Free-response (FR) item formats, such as essay questions, are popular in educational assessment. The criticisms against FR items are that they are more expensive to score, take up more testing time, provide less content coverage, and are less reliable than multiple-choice (MC) items. For these reasons, FR items are often combined with MC items.…

A study investigated the reliability and validity of a measure of imagery vividness appropriate for young children. A questionnaire instrument consisting of 21 Likert-type items was developed and administered to 380 third- through sixth-grade children in a lower-middle to upper-middle socioeconomic population in southern California. Items in the…

Research in how the Rorschach Inkblot Test has been utilized in the assessment of object relations is reviewed. The review includes a critical examination of six areas: (1) constructs and concepts of object-relations theory represented in the research; (2) relevant Rorschach history and history; (3) characteristics of Rorschach-based,…

Designing a test using three-parameter item response theory (IRT) is discussed. A brief review of IRT is followed by a discussion of two types of test design: (1) selecting items using confidence envelopes (confidence envelope method); and (2) using item characteristic curves and their confidence intervals (test envelope method). The confidence…

It has been postulated that young people are open to driving accidents because of age, lack of experience and risk-taking attitudes. The Young Driver Attitude Scale (YDAS) was developed to measure attitudes likely to influence driving practices. Over 200 items relating to the risk-taking attitudes of young people were shown to a small group of…

To study the stability of students' writing performances across occasions, four essays were obtained from each of 107 college students. These were scored with an analytic system that counts errors in 18 categories. Score reliability, computed by summing the 18 categories, was .36 for a single essay and .68 for the set of four essays. Score…

Using multivariate profile analytic techniques and sampling from both brain-injured and psychiatric populations, results of this study provide strong evidence that the Satz-Mogel abbreviated Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) may be substituted for the standard WAIS for both general IQ assessment (in agreement with previous research) and…

Concludes that the "Inventory of Teacher Knowledge of Reading" is valid in discriminating between the specialist and non-specialist in reading, but that it fails to verify the seven components that the authors claim to measure. (RB)

A multidimensional aggression scoring system for preschool children's responses to the structured doll play interview is described. The system, which incorporates previous investigator's findings, scales doll play responses along three dimensions of aggression: intensity, agent, and directionality. (Author)

Some basic statistical concepts relevant to the teacher--mean scores, standard deviation, normal and skewed distributions, z scores, item analysis, standard error of measurement, reliability--and their use by the teacher are explained. (RM)

Describes (1) the development and reliability and validity evaluation of the Person Preference Test; and (2) the utilization of the instrument to determine whether clothing style, hair style, global appearance, and part-whole perception influence children's preference for persons represented by stimulus figures. (SDH)

The simulated oral proficiency interview (SOPI) is a semi-direct speaking test that models the format of the oral proficiency interview (OPI). The OPI is a method of assessing general speaking proficiency in a second language. The SOPI is a tape-recorded test consisting of six parts: simple personal background questions posed in a simulated…