The proposed coefficient is derived by assuming that the average Goodman-Kruskal gamma between items of identical difficulty would be the same for items of different difficulty. An estimate of covariance between items of identical difficulty leads to an estimate of the correlation between two tests with identical distributions of difficulty.…

Three measures were found to contribute significantly to the prediction of comprehensibility: mean linguistic depth, the number of self-embedded structures in the sentence, and the number of conjoinging transformations in the derivational history of the sentence. (Author/FB)

According to a new classification schema, data were obtained from both adults and children on article usage in English. The sample included children in the initial period of article acquisition (from two to three years of age). Results are discussed in terms of age differences and children's levels of difficulty. (MP)

The Relative Difficulty Ratio (RDR) was developed as an index of test or item difficulty for use when raw score means or item p-values are not directly comparable because of chance score differences. Computational RDR are described. Applications of the RDR at both the test and item level are illustrated. (Author/BW)

To examine the hypothesis that children's difficulties on traditional perspective-taking tasks are in part due to intellectual realism (inappropriately including what is known to exist in a representation of what is seen), 60 three-, four-, and five-year-old children were asked to select representations of various arrangements of blocks.…

The speech of five stutterers ranging in age from 3 years, 10 months to 5 years, 7 months was analyzed to determine the types of loci of stutterings. The results related to the hypothesis that early stuttering represents mainly a type of difficulty in either the formulaton or the execution of syntactic units. (Author)

The use of high-level questions increased the high-and low-level understanding of fifth graders. Competitive environments produced significantly greater high-level understanding than did cooperative environments. (Editor)

Suggests that certain kinds of writing assignments encourage children to engage in writing at a higher than usual level of syntactic complexity. (DD)

The transition of speed into accuracy was investigated by studying different degrees of transformation in a task requiring different numbers of simple exchanges. Results with 100 university students indicate that accuracy is associated with cognitive ability to a greater extent in complex tasks than in simple tasks. (SLD)

Attempts to design a valid and reliable instrument to measure the difficulty of solo vocal repertoire. Presents the Ralston Repertoire Difficulty Index (RRDI), and determines the RRDI's ability to be used by voice teachers of all experience levels and to discriminate songs' difficulty into levels. (DSK)

Derives a general formula for the population parameter being estimated by the Mantel-Haenszel differential item functioning (DIF) statistics. The formula is appropriate for uniform or nonuniform DIF and can be used regardless of the form of the item response function. Shows the relationship between this parameter and item difficulty. (SLD)

Examined the performance of DIMTEST, through simulation, for unidimensional and two-dimensional data that exhibited ceiling effects generated through changes in location and scale of the theta distribution. Results indicate that the power of DIMTEST is reduced as the location shifts upward and the scale shifts downward. Considers the selection…