The reader is a component part of the only form of a text which can be discussed meaningfully as a message. As readers with different linguistic backgrounds experience texts in fusions with their own personalities and their own social and cultural backgrounds, these dynamic texts differ in different languages. Accordingly, intranslatability exists…

Some item response theory (IRT) techniques work in applications even though the usual structural IRT assumptions, and local independence (LI) in particular, do not hold. When the departure from LI is too great, traditional procedures will break down. Although violations of strictly unidimensional, monotone, locally independent latent structure can…

This paper explores a logistic regression procedure for estimating item parameters in the Rasch model and testing the hypothesis of item parameter invariance across several groups/populations. Rather than using item responses directly, the procedure relies on "pseudo-paired comparisons" (PC) statistics defined over all possible pairs of…

Studies of differential item functioning (DIF) under item response theory require that item parameter estimates be placed on the same metric before comparisons can be made. Evidence that methods for linking metrics may be influenced by the presence of differentially functioning items has been inconsistent. The effects of three methods for linking…

A fall 1990 mail survey of 1,000 Indiana public administrators (500 state, 500 local) was carried out by the Center for Governmental Services at Indiana State University. The survey sought to identify the aggregate and individual views of these incumbent public administrators concerning issues of import to the teaching of public administration at…

Both behavioral and cognitive coping strategies are determined by an individual's perception of the stressful stimuli. To investigate the relationship of an individual's usual coping style to differential responses to a behavioral or cognitive stressor in four response systems (heart rate, muscle tension, galvanic skin response, and subjective…

Children's emotional responses to films are the focus of the four articles in this issue designed for media specialists and educators. Following an editorial discussing the responsibilities of media as put forth by Bruno Bettleheim, the first article presents a methodology and rationale for using story films to encourage children's exploration of…

Recent research on teachers' expectations has begun to explore the factors underlying the link between expectations and performance. To investigate the relationship between the affective responses of teachers and students' attributions regarding effort versus ability, 130 college students (66 male, 64 female) were instructed in solving anagrams…

An extension of the Bock-Samejima model for multiple choice items is introduced. The model provides for varying probabilities of the response alternative when the examinee guesses. A marginal maximum likelihood method is devised for estimating the item parameters, and likelihood ratio tests for comparing more and less constrained forms of the…

Clinicians and family theorists have speculated that men and women differ in their orientations to close relationships, although these stereotypic patterns have not been investigated empirically. To determine whether people's interactional experiences are characterized by distinctive, sex-linked orientations to expressiveness and caring, 252 men…

This study assesses the viability of the rating approach compared to the forced choice approach by use of the Activity Preference Questionnaire. (DEP)

Groups of about 35 subjects were given Neutral, Low and High motivating instructions before completing the Shortened Form of Betts' Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery. The results for imaging scores in all seven sensory modalities tapped by this questionnaire indicated that the instructions significantly influenced subjects' responses. (Author)

Current literature suggests that a teacher's expectancies for a pupil may in part determine the pupil's subsequent behavior. This review asks how such expectancies affect the teacher's own behavior, with the goal of determining what teacher behaviors mediate the observed effect on the pupil. A model of this process is proposed. (Author)

The relationship between students' scores on a verbal meaning test and their degrees of confidence in item responses was investigated. Subjects were black undergraduate students and they were administered a verbal meaning test by following a confidence testing procedure. (Author/BJG)

Helper-judged frequency and discomfort values were established for potentially challenging interaction situations between nonprofessional child aides and young maladapting school children. Child aggression, family problems, limit-testing behavior, and rarely experienced situations produced greater helper discomfort than did the child's need to…