The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (OCI), a new self-report measure for determining the diagnosis and severity of obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD), was validated with 141 patients with OCD, 58 with social phobia, 44 with posttraumatic stress disorder, and 194 nonpatients. The OCI exhibited satisfactory reliability and validity with all four…

Describes the development of the Life-Skills Development Scale-Juvenile Form, a brief self-report instrument for assessing the life-skills development of juvenile offenders. Presents reliability and validity findings, provides implications for treatment planning, and discusses recommendations for further research. (Contains 26 references and 1…

Twenty-two children with autism were given four tests of false belief understanding: the Sally-Anne task, two variants of the deceptive box task, and the three boxes task. The overall consistency of the children's performance was high, 77 percent either passing or failing all tasks. Convergent validity and reliability are discussed. (Contains…

Explores response styles and sets capable of altering a person's responses in the thinking portion of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS). Constructs and incorporates into the PICTS validity scales to measure confusion and defensiveness. Results reveal that internal consistency, reliability, and validity of these two…

The Intergenerational Exchanges Attitude Scale was tested by a sample of 36 adult day-care and 300 child-care administrators (227 responses). Both groups had positive attitudes toward the interaction of children and older adults. Reliability and validity of the instrument appeared viable. (SK)

By asking several questions, educators can ensure that instructional decisions are based on data from sound assessment instruments. Teachers must consider an instrument's purpose, its effects on improving instruction, its strengths and weaknesses, variables affecting student performance and teacher perception of performance, and what to do…

This study examined the validity and reliability of a staff-completed rating instrument (to determine relationship patterns and compatibility during the resettlement of 57 people with learning difficulties from a hospital to group home settings in Wales). Although ratings were relatively consistent across raters, there was limited support for the…

Using an independent college sample, examines the characteristics of the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability-Revised. Differences exists in subtest performance based on the order in which the Standard and Supplemental Batteries were administered. Gender differences exist on the Visual Matching, Picture Vocabulary and Cross Out subtests.…

The internal reliability and concurrent validity of the Play Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ) was compared to that of the Minnesota Child Development Inventory with 170 deaf or hard of hearing infants and toddlers. The PAQ was found to be a useful nonverbal tool that assesses symbolic play behaviors and demonstrates a parallel development with…

Looks at the use of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the most widely used test to assess the English language proficiency of students applying to colleges and universities in the United States or Canada. Examines the TOEFL in relation to backwash, reliability, administration, validity, and ethics. (Author/VWL)

Establishes a Kenyan standardization of the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM), a nonverbal instrument widely used to assess academic aptitude in young children. Data was gathered from a sample of 1,370 children between the ages of 6 and 10 years. Using the current data, the RCPM appears to be a reliable and valid instrument for use in…

Although instructional methods are moving in ever greater number to a multimedia base, testing is not. What principles should be considered in correcting this misalignment?

Kowalski and Zimiles (2006) and O'Hanlon and Roberson (2006) address an age-old question: Why do children find it difficult to learn color terms? Here these articles are reflected on, providing a focused examination of the issues central to this question. First, the criteria by which children are said to find color naming difficult are considered.…

This study examined the test-retest reliability and the concurrent validity of the 17-scale Expanded Skills Confidence Inventory in samples of 321 and 175 college students. Retest values over a 3-week interval ranged from .77 to .89, with a median of .85. Using Brown and Gore's C-index, evidence for the concurrent validity of confidence score…

Within the field of psychological assessment, the Wechsler scales continue to be the most widely used intelligence batteries. The concepts, methods, and procedures inherent in the design of the Wechsler scales have been so influential that they have guided most of the test development and research in the field for more than a half century. This…