Examined Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) profiles of incarcerated pedophiles in state prisons (n=60), federal prisons (n=24), and military confinement facilities (n=25), each offering different educational and social composition. Multivariate statistics revealed that three groups' profiles were significantly different,…

Tests the hypotheses that overconfidence occurs when strength is high and weight is low and that underconfidence occurs when weight is high and strength is low in 4 experiments with 153 students. Discusses weighing evidence, overconfidence/underconfidence in intuitive judgments, and item difficulty's effect on overconfidence. Relates the…

Drug Misuse Scale (DMS) and Substance Abuse Proclivity Scale (SAPS), both of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, were compared using adolescent sample used to develop the DMS. Found that the SAP scale could not discriminate between different levels of drug use in this nontreatment sample. Concluded that DMS may be superior at…

A comparison of severely dyslexic adolescents with younger, normal readers matched for reading level and IQ revealed that phonological discrimination ability accounted for much of the variance in reading ability between dyslexics and normal readers. The results suggest that dyslexics may have specific difficulties with the retrieval of the sounds…

Administered Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition and Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children to 40 referred children. Correlation coefficients computed between two tests were strong, suggesting consistency in underlying global construct being measured; however, no compelling evidence supporting theoretical structure of two scales was…

The notion of washback, that testing influences teaching, is explored and a series of possible hypotheses are advanced. The empirical research in general education and in language education is reviewed to determine whether washback actually exists, how it can be measured, and what accounts for its form. Proposals for future research are suggested.…

Explores using control charts as an unbiased diagnostic tool for monitoring (college) student performance and identifying students likely to perform poorly in a course. Control charts have many desirable consequences; they can help formulate an assessment and monitoring policy and, when necessary, can serve as a valuable starting point for a…

Presents strengths and limitations of covariance structure analysis (CSA), statistical procedure for testing hypotheses about relations among psychological constructs, as way to test structural hypotheses that are not tested adequately with other statistical procedures. Provides two empirical examples that illustrate use of CSA for evaluating…

A model is presented that demonstrates that a random response to external constraint can produce results similar to those predicted by more complex models. Behavior that appears rational, optimal, or adaptive may truly be a random response to external constraint. Predictions based on this model may provide appropriate null hypotheses. (SLD)

Letter series and number series tests of items based on identical rules were administered to 160 male and 160 female undergraduates to determine comparability by testing equality of means, variances, and validity coefficients. Results indicate that letter and number series tests are not equivalent. Number series tests are easier, probably because…

Provides a history of validation in language testing, discusses current approaches to validation in language testing (hypothesis about testing outcomes, relevant evidence for testing the hypothesis, developing a validity argument), and gives an overview of current challenges in language-test validation (defining the language construct to be…

Three articles in this special issue explore issues related to the use and misuse of statistical significance testing, the major methodological issue in current educational research. Comments on these articles and rejoinders by the authors of the first three articles explore additional aspects of statistical significance testing. (SLD)

Although statistical significance testing as the sole basis for result interpretation is a flawed practice, significance tests can be useful as one of three criteria that must be demonstrated to establish a position empirically. Statistical significance testing provides evidence that an event did not happen by chance but gives no evidence of the…

Expresses a "middle-of-the-road" position on statistical significance testing, suggesting that it has its place but that confidence intervals are generally more useful. Identifies 10 errors of omission or commission in the papers reviewed that weaken the positions taken in their discussions. (SLD)

Reviews and integrates existing child and adolescent Hand Test research for use with school systems. Examines reliability and validity of the instrument along with moderating variables that impact interpretation. Favorably views the Hand Test as a brief protective technique that can easily be integrated into school psychologists' test battery.…