A test was developed for measuring the ability of college students to analyze emotional and nonemotional subject matter. Results of convergent and discriminant validation indicated that responses to emotional items appeared to change at an increasing rate with years in college, while responses to nonemotional items did not. (Author/RC)

Descriptive behavioral statements were written for each of the 609 items found on six career development tests in order to compare the tests in terms of their coverage of the major career development components and in terms of the specific learner behaviors included in the test outline. (Author)

The paper-and-pencil 50-item elementary school form of the dogmatism scale was shortened by use of the item statistics x50 and to produce a 20-item instrument with a test characteristic curve designed to maximally spread respondents around the midpoint of the score range. (Editor)

Predictive Sample Reuse is an alternative to parameter estimation for solving a variety of statistical problems. The technique is described and its relevance to criterion referenced measurement discussed. An item analysis procedure which does not require multiple test administrations or variability in test or item scores and which adheres to the…

Formulas and a FORTRAN program for computing Kendall's Tau as well as a generalized Spearman rho coefficient from ordered contingency tables are described. (Author)

Examines the application of the Rasch simple logistic model to analogy test items. (RC)

The development of a new technique, the Relative Difficulty Ratio (RDR), is described, as well as how it can be used to determine the difficulty level of a test so that meaningful inter-test difficulty comparisons can be made. Assumptions made in computing RDR include: 1) each item must be scored dichotomously with only one answer choice keyed as…

INVESTIGATION IS CONTINUED INTO VARIOUS EFFECTS OF NON-INDEPENDENT ERROR INTRODUCED INTO MULTIPLE-CHOICE TEST SCORES AS A RESULT OF CHANCE GUESSING SUCCESS. A MODEL IS DEVELOPED IN WHICH THE CONCEPT OF THEORETICAL COMPONENTS OF SCORES IS NOT INTRODUCED AND IN WHICH, THEREFORE, NO ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUCH COMPONENTS NEED…

Cross-validation in relation to choosing the best tests and selecting the best items in tests is discussed. Cross-validation demonstrated whether a decision derived from one set of data is truly effective when this decision is applied to another independent, but relevant, sample of people. Cross-validation is particularly important after…

Presented is a method, derived from ordering theory, for the multidimensional scaling of dichotomous item data. The method is said to be related to the methodological multivariate extension of I. Guttman's scalogram analysis developed by C. Coombs and his students. An example is used to compare the data analytic results of the ordering theoretic…

Critical to precise quantitative research is reliability estimation. Researchers have limited tools, however, to assess the reliability of evolving instruments. Consequently, cursory assessment is typical and in-depth evaluation is rare. This paper presents a rationale for and description of PIAS, a computerized instrument analysis system. PIAS…

Some of the ramifications of the linear order assumption underlying much of measurement theory are discussed. Ordering theory is then described as an alternative deterministic measurement model that does not make the linear order assumption. (Author/RC)