Presents examples of direct modeling and invented strategies of students for problem solving. Teachers are encouraged to capitalize on children's abilities to use these invented strategies and in time guide the student toward a standard, more efficient strategy. (AIM)

A theoretical and philosophical revision of the concept of fit in structural equation modeling and its relation to a confirmation bias is developed. The neutral character of fit indexes regarding this issue is argued, concluding that protection against confirmation bias relies on model modification strategy and scientist behavior. (SLD)

Samples of 356 management students and 102 managerial employees were used to assess the hierarchical structure of the Negative Affectivity scale of J. Stokes and I. Levin (1990). Data suggest that a higher-order model is the most satisfactory representation of the underlying structure of the scale. (SLD)

Illustrates how nonendowment cash flows (tuition, grants, and gifts) affect the portfolio allocation decisions for the endowment and are "efficient" in terms of the total wealth of the institution. A mathematical appendix displays the reasoning behind the model. (Contains 12 references and 4 tables.) (Author/MLF)

A study of the effect of the number of item response categories on chi-square statistics for confirmatory factor analysis indicates that the chi-square statistic for evaluating a single-factor model is most inflated for two-category responses and becomes less inflated as the number of categories increases. (SLD)

Discusses the concept of three-dimensional perspective. Presents some assessment tasks to help develop perspective and describes student responses. (Author/NB)

Presents a variety of activities in which 4th grade students investigate prisms and pyramids by building models from folded paper and drinking straws. (Author/NB)

Discusses a research tool that has the potential to identify a student's development in mathematical modeling, gauge the effectiveness of adopted teaching styles, and enhance learning. Reports on pilot applications of a questionnaire at two universities in the UK. Discusses the construction and testing of the research instrument and considers…

Investigates issues of mathematics instruction of problems in blocks. Discusses the best way to construct mathematical problems with connections to one another as parts of a coherent whole and how to reflect on the types of connections that can arise between them. (Author/KHR)

An approach is presented to simultaneously optimize decision rules for combinations of elementary decisions through a framework derived from Bayesian decision theory. The developed linear utility model for selection-mastery decisions was applied to a sample of 43 first year medical students to illustrate the procedure. (SLD)

An Edgeworth approximation for accurate significance probabilities for the Wilcoxon two-sample test is substantially simplified. A method is developed that allows quick calculations of very accurate probabilities. Exact formulas are given for most of the remaining cases, and tables are presented comparing the new simplification to likely…

Presents a probability model of the occurrence of index terms used to derive discrete distributions which are mixtures of Poisson and negative binomial distributions. These distributions give better fits than the simpler Zipf distribution, have the advantage of being more explanatory, and can incorporate a time parameter if necessary. (25…

A Monte Carlo simulation study compared the power and Type I errors of the Wilks lambda statistic and the statistic of M. L. Puri and P. K. Sen (1971) on transformed data in a one-way multivariate analysis of variance. Preferred test procedures, based on robustness and power, are discussed. (SLD)

Misspecification of mean and covariance structures for metric endogenous variables is considered. Maximum likelihood estimation of model parameters and the asymptotic covariance matrix of the estimates are discussed. A Haussman test for misspecification is developed, which is sensitive to misspecification not detected by the test statistics…

A method for multidimensional scaling that is highly resistant to the effects of outliers is described. Some Monte Carlo simulations illustrate the efficacy of the procedure, which performs well with or without outliers. (SLD)