Recently, MDS has been utilized to identify and evaluate cognitive ability latent profiles in a population. However, dimension coordinates do not carry any statistical properties. To cope with statistical incompetence of MDS, we investigated the common aspects of various studies utilizing bootstrapping, and provided an R function for its…

This paper focuses "interest in science" as one of the attitudinal aspects of scientific literacy. Large-scale data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 are analysed in order to describe student interest more precisely. So far the analyses have provided a general indicator of interest, aggregated over all…

In the cognitive test interpretation literature, a Rational/Intuitive, Indirect Empirical, or Combined approach is typically used to construct conceptual taxonomies of the functional (behavioral) similarities between subtests. To address shortcomings of these approaches, the functional requirements for 49 subtests from six individually…

Alternatives to multidimensional scaling analysis of numerical relationship judgments in extracting information about students' knowledge were investigated. Undergraduate students completed a multiple choice test over knowledge of individual concepts, an essay test covering relationships among concepts, and a relationship judgment test that…