Provides new American age norms for Raven's Progressive Matrices, based on screening of 500 vocational counseling and 2,992 psychiatric veteran patients newly admitted to hospital. Reliability data were acceptable, but indicated need for revision of the Raven. Within limits set by current reliability, validity data presented were positive.…

Confirms previous findings that the word recognition criterion for instructional reading level should be set at about 95 percent for students reading at grade levels one through six. (FL)

The Vowel Matching Test (VMT) measures primary grade children's ability to discriminate medial vowel sounds. Based on the responses of 43 first-grade pupils, the results indicated that the VMT correlated .76 with a word recognition test. It exhibited an internal consistency coefficient of .78. (Author/BW)

This paper provides a list of 10 salient features of the standard error of measurement, contrasting it to the reliability coefficient. It is concluded that the standard error of measurement should be regarded as a primary characteristic of a mental test. (Author/DWH)

Occasionally situations arise in which a measurement does not lend itself to such traditional methods of reliability estimation as the test-retest, parallel-test, or internal consistency methods. This paper proposes basing reliability estimation in such situations on estimates of validity coefficients as lower bounds. (Author/LMO)

The consistency of factor structure of Osgood's semantic differential was examined in three different adult samples, aged 18 to 87. Three different concepts were used: the University of West Florida, Myself, and Death. Results indicated consistency for the evaluation factor and moderate consistency for potency and activity. (Author/GDC)

Examined the four-year test-retest reliability of Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) scores for 77 college women who responded to the instrument as freshmen and again as seniors. The BSRI was judged to be as reliable as other paper-and-pencil instruments which attempt to measure similar personality variables and to have adequate reliability for…

Concludes that the Cloze Reading Inventory and its coding form can be reliably employed by a variety of teachers for a variety of grade levels and passages. (FL)

Developed a 33-item, situation-specific instrument that measures assertiveness of adolescents. Based on data from 682 elementary and secondary school students, adequate reliability and validity of the Assertiveness Scale for Adolescents (ASA) were obtained when tested against several variables about which predictions could be made. (BH)

Administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, and Wechsler Preschool Primary Scale of Intelligence in a counterbalanced design to randomly selected elementary school children (N=72). Results indicated that the verbal Intelligence Quotients (IQs) were comparable, but the performance and…

Samples in research on individual and group differences may be selected based on whole scores which differ from the population mean. Children are diagnosed in clinical practice with a whole score. These procedures produce regression to the population mean which can affect accuracy and adequacy of part score interpretations. (Author/DWH)

The article reviews Consumer's Guide to Tests in Print, noting its purposes (to provide objective information about technical characteristics of standardized tests); criteria for evaluating standardizaton, reliability, and validity; and its rating system based on evaluations of selected review panel members. (CL)

Carried out four experiments in which male and female undergraduates (N=384) completed the Beck Depression Inventory under conditions ranging from absolute anonymity to a face-to-face interview. Results showed no evidence that depression is more severe or common in females. Responses appeared essentially unaffected by method of administration.…

Addresses the issues of whether test scores are affected by the prior availability of the items on a test. Concludes that, while disclosing items significantly affects test scores, the magnitude of the disclosure effect drecreases with an increase in the size of the disclosed pool. (EKN)

Concludes that The London Procedure does not reflect contemporary research in the fields of literacy acquisition and learning disabilities. (AEA)