The interpretation of cognitive test scores often leads to decisions concerning the diagnosis, educational placement, and types of interventions used for children. Therefore, it is important that practitioners administer and score cognitive tests without error. This study assesses the frequency and types of examiner errors that occur during the…

Twenty-one studies that reported mean score differences between the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJTCA) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) Full Scale are summarized. The differences are found to be minimal and are attributed to data bias and WJTCA's higher correlation with achievement. (EGS)

Four problems of data summary and analysis in the Concept Attainment Abilities Project are discussed. The problems are: (1) scoring and item analysis for items that exist in a completely crossed design; (2) determining the factorial structure of such item sets; (3) reducing the battery of 56 cognitive abilities tests administered in 1970 to…

Lists six problems related to descriptive data and to factor analysis performed in a previous research study reported in this journal. Includes the authors' response to the suggested weaknesses of their study. (JN)

This commentary on a paper by Douglas Detterman and others (EC 604 995), which tested a model assessing basic cognitive abilities in young adults with and without mental retardation, criticizes the paper for drawing conclusions not justified by the empirical results. (JDD)

The preceding article by Robert Sternberg implicitly accepts the idea that there is a single human potential called "intelligence" that is scientifically measurable. Human beings do not possess any such generalized intelligence, however. Instead, each person possesses a mix of several basic intellectual competencies or…

By drawing analogies to the history of mental testing, the author concludes that the responsibility for critical evaluation and beneficial use of social indicators rests with social scientists. Future directions of critical inquiry are suggested. (Author/MH)

Assesses techniques used by researchers to collect and analyze data on how people with visual impairments or blindness learn, understand, and think about geographic space. Recommendations are made for increasing the validity of studies, including the use of multiple, mutually supportive tests; larger samples; and real-world environments.…

Recent research on the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery (WJPEB) is reviewed as it related to three issues: the mean score discrepancy issue, the verbal/nonverbal composition of the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJTCA), and the WJTCA overlap with achievement and abundance of scores generated by the WJPEB. (DWH)

The second approach used by L. V. Hedges and L. Friedman (1993) in their reanalysis of Feingold's earlier results is conceptually equivalent and yields results consistent with the original interpretation. The first method yields results that are discrepant. Analyses of variations in tail effect sizes are planned. (SLD)

Feingold's reply illustrates that his steps in characterizing tail effect sizes are not the calculations the authors had imagined. Attempting to reproduce Feingold's calculations, the authors still often find themselves in disagreement with interpretations Feingold has placed in his table. (SLD)

Analyzes effect sizes in tails of distribution of scores in Feingold's study of joint effects of gender differences in mean and variability on 28 cognitive-ability scales. Effect sizes are smaller than Feingold assumed. Evaluates joint effect of gender differences by number of males and females in extreme score ranges. (SLD)

Social studies research has told us very little in the past 30 years. There are several reasons for this state of affairs in social studies. First, inferential statistics has become much too prominent in research thinking and practice. Replication should be used by researchers to build a useful body of knowledge. A second reason for lack of…

Some students are excluded from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) because of an inability, whether due to physical, mental, or linguistic barriers, to participate in studies requiring questionnaire or cognitive test completion. The implications of this exclusion for sample representativeness, national estimation, and…

The author refutes Humphrey's test of the Spearman hypothesis. A fair test requires that Black and White samples not be selected on any g-correlated variable, including socioeconomic status. Humphrey's factor analysis on test-score means of demographic groups, rather than on individuals, inflates g loadings and biases results. (LMO)