Uses bibliometric techniques in the development of a model of the distribution of demand for items in an information store. The hypothesis of hyperbolic distribution and an index of differential demand are also discussed. One table, two figures, and a 10-item reference list accompany the text. (Author/JL)

This study with 45 institutionalized individuals with mental retardation and self injurious behavior (SIB) calculated conditional probability using sequential analysis techniques. It found that successive episodes of self-injury were sequentially dependent and this association was not related to frequency or rate of occurrence. The best predictor…

Type I error rates were examined for several fit indices available in GGUM2000: extensions of Infit, Outfit, Andrich's X(2), and the log-likelihood ratio X(2). Infit and Outfit had Type I error rates much lower than nominal alpha. Andrich's X(2) had Type I error rates much higher than nominal alpha, particularly for shorter tests or larger sample…

The data discussed in this paper are from the television game show "Friend or Foe", and can be used to examine whether age, gender, race, and the amount of prize money affect contestants' strategies. The data are suitable for a variety of statistical analyses, such as descriptive statistics, testing for differences in means or proportions, and…

Inference, or decision making, is seen in curriculum documents as the final step in a statistical investigation. For a formal statistical enquiry this may be associated with sophisticated tests involving probability distributions. For young students without the mathematical background to perform such tests, it is still possible to draw informal…

The comments presented here were made after the presentation of four papers and commentary by two other symposium participants. They address issues in language comparison and classification. First, comments are made on the papers ("An African Test Case in Comparative Methodology,""The Mathematics of Multilateral Comparison,""Testing a Basic…

Taguchi methods are methods of product quality improvement that analyze major contributions and how they can be controlled to reduce variability of poor performance. In this approach, knowledge is used to shorten testing. Taguchi methods are concerned with process improvement rather than with process measurement. This manual is designed to be used…

This study examined how the practice of prepublishing prompts used on the writing section of the Graduate Record Examinations® (GRE®) General Test impacts test-preparation behavior, test performance, test validity, and examinee perceptions of the value of prompt prepublication. Researchers imposed modest experimental control over how participants…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), like most large national surveys, employs a complex stratified multistage unequal probability sample. The design provides a rigorous justification for extending survey results to the entire U.S. target population. Developments in the analysis of data from complex surveys which provide a…

The problem of spurious significance in multivariate exploratory research is discussed. When a very large number of statistical tests are performed, many tests will be significant on the basis of chance alone. To counter this problem, the use of two sign tests to analyze sets of results has been suggested; the chance expectation [CE test] assesses…

Few phenomena in psychology have been studied more than reaction time. However, while response latency now provides the basic data for research in many areas of cognitive psychology, little work has been done on the problem of incorporating response latency in the measurement of individual differences. A solution to this problem requires the…

A DESCRIPTION IS GIVEN OF ITEM SAMPLING, OR "PSYCHOMETRIC-STATISTICAL INFERENCE," AN APPROACH TO GATHERING AND USING EDUCATIONAL DATA THAT ALLOWS STATISTICAL INFERENCES TO BE MADE SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH PSYCHOMETRIC INFERENCES. THIS IS A PROCEDURE IN WHICH BOTH PEOPLE AND ITEMS ARE SAMPLED AND THE DATA FROM A SAMPLE OF PEOPLE TAKING A SAMPLE OF ITEMS…

To determine if Rasch Model procedures have any utility for equating pre-existing tests, data from the equating phase of the Anchor Test Study (ATS) were reanalyzed. This management report summarizes the work completed in the project, describes the differences in this project and that of the ATS, and presents recommendations and conclusions to the…

Pearson's unrestricted chi-square procedure is reviewed, and an historical presentation of Neyman's restricted chi-square test is introduced with a discussion of its theory and applicability to education. An example of the Neyman procedure is discussed in detail to familiarize researchers with this useful technique for analyzing contingency…

Three topics in factor analysis are covered: a) a reliability coefficient for assessing the quality of a maximum likelihood factor analysis, b) an application of three-mode factor analysis to serial learning data, showing variations in learning curves over stages of learning and individuals, and c) the use of personal probability functions to…