The state of Washington's Department of Personnel has adopted an Internet system for online job application, screening, testing, scoring, and interview referral. Candidate certifications are tailored to job skill requirements specified by personnel managers, giving managers flexible access to a pool of high-quality job candidates. (SK)

Evaluated the characteristics of computerized and paper-and-pencil versions of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) using scores for 224 college students. Results show that mode of administration has little effect on the psychometric properties of the SES although the computerized version took longer and was preferred by examinees. (SLD)

The Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire was completed in a Hebrew paper version (n=417) and Internet version (n=837), showing similar internal consistency and reliability in both versions. Response pattern of 24% of Internet users was questionable. Comparison of results from English paper (n=403) and Internet (n=182) versions found…

Research on psychometric methods is heavily dependent on software. The quality, availability, and documentation of such software are critical to the advancement of the field. In 2000, an ad hoc committee of NCME recommended that NCME adopt policies that promote greater availability and better documentation of software. This article follows the ad…

Although some types of inferences are mandatory for readers, predictive inferences (inferences for what will happen next) are generally considered elaborative or optional. Three experiments measuring probe word lexical decision latencies produced evidence for the online generation of predictive inferences during narrative text comprehension.…

Recent structural and functional imaging work, as well as neuropathology and neuropsychology studies, provide strong empirical support for the involvement of frontal cortex in autism. The Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) is a computer-administered set of neuropsychological tests developed to examine specific components…

This article describes the design and development of the International Test Commission's (ITC, this issue) Guidelines for Computer-Based and Internet-Delivered Testing. It examines some of the reasons why the ITC Council decided to invest in a program of research, consultation, and conferences designed to develop internationally agreed-on…

A trial of pen-and-paper and online modes of a computing skills test was conducted for volunteer students of ages 15-16 in New South Wales, Australia. The tests comprised Matching, True/False and 4-option Multiple-Choice items. The aims were to determine whether gender, socio economic status (SES), or the type of item interacted with testing mode.…

Providing detailed, constructive and helpful feedback is an important contribution to effective student learning. Quality assurance is also required to ensure consistency across all students and reduce error rates. However, with increasing workloads and student numbers these goals are becoming more difficult to achieve. An automated feedback…

Using matched pairs of geography questions, a new testing method for machine-scored fill-in-the-blank, multiple-digit testing (MDT) questions was compared to the traditional multiple-choice (MC) style. Data were from 118 matched or parallel test items for 4 tests from 764 college students of geography. The new method produced superior results when…

The development and preliminary evaluation of the Computerized Adaptive Testing System (CATSYS), a new testing package for IBM-compatible microcomputers, are described. CATSYS can be used to administer and score operational adaptive tests or to conduct on-line computer simulation studies. The package incorporates several innovative features,…

One question regarding the utility of adaptive testing is the effect of individualized item arrangements on examinee test scores. The purpose of this study was to analyze the item difficulty choices by examinees as a function of previous item performance. The examination was a 25-item test of basic algebra skills given to 36 students in an…

The relative validity of adaptive and conventional testing strategies using non-test variables as one set of external criteria was investigated. A total of 101 college students completed both a variable length stradaptive test and peaked conventional test; a second group of 131 college students completed a variable length Bayesian adaptive test…

This collection of essays on measurement theory and language testing includes: "Computerized Adaptive Testing: Implications for Language Test Developers" (Peter Tung); "The Promise and Threat of Computerized Adaptive Assessment of Reading Comprehension" (Michael Canale); "Computerized Rasch Analysis of Item Bias in ESL…

The selection of papers on language testing includes: "Language Testing in the 1990s: How Far Have We Come? How Much Further Have We To Go?" (J. Charles Alderson); "Current Research/Development in Language Testing" (John W. Oller, Jr.); "The Difficulties of Difficulty: Prompts in Writing Assessment" (Liz Hamp-Lyons,…