We report three experiments that investigate whether faces are capable of capturing attention when in competition with other non-face objects. In Experiment 1a participants took longer to decide that an array of objects contained a butterfly target when a face appeared as one of the distracting items than when the face did not appear in the array.…

"Drosophila melanogaster" is a commonly utilized organism for testing hypotheses about inheritance of traits. Students in both high school and university labs study the genetics of inheritance by analyzing offspring of appropriate "Drosophila" crosses to determine inheritance patterns, including gene linkage. However, most genetics investigations…

This review describes and evaluates a software add-in created by Frontline Systems, Inc., that can be used with Microsoft Excel 2007 to solve large, complex test assembly problems. The combination of Microsoft Excel 2007 with the Frontline Systems Premium Solver Platform is significant because Microsoft Excel is the most commonly used spreadsheet…

As an alternative to adaptation, tests may also be developed simultaneously in multiple languages. Although the items on such tests could vary substantially, scores from these tests may be used to make the same types of decisions about different groups of examinees. The ability to make such decisions is contingent upon setting performance…

Confusion persists concerning the roles played by scientific hypotheses and predictions in doing science. This confusion extends to the nature of scientific and statistical hypothesis testing. The present paper utilizes the "If/and/then/Therefore" pattern of hypothetico-deductive (HD) reasoning to explicate the nature of both scientific and…

The Durkheimian concept of the density of social relationships may prove more fruitful than the historical materialist notion of a social hierarchy for thinking about the social location of epistemic agents in science. To define a scientist's social location in terms of the density of her professional relationships with other scientists permits us…

Even though researchers agree on the hierarchical structure of intelligence there is considerable disagreement on the g-saturation of the lower stratum-two factors. In this article it is argued that the mixed evidence in the research literature can be at least partially attributed to the construct representation of the individual tests used to…

This paper offers a practical guide to use null hypotheses significance testing and its alternatives. The focus is on improving the quality of statistical inference in quantitative communication research. More consistent reporting of descriptive statistics, estimates of effect size, confidence intervals around effect sizes, and increasing the…

This article extends the Bonett (2003a) approach to testing the equality of alpha coefficients from two independent samples to the case of m [greater than or equal] 2 independent samples. The extended Fisher-Bonett test and its competitor, the Hakstian-Whalen (1976) test, are illustrated with numerical examples of both hypothesis testing and power…

A prior experience of behavioral control over a stressor interferes with subsequent Pavlovian fear conditioning, and this effect is dependent on the activation of the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFCv) at the time of the initial experience with control. It is unknown whether mPFCv activity is necessary during fear learning and/or testing for…

Examines the definitions of intelligence and educability and discusses these terms in relation to the writings of Jensen and of Darlington. (PEB)

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is described and compared with conventional tests, and its advantages summarized. Some item response theory concepts used in CAT are summarized and illustrated. The author describes the potential usefulness of CAT in counseling and education and reviews some current issues in the implementation of CAT.

Recently, several person-fit statistics have been proposed to detect nonfitting response patterns. This study is designed to generalize an approach followed by Klauer (1995) to an adaptive testing system using the two-parameter logistic model (2PL) as a null model. The approach developed by Klauer is described, and some difficulties in…

Discusses ways testing can help students learn if the teacher can remove the aura and function of evaluation from the experience. (GB)