A simple device called a "wire labyrinth" was used in an experiment involving learning of a two-hand motor task. The Ss were asked, after completing each of 7 successive trails, to give their estimates of perceived (subjective) difficulty of the task. For this purpose, the psychophysical method of magnitude estimation was used. Time was…

Authors of the taxonomy made various claims about its properties that concern both educational and psychological issues; these claims have stimulated investigations of the taxonomy's validity. As the taxonomy is now entering its twenty-second year, this review attempts to survey these investigations and appraise the findings. (Author/CP)

Five sets of paired comparison judgments were made concerning test item difficulty, in order to identify the most probable source of intrasensitivity in the data. The paired comparisons method was useful in providing information about sensitivity to stimulus differences, but less useful for assessing dimensionality of judgment criteria.…

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between a set of item characteristics and the difficulty of TOEFL[R] dialogue items. Identifying characteristics that are related to item difficulty has the potential to improve the efficiency of the item-writing process The study employed 365 TOEFL dialogue items, which were coded on 49…

In applying I. I. Bejar's method for detecting the dimensionality of achievement tests, researchers should be cautious in interpreting the slope of the principal axis. Other information from the data is needed in conjunction with Bejar's method of addressing item dimensionality. (SLD)

This study provides data from an existing review of secondary data and a survey of dual enrollment managers on the topic of Mississippi community and junior colleges' dual enrollment collaborations with secondary schools and parents of home-schooled students. Dual enrollment, also known as dual credit, concurrent enrollment, and credit based…

This study examined initial evidence of changes in fit to a unidimensional model for some language tests at multiple ability levels. Seven data sets were analyzed using the first phase of exploratory factor analysis: principal component eigenvalue extraction. Each data set is analyzed at varying n-sizes: whole group; random subsample; and five…

This study is the first stage of a wider enquiry into alternative ways of assessing the readability of specialist texts. The interest in assessing these texts arose from the need to grade 60 medical journal articles for an individualized English-as-a-Foreign-Language reading scheme for doctors. The study reports on an investigation of subjective…

The concept of scaled achievement tests is discussed and a method of selecting those items of a test that form the most scalable (i.e., having the highest coefficient of reproducibility) subset is presented. Sometimes called a monotonic-deterministic model, this type of test assumes that the test items may be sequentially ordered. To determine the…

The restrictions on item difficulties that must be met when binomial models are applied to domain-referenced testing are examined. Both a deterministic and a stochastic conception of item responses are discussed with respect to difficulty and Guttman-type items. (Author/BH)

Traditionally, item difficulty has been defined in terms of the performance of examinees. For test development purposes, a more useful concept would be some kind of intrinsic item difficulty, defined in terms of the item's content, context, or characteristics and the task demands set by the item. In this investigation, the measurement literature…

Discusses briefly some general problems in the development of taxonomic systems applicable to descriptions of human performance and tasks, describing some alternative approaches and provisional classification schemes, and reviewing some attempts to evaluate the utility and validity of these systems. (Author/JM)

The reasons for recent endeavors to evaluate item bias are discussed, and item bias is defined. Some of the literature regarding the most promising methods of detecting item bias is reviewed. Three classes of methods for detecting item bias are discussed using concrete examples and illustrations. These methods are: (1) latent trait; (2)…

To investigate the effect of violating the assumption of equal item difficulty on Kuder-Richardson (KR) Formula 21 reliability coefficient, 670 eighth-and ninth- grade students were administered 26 short, homogeneous "tests" of mathematics concepts and skills. Both KR Formula 20 and KR Formula 21 were used to estimate reliability on each…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between music training and musical complexity and focus of attention to melody or harmony. Participants (N = 192) were divided into four groups: university jazz majors (n = 64), other university music majors (n = 64), high school instrumentalists (n = 32), and junior high…