Often, all of the variables in a model are latent, random, or subject to measurement error, or there is not an obvious dependent variable. When any of these conditions exist, an appropriate method for estimating the linear relationships among the variables is Least Principal Components Analysis. Least Principal Components are robust, consistent,…

The development and evaluation of methods for detecting potentially biased items or differentially functioning items (DIF) represent a critical area of research for psychometricians because of the negative impact of biased items on test validity. A summary is provided of the authors' 12 years of research at the University of Massachusetts…

Researchers should investigate statistical models that can help counselors decide how to treat individual clients. This research investigated the questions, "Given an effect size (ES) from a counseling outcome study, what is the probability that a client would have a negative response to the treatment, and what is the probability that the client…

The term "statistical significance" is often misunderstood or abused to imply a large effect size. A recent example is in the work of J. P. Rushton (1988, 1990) on differences between Negroids and Caucasoids. Rushton used brain size and cranial size as indicators of intelligence, using Pearson "r"s ranging from 0.03 to 0.35.…

Power refers to the probability that a statistical test will yield statistically significant results. In spite of the close relationship between power and statistical significance, there is a consistent overemphasis in the literature on statistical significance. This paper discusses statistical significance and its limitations and also includes a…

The primary purpose of this correlational study was to explain the relationship between discipline specific critical thinking skills and leadership training and experiences of selected FFA youth leaders. Researcher-developed measures of critical thinking skills and leadership were used to discover low, but positive relationships between critical…

This study focused on two questions: (1) whether the types of study-aid test, or the levels of test anxiety would affect the level of performance on the test under non-anxious conditions; and (2) whether there would be any interaction effect between the types of study-aid test and the levels of anxiety under non-anxious conditions. Twelve female…

Dissertations are the cumulative, tangible "best evidence" of interests of doctoral faculty and students in serious and incisive scholarship. Thus, dissertations are thoroughly studied by the program review teams periodically hired by boards of higher education in most states. The present paper explores seven errors in quantitative…

The pretest-posttest design referred to as Design 2 by Campbell and Stanley (1963) is commonly used in educational research and evaluation. The tenability of the assumption of a zero population difference commonly used with this design is questioned. A nonzero population estimate based on the mean difference observed in test-retest reliability…

A study was conducted to compare the quality of the item parameter estimates obtained from the ANCILLES and LOGIST estimation procedures using goodness of fit as a criterion. Statistics used to compare the fit included a chi-square statistic and a mean square deviation statistic. Other analyses performed included comparisons of the distributions…

This report was designed to present an example of a research study involving the use of coefficients of orthogonal comparisons in analysis of variance tests of significance. A sample research report and analysis was included so as to lead the reader through the design steps. The sample study was designed to determine the extent of attitudinal…

Several tenets of mastery learning were examined in this study in the context of college level instruction. When students learn for mastery: (1) retention test scores should exhibit small variability and should be unrelated to aptitude; (2) test items which are classified into high and low cognitive behavior subscales should be unrelated to…

The sequences of learning sets (intersequence) and instructional events (intrasequence) were empirically validated for a hierarchy of concept and rule using skills. Experiments with high school students showed no differences between empirical and reordered inter- or intrasequence on time to mastery; nor was there a difference in the number of…

Scores on standardized tests may be expressed in a variety of different modes. Raw scores, grade equivalents, percentile ranks, stanines, and standard scores are the major types in use today. The study investigated whether the mode or scale used to express scores affected the magnitude of group statistics, specifically, t and r (the t-test of the…

Barcikowski has provided tables for use in situations where means are to be used as the unit of analysis. This article argues that the conditions specified for use of these tables are not practical. It explicates a methodology for carrying out analyses based on group means. (Author/JAZ)