approach is to calculate some function of the area between item response curves estimated from the subpopulations of…

The question of least-squares weights versus equal weights has been a subject of great interest to researchers for over 60 years. Several researchers have compared the efficiency of equal weights and that of least-squares weights under different conditions. Recently, S. V. Paunonen and R. C. Gardner stressed that the necessary and sufficient…

The National Assessment Governing Board of Educational Progress has recently adopted the position that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) should employ within-age scaling whenever feasible. The NAEP Technical Review panel (TRP) has studied the issue at some length, and reports on it in this analysis. The first section reviews…

Arguments are presented for conceptualizing validity within a postmodern approach. Validity, reliability, and generalizability have been a holy trinity of social science research, and standard definitions of validity have been taken from criteria developed for psychometric tests. From a postmodern point of view, validity is sometimes discarded as…

Conventional methods of multivariate normal analysis do not apply when the variables of interest are not observed directly, but must be inferred from fallible or incomplete data. For example, responses to mental test items may depend upon latent aptitude variables, which modeled in turn as functions of demographic effects in the population. A…

Major reasons for the continuing divergency of opinion as regards the nature and meaning of intelligence are examined. An appraisal of intelligence as a relative concept is proposed which advocates the necessity of specifying the reference systems to which a statement about intelligence refers. (EH)

Describes procedures for identifying stimuli in the natural environment whose presence was associated with altered probabilities for both the initiation and persistence of noxious responses. (Author/SDH)

Experimental evidence on word frequency and its effect on speech production and perception are discussed. Methods of estimating word frequency and psychometric methods used are explained. (RM)

The present paper reviews the techniques commonly used to correct an observed correlation coefficient for the simultaneous influence of attenuation and range restriction effects. It is noted that the procedure which is currently in use may be somewhat biased because it treats range restriction and attenuation as independent restrictive influences.…

Diagnostic judgments are often based on the comparison of two measures in order to judge whether the individual shows a genuine discrepancy in the traits or characteristics that the two measures represent. Until a perfect psychometric battery comes along, psychometricians can offer some guidance on the level of confidence to be placed in…

MMPI values were used to find the relationship of field dependency to personality traits and styles of pathological adjustment in psychiatric outpatients. The investigation had separate analyses for the patient's sex and found it an important variable in predicting the relationship between test score and dependency and adjustment. (ED)

Sex of child, fathers education, race, and number of siblings of each sex were employed to predict High School Personality Questionnaire and Culture Fair Intelligence Questionnaire scores in a sample of 298 high school students. (ST)

Study supported by the Oklahoma State University Research Foundation.

Research supported in part by Grant MH-11989 from the National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Public Health Service, and in part by a grant-in-aid from the Society of the Sigma Xi.