This paper presents the results of research from Project REALISTIC, a program of research to determine REAding, LIStening and arithmeTIC requirements for jobs; and the feasibility of substituting listening for reading as a means for instructing men of different mental aptitude levels as measured by the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT). Two…

A study was conducted of Tanzanian adolescent school children's responses to filmic elements. The design included a very large sample in a complicated factorial design, varying such factors as color, type of action, background and sound of the film, and the demographic characteristics of the subjects. Results showed that of these variables,…

Preschool children copied peg locations with standardized comparison pegboards aligned horizontally and diagonally and with three levels of pegboard complexity. Error patterns varied with type of alignment and display complexity. Results failed to support Bryant's hypothesis that mirror image confusions are no more frequent than other in-line…

This triad of consulting models identifies the assumption upon which each rests. The consultant with adequate knowledge and self-insight will understand which model is appropriate to a given situation. The three models include: (1) purchase of expertise; (2) doctor-patient role; and (3) consultation process for problem solving. (Author/MFD)

Use of the Rasch model for vertical equating of tests is discussed. Although use of the model is promising, empirical results raise questions about the adequacy of the Rasch model. Latent trait models with more parameters may be necessary. (JKS)

Suggests some ways to overcome the problems connected with the use of the Syntactic Density Score. (DD)

New editions of selected college textbooks have been found to be more difficult than former ones, and experiments show that students learn less effectively from the new editions. Guidelines are offered for choosing textbooks, such as writing style, conceptual density, and the utility of readability analyses. (Editor/LBH)

This study compared the item difficulty, item discrimination, and test reliability of three forms of multiple-choice items: (1) one correct answer; (2) "none of the above" as a foil; and (3) "none of the above" as the correct answer. Twelve items in the three formats were administered in a college statistics examination. (BS)

Analysis of spoken repetitions of linguistically-controlled sentences by severely and profoundly hearing-impaired 6- to 19-year-olds (N=45) revealed that grammatical category significantly affected articulatory accuracy of target phonemes, while no effects due to syntactic complexity were noted. No differences were seen in performance between age…

Thirty-one cognitively normal college students unfamiliar with Blissymbolics were able to make reliable ratings of the perceived complexity of 91 Blissymbols. Based on these ratings, a correlational analysis indicated that the semantic variable "semantic elements" and the physical variable "number of strokes" were the best…

This paper develops and applies three nonparametric comparisons of the shapes of two item characteristic surfaces: (1) proportional latent odds; (2) uniform relative difficulty; and (3) item sensitivity. A method is presented for comparing the relative shapes of two item characteristic curves in two examinee populations who were administered an…

The effects of statistical and cognitive difficulty ordering of test items, gender, and explicit labeling of item type on college students' test performance were assessed. A total of 137 male and 265 female undergraduates were administered two 40-item multiple choice tests. Results indicate significant effects for gender and use of labels, but…

Examines the effectiveness of adult encouragement--noncontingent supportive comments--on children's motivation. Eighty eighth-grade boys and girls performed easy or difficult computerized two-choice probability learning tasks alone or in the presence of an encouraging adult. In general, the findings show that encouragement influenced children's…

An approximate relationship is devised between the unidimensional model used in data analysis and a multidimensional model hypothesized to be generating the item responses. Scale shrinkage is successfully predicted for several sets of simulated data. (Author/LMO)