The Mantel-Haenszel (MH) procedure has become one of the most popular procedures for detecting differential item functioning. Valid results with relatively small numbers of examinees represent one of the advantages typically attributed to this procedure. In this study, examinee item responses were simulated to contain differentially functioning…

The effects of test difficulty on the perception of examination difficulties and state anxiety are investigated. Thirty undergraduate students were administered the Educational Psychology Recognition Test and Test Perception Inventory to assess task difficulty and perception of exam difficultness. A modified version of the State-Trait Anxiety…

Difficulty levels of 168 randomly generated multiplication problems were obtained by testing 238 fifth-graders. Variables concerning the number of operations, digits carried, and magnitude of the digits were defined, and a least-squares procedure was used to construct structural models accounting for 60-70 per cent of observed problem difficulty…

Based on a PhD dissertation submitted to the University of Illinois.

One of a series of reports on the International Project for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (in Mathematics).

The study investigated the effect of "item density" on item difficulty in passage-related language tests. Item density refers to the number and frequency of items in relation to clear text. The format used was a passage with underlinings to signal the language situations out of which the items were constructed. American College Testing…

A major deficiency in classical test theory is the reliance on Pearson product-moment (PPM) correlation concepts in the definition of reliability. PPM measures are totally insensitive to first moment differences in tests which leads to the dubious assumption of essential tan-equivalence. Robinson proposed a measure of agreement that is sensitive…

The Elaboration Theory of Instruction is an alternative to organizing instruction in terms of a hierarchical task analysis. The hierarchical organization results in an instructional sequence that begins with highly fragmented, small pieces of the subject-matter content, which many educators have found to be demotivating. The elaboration theory…

In a study of how teacher reinforce learners it was hypothesized that teachers' sanctioning behavior will vary in a given teaching task depending on 1) their tendency to be anxious (their need to avoid failure), 2) their perception of the competence of the student, and 3) the difficulty of the material to be mastered. Forty undergraduate teacher…

This study investigated the effects of informative feedback on a matching task with three combinations of verbal feedback and three levels of task complexity. The three types of feedback were right wrong (RW), nothing wrong (NW), and right nothing (RN). The three levels of task complexity were defined in terms of number of irrelevant stimulus…

Data from a stratified random sample of 71 installations from nine executive departments of the U.S. government are analyzed so as to replicate and reexamine the findings of Blau and Schoenherr from state employment agencies on the relations between size and various components of complexity. (Author)

Presents a study of preschoolers' imitation of a model's irrelevant hand gestures while performing easy and difficult tasks. (BD/BR)