Error in assessing learning aptitude inheres much more in the users of the tests than in the tests themselves. Assumptions fundamental to such assessment are considered. It is particularly important that the tester constantly be sensitive to the nature of the relaionship between the psychological demands of test items or tests and the learning…

Support for the concurrent validity of the scale was given when four indicators of direct dating experience were found to be significantly related to the scale scores. (Author)

This study confirmed the practical benefits of three-choice items. (Author)

Because no previous study was found in which both blank position in the item stem and positional placement of the correct response were studied simultaneously, it was decided to investigate the influence of these two factors, alone and in combination, on the difficulty level of verbal analogy items. (Authors)

One purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different levels of item complexity on subsequent student achievement to help clarify the effectiveness of the transfer and hierarchical models. (Authors/MB)

The placement or ordering of items on behavior rating scales which elicit extreme responses (anchor stimulus items) affect the responses given to neutral items. (DG)

Three item-construction principles for multiple-choice tests were studied to determine how they affected test results for high school students: (1) use of incomplete sentence stem; (2) location of blank in the stem; and (3) presence of noncueing material. Differences in item construction had a slight effect on test results. (Authors/CJ)

A study of recurrent faults in multiple-choice items in Britain's Open University's computer-marked tests has led to a procedure for avoiding these faults. A description of the study covers the incidence and sources of faults (obviousness, memorization, unclear instruction, ambiguity, distractors, inter-item effects, and structure) and…

This paper presents a chi square method for assessing bias in test items. In this procedure an unbiased item is defined as an item for which the probability of a correct response is the same for any person of a given ability level regardless of that person's ethnic group. (Author/CTM)

Content analyses for sex bias were conducted on items from three widely-used achievement tests which together span the grade levels 1-12. A significant but modest correlation was found between an item's content bias and performance on that item by male and female students. (SJL)