Readiness skills of 1,261 kindergarten students were assessed with the use of the Kindergarten Instructional Design System (KIDS). The profile provides assessment in five areas: Motor, Visual, Auditory, Language, and Conceptual. Two statistical techniques were utilized to examine the underlying structure of the measure: factor analysis and…

The aim of this paper is to explore the Rasch model as a criterion of test homogeneity. Two empirical studies are presented to demonstrate this usage. From these studies it is argued that statistical tests of item characteristic curve (ICC) slopes are not sufficient in testing for heterogeneity. Tests of equality of ICC's over groups of subject…

Six major problems confronting attempts to use nonmetric multidimensional scaling to represent structures underlying similarity data are identified and the author's prospects for over-coming each of these problems are presented. (RC)

This paper describes the methodology used to analyze interview data on school control structures in the Management Implications of Team Teaching (MITT) project. Project MITT looked at school decision issues and their control structures, and at the people making or being governed by those decisions, to test how types of school decisions are related…

The advantages of the Delphi Technique are that it relies on collective expert judgment, prevents the excessive influence in decision-making of those in positions of status, and encourages consensus. The technique consists of five steps: (1) asking experts to list items relevant to a topic; (2) returning the list to the participants and asking…

Three approaches to the graphic representation of similarity and dissimilarity matrices are compared and contrasted. Specifically, Kruskal's multidimensional scaling, Johnson's hierarchical clustering, and Waern's graphing techniques are employed to depict, in two dimensions, data representing the structure of a set of botanical concepts. Each of…

A bibliography with approximately 1,000 references to articles on multidimensional scaling (MDS) is preceded by a summary review tracing the major developments in the areas covered, and identifying significant references in each. With the exception of a few earlier documents, the period covered is 1966 to 1978. Topics mentioned in the summary…

A model permitting construction of algorithms for the polynomial conjoint analysis of similarities is presented. This model, which is based on concepts used in nonmetric scaling, permits one to obtain the best approximate solution. The concepts used to construct nonmetric scaling algorithms are reviewed. Finally, examples of algorithmic models for…

Procedures for analyzing common item effects on interscale structure were reviewed and a study using smallest space analysis of the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) reported. Solutions of three matrices--intercorrelation matrix of the original CPI scales, of reduced scales (with common items removed), and of the number of common…

The purpose of this study was to develop and field test a needs assessment procedure based on magnitude estimation scaling. The goal was to provide ratio scale expressions of the relative importance of school objectives by pertinent subsets and the total sample of school patrons. A patron-assembled set of 40 goals was evaluated by 132 fathers and…

Cross-cultural validity studies for psychological instruments may result in overestimation of structure invariance due to some items being scored on more than one scale. This problem, called the common-item effect, is investigated with some data from the literature. (JKS)

Examines the similarity between the coordinates which resulted when correlations were used as similarity measures and the factor loadings obtained by factor analyzing the same correlation matrix. Real data, a set of error free data, and some computer generated data containing deliberately introduced sampling error are analyzed. (RC)

Dissimilarity judgments of all possible pairs of 10 animal names were obtained from first-, third-, and sixth-grade children, and college students. Analysis with multidimensional scaling procedures revealed a semantic space consisting of the features of size, domesticity, and predativity. (Author/JMB)

Adults' perceptions of infants' cries were evaluated by means of multidimensional scaling. Twenty-four nonparents and 20 parents judged the similarity of all possible pairs of 12 recorded cries. Subjects also rated the cries on 29 attributes, including perceived aversiveness, possible caretaking responses, affective responses, and semantic…