This article discusses theoretical issues relating to an apparent terminological inconsistency between two recent studies involving relational responding. These studies employed a functionally similar protocol to establish contextual cues for arbitrarily applicable relational responding by using a nonarbitrary relational responding procedure;…

The paper presents a rubric to help evaluate the quality of research projects. The rubric was applied in a competition across a variety of disciplines during a two-day research symposium at one institution in the southwest region of the United States of America. It was collaboratively designed by a faculty committee at the institution and was…

For a test that consists of dichotomously scored items, several approaches have been reported in the literature for estimating classification consistency and accuracy indices based on a single administration of a test. Classification consistency and accuracy have not been studied much, however, for "complex" assessments--for example,…

Given the research evidence that people with intellectual disability (ID) do grieve following bereavement, the present study aimed to describe and gather preliminary psychometric data for a version of the Inventory of Complicated Grief [Prigerson, H. G., Maciejewski, P. K., Reynolds, C. F., Bierhals, A. J., Newsom, J. T., Fasiczka, A., et al.…

The demand for valid and reliable methods of assessing second and foreign language writing has grown in significance in recent years. One such method is the timed writing test which has a central place in many testing contexts internationally. The reliability of this test method is heavily influenced by the scoring procedures, including the rating…

The critical reactions of Bentler (2009, doi: 10.1007/s11336-008-9100-1), Green and Yang (2009a, doi: 10.1007/s11336-008-9098-4 ; 2009b, doi: 10.1007/s11336-008-9099-3), and Revelle and Zinbarg (2009, doi: 10.1007/s11336-008-9102-z) to Sijtsma's (2009, doi: 10.1007/s11336-008-9101-0) paper on Cronbach's alpha are addressed. The dissemination of…

This study was conducted to evaluate alternative analysis strategies for the meta-analysis method of reliability generalization when the reliability estimates are not statistically independent. Five approaches to dealing with the violation of independence were implemented: ignoring the violation and treating each observation as independent,…

Consistency among the objectives, learning activities, and assessment exercises results in aligned courses, which give students direction and clarity and yield increased learning. However, instructors may not check for course alignment. This article describes a concrete way to determine course alignment by plotting the course components on a table…

In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to trace the temporal dynamics of phonological consistency and phonetic combinability in the reading of Chinese phonograms. The data showed a significant consistency-by-combinability interaction at N170. High phonetic combinability characters elicited greater negativity at N170 than did low…

The definition and measurement of counsellor trainee competency is an issue that has received increased attention yet lacks quantitative study. This research evaluates item responses, scale reliability and intercorrelations, interrater agreement, and criterion-related validity of the Professional Performance Fitness Evaluation/Professional…

Many researchers and clinicians believe that the therapeutic relationship is essential in bringing about clinical change. Empirical research to support this contention is scarce in part due to the difficulty of specifying and measuring theoretically derived mechanisms of change and the important dimensions of the client-therapist relationship.…

The Autism Observation Scale for Infants (AOSI) was developed to detect and monitor early signs of autism as they emerge in high-risk infants (all with an older sibling with an autistic spectrum disorder). Here we describe the scale and its development, and provide preliminary data on its reliability. Inter-rater reliability both for total scores…

Parent tutoring offers potential as a means for assisting the large percentage of students who need to improve their reading skills. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a reading fluency intervention program when used by parents in the home during the summer months. Specifically, this study evaluated the effects of the…

This study describes how multiple-measure teacher evaluations were put into practice in a set of ten volunteering local education agencies (LEAs) in Arizona. After a key shift in state policy, five "pilot" LEAs implemented the new Arizona Department of Education teacher evaluation model in the 2012/13 school year, while five other…

Identifying and understanding the foundational skills children need to participate effectively in formal schooling is an important objective for research in early childhood education. One component of school readiness is cognitive self-regulation (CSR). The question this study addresses is how to assess CSR with prekindergarten-aged children in a…