The article presents a theoretical framework for evaluating the utility of consumer product testing methods involving four factors which determine a method's utility, validity, reliability, manageability, and essentiality. The framework is applied to three situations, including comparative evaluation of test methods, comparative product testing,…

The effect on examinee performance of the rule that multiple-choice (MC) test items require the acceptance of 1 choice was examined for 106 dental students presented with choices in MC and multiple true-false formats. MC items force examinees to select one choice, which causes artificial acceptance of correct/incorrect choices. (SLD)

The Computer Anxiety Scale was tested for invariance over the grouping conditions of males/females and graduate/undergraduate status. Subjects included 187 undergraduates and 188 graduates; analyses were conducted on 136 males and 236 females. Results indicate that the construct of computer anxiety appears to be multidimensional with highly…

Describes study that investigated the effects of computerized test administration on undergraduates' responses to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), and discusses methodological considerations important in evaluating the sensitivity of personality inventories in different administration formats. Results analyze the effects of…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) makes possible comparison of groups of students and provides information about what these groups know and can do. The scale anchoring techniques described in this chapter address the latter purpose. The direct method and the smoothing method of scale anchoring are discussed. (SLD)

The effects of reviewing items and altering responses on the efficiency of computerized adaptive tests and resultant ability estimates of the examinees were explored for medical technology students (220 students could and 492 students could not review and alter their responses). Data do not support disallowing review. (SLD)

Effects of numbers of experts (NOEs) and common items (CIs) on the scaling of cutting scores from expert judgments were studied for 11,917 physicians taking 2 forms of a medical specialty examination. Increasing NOEs and CIs reduced error; beyond 5 experts and 25 CIs, error differences were small. (SLD)

Magnetic resonance imaging was used to demonstrate that larger brain size (corrected for body size) was associated with higher intelligence quotient (IQ) for 40 right-handed college students grouped by high and average IQ and sex. Results suggest the relevance of brain size to intelligence test performance. (SLD)

Five studies involving medical students over a four-year period were conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the Medical Helping Relationship Inventory (MHRI)--an instrument for evaluating medical communication skills. Evidence of the MHRI's construct validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity is discussed. (SLD)

The appropriateness of American norms for the School Motivation Analysis Test (SMAT) for use in Australia was studied, using 277 Australian secondary school students (99 males and 178 females). The SMAT appeared suitable for use with Australian secondary school students and the available norms appeared appropriate. (SLD)

The relationship of retest effects from pretest to posttest 2 to 4 weeks later was studied for 2,014 elementary school children (second through sixth graders) taking a battery of 26 multifactor aptitude tests--the Structure of Intellect Learning Abilities Test. Implications of score gains are discussed for age and gender groups. (SLD)

The use of the "none-of-the-above" option (NOTA) in 20 college-level multiple-choice tests was evaluated for classes with 100 or more students. Eight academic disciplines were represented, and 295 NOTA and 724 regular test items were used. It appears that the NOTA can be compatible with good classroom measurement. (TJH)

Individual differences in performance on 4 computer-controlled visual memory and recognition tasks as a function of performance on 5 paper-and-pencil spatial tests were studied for 90 psychology students attending the University of Rennes (France). Results show that spatial thinking is partially supported by visual memory. (SLD)

A developed computer-administered form of the Hamilton Anxiety Scale and the clinician form of the instrument were administered to 214 psychiatric outpatients and 78 community adults. Results support the reliability and validity of the computer-administered version as an alternative to the clinician-administered version. (SLD)