Drawing from multiple theoretical frameworks representing cognitive and educational psychology, we present a writing task and scoring system for measurement of students' informative writing. Participants in this study were 72 fifth- and sixth-grade students who wrote compositions describing real-world problems and how mathematics, science, and…

The purpose of this paper is to prove that one currently recommended method of obtaining the reliability of an instrument defined on a population of aggregate units is invalid. This method randomly splits the aggregate into two halves, correlates the two half unit scores by a Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, and corrects the…

This investigation dealt with the development and evaluation of both a music dictation test (PRM78 Dictation Test) and a sightsinging test (CSS76 Criterion Sightsinging Test). It was hoped that the dictation test could eventually be developed to serve as an adequate replacement for the latter. Thirteen samples participated in this project--7…

Data from 200 college-level tests were used to compare three reliability approximations (two of Saupe and one of Cureton) to Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 (KR20). While the approximations correlated highly (about .9) with the reliability estimate, they tended to be underapproximations. The explanation lies in an apparent bias of Lord's approximation…

A rapid method for hierarchically clustering the n objects of a matrix which portrays the interrelation of every object to every other object, where n equals any number up to 1,000 and even larger, is developed and discussed. Results compare favorably with those from other excellent methods. (Author/BJG)

Results of experimentation suggest that the cubic spline is a convenient and consistent method for providing an accurate description of displacement-time data and for obtaining the corresponding time derivatives. (MJB)

Two alternatives to the problems of conducting planned and post hoc comparisons in tests of concordance and discordance for G groups of judges are examined. The two models are illustrated using existing data. (Author/JKS)

Sixteen measures of reliability for two-category nominal scales are compared. Upon correcting for chance agreement, there are only five distinct indices: Fleiss's modification of A-sub-1, the phi coefficient, Cohen's kappa, and two intraclass coefficients. Recommendations for choosing an agreement index are made based on definitions, magnitude,…

Copies of this program may be obtained from the author at the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy, University Park, Los Angeles 90007. (CB)

The Mean Cost Rating, P(A) from Signal Detection Theory, Kendall's rank correlation coefficient tau, and Goodman and Kruskal's gamma measures of predictive power are compared and shown to be different transformations of the statistic S. Gamma is generally preferred for hypothesis testing. Measures of association for ordered contingency tables are…

Studies in applied behavior analysis have used two expressions of reliability for human observations: percentage agreement and correlational techniques (including the phi coefficient). Formulas for converting percentage agreement scores to phi coefficients and vice versa are presented. (Author/RL)

Used various suggestive techniques in repeated interviews with preschool children to elicit narratives about true and fictional events. Found that fictional narratives contained more spontaneous details, more elaborations, and more aggressive details than true narratives. Across retellings, false narratives were less consistent but contained more…

Self, subordinate, peer, and supervisor ratings of 1,080 managers in education, military, government, manufacturing, finance, and health were analyzed for leniency, interrater agreement, and effectiveness. In the private sector, more poor performing managers tended to overestimate their performance. Interrater agreement was lowest in government…

The 160-item short form of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) was developed for situations in which respondents complete only the 1st half of the test. The present study evaluates the adequacy and comparability of the full and short forms of the PAI in terms of a wide range of psychometric characteristics. In all, 421 participants…