In the last issue, this journal asked a question on many librarians' minds, and it was pleased with the depth and variety of responses. As suggested by this journal editorial board member Oliver Pesch, readers were asked, "Many libraries have gone to federated searching to win users back from Google. Is it working?" Respondents approached the…

This study followed 88 children in Beijing and Hong Kong for three years to investigate the relationships between the early teaching of literacy skills and later literacy outcomes. The children were administered the Preschool and Primary Chinese Literacy Scale at the age of five years, and three years later. Their parents and teachers reported on…

This paper reports on a study on the relationship between cognitive task complexity and linguistic performance in L2 writing. In the study, two models proposed to explain the influence of cognitive task complexity on linguistic performance in L2 are tested and compared: Skehan and Foster's Limited Attentional Capacity Model (Skehan, 1998; Skehan…

According to many students, introductory physics is difficult. We investigated what students believe makes physics difficult and what can be done to overcome these difficulties. Our investigation included an initial free-response survey given to approximately 1400 students in an introductory physics course and a second survey, which was given to…

Previous studies have shown inconsistent results concerning bilinguals' use of gestures to compensate for reduced proficiency in their second language (L2). These results could be because of differing task demands. In this study, we asked 16 intermediate English L2 speakers (whose first language [L1] was Chinese) to watch a story and tell it back…

Rigor, relevance, and relationships are three elements that provide the hallmark for education today. These three elements are integrally connected; if one is missing in a teacher's teaching practices, he or she is not doing his or her best to prepare students for success in school and in life. To ensure the inclusion of both rigor and relevance,…

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how cognitive and measurement principles can be integrated to create an essentially unidimensional test. Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, test questions were created by using the feature integration theory of attention to develop a cognitive model of performance and then manipulating complexity…

A study was conducted to categorize the questions found in the reading skills development books used in Maryland's community colleges according to Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The study sought to determine the number of questions per taxonomy category; whether there was a significant difference between observed and expected…

This study used meaningful pictorial material to compare the functions relating complexity to two different response variables (voluntary looking time and preference) in 192 students from grades 1 to 8. Age differences were slight, and results are discussed in terms of theories postulating increases with experience in preference for complexity.…

The relationships between mothers' and children's speech were analyzed with regard to complexity and usage of selected speech types. The findings suggest that the responsiveness of child speech to mothers' speech seems to influence the mothers' language complexity, allowing the child to exert an influence on his language environment. (JMB)

This paper focuses on the mechanics and dynamics of questioning techniques as aids to trainers/teachers in "getting across" subject matter and interacting effectively with learners. The mechanics include three levels of questions--knowledge, application and problem-solving. Each of these levels is designed to foster different and…

Determining the extent of consistency between distinct concepts has become increasingly important in current theorizing about the development and organization of cognitive structure. This paper discusses several conceptual and measurement issues that must be addressed in analyses of interconcept consistency: the distinction between connectivity…

A model of test item dependency is presented and used to illustrate the effect that violations of local independence have on the behavior of item characteristic curves. The dependency model is flexible enough to simulate the interaction of a number of factors including item difficulty and item discrimination, varying degrees of item dependence,…

Previous research has concluded that no reliable individual differences have been demonstrated in goal-setting studies, probably because the goals were assigned rather than set by the individuals. This study examined individual's self-set goals, certainty, and task performance of two work periods in a group setting as a function of Type A behavior…

This paper is the transcript of a talk given to those who use test information but who have little technical background in test theory. The concepts of modern test theory are compared with traditional test theory, as well as a probable future test theory. The explanations given are couched within an extended metaphor that allows a full description…