In our recent paper, "Semantic generality, input frequency and the acquisition of syntax" ("Journal of Child Language" 31, 61-99), we presented data from two-year-old children to examine the question of whether the semantic generality of verbs contributed to their ease and stage of acquisition over and above the effects of their typically high…

The objective of this article is to present the Pre-Conceptual Map methodology as a formalized way to identify, document, and utilize preconceived assumptions on the part of the researcher in qualitative inquiry. This technique can be used as a stand alone method or in conjunction with other qualitative techniques (i.e., naturalistic inquiry).…

The ability of preschool age children to perform generalized relational matching to sample tasks with and without an overt mediating stimulus was examined. This experiment was a direct replication of a study by Lowenkron (1984) and examined a behavioral model relevant to complex human behavior that he later came to call "joint control." Children…

In actual test development practice, the number of test items that must be developed and pretested is typically greater, and sometimes much greater, than the number eventually judged suitable for use in operational test forms. This has proven to be especially true for analytical reasoning items, which currently form the bulk of the analytical…

Content analysis was used to examine the consistency of responses in self-report data obtained by a semi-structured conversational interview. It was hypothesized that a majority of the seemingly inconsistent responses would prove to be consistent when seen from the respondents' points of view. The sample consisted of 215 female homicide offenders…

In education and the social sciences, problems of interest to researchers and users of research often involve variables that do not meet the assumptions of regression in the area of an equal interval scale relative to a zero point. Various coding schemes exist that allow the use of regression while still answering the researcher's questions of…

Students who learn mathematics with CAS calculators are likely to develop new practices for doing and recording mathematics. Students discussed in this paper were able to use CAS calculators in examinations, making their own decisions about what to document as written records for solutions to problems. A comparison of some features of written…

The Microsoft Certification Program (MCP) includes many new computer-based item types, based on complex cases involving the Windows 2000 (registered) operating system. This Innovative Item Technology (IIT) has presented challenges beyond traditional psychometric considerations such as capturing and storing the relevant response data from…

This codebook contains the layout and descriptive information for survey and sampling variables for the public-use version of the 1993-94 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). Information in this volume allows the user to access the data file. This volume opens with a discussion of created variables and some user notes. Four appendixes contain the…

The usefulness of the curriculum vita (CV) as a data source for examining the career paths of scientists and engineers was studied. CVs were obtained in response to an e-mail message sent to researchers working in the area of biotechnology who were funded by the National Science Foundation (55 responses) or listed as authors (industry only) in the…

A survey of 26 Rorschach experts and 19 students of Rorschach use was conducted to help students using the Exner Comprehensive System determine whether to code movement for nouns with definitions that include movement. Experts and students did not reach agreement, but a literature review suggests such nouns should often be coded as movement. (SLD)

Investigates the cognitive and linguistic demands of learning algebra and explores students' understanding of algebraic notation. Findings indicate specific origins of misinterpretation that include intuitive assumptions and pragmatic reasoning about a new notation, analogies with familiar symbol systems, interference from new learning in…

A. S. Kaufman (1994) recommended that clinicians substitute Symbol Search, a new subtest, for the Coding subtest when calculating Performance and Full Scale IQs on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III. Tables are provided for accurate derivation of IQs, percentile ranks, and confidence intervals when this substitution is made. (SLD)

Developed an empirical strategy for transforming ordinal counts and percentages to interval scale measures by recoding them as ordered categories and estimating Rasch model scale parameters. Demonstrated the strategy for a neighborhood construct defined by 8 characteristics of 77 Chicago, Illinois, neighborhoods. (SLD)

Examination of the coding of interview data in studies of the aspirations of British Muslim girls and transition to math teaching compared manual and electronic methods. Choice of methods depended on the size of the project, funds, time, and research expertise. (SK)