Examined the effects of race of examiner and level of mistrust of Whites on the Stanford-Binet performance of 105 Black elementary school children. The Black examiner-high mistrust group scored significantly higher than the White examiner-high mistrust group, and significantly higher than the Black examiner-low mistrust group. (WAS)

Responds to an article questioning the construct validity of the Beck Hopelessness Scale. Suggests that social desirability should not be invoked as a potential confound unless the obtained covariation is theoretically inconsistent or is so overlapping as to make the respective scales redundant with respect to factorial content. (Author/RC)

Correction for guessing does not fulfill its intended function when test takers who have nothing to gain from scoring will respond randomly when they could have answered correctly had they tried. Raw scores underestimate abilities. If random guessing is more prevalent in the control group, correction for guessing inflates treatment effects.…

Examines three forces affecting the minimum competency testing movement: the reluctance of professionals to accept it, court cases, and the question of how it should be applied to the handicapped student. (FL)

In teachers' classroom utilization of certain means of social influence, coercive power was found to produce the least cheating and the most favorable student attitudes, compared to reward and five other power base strategies utilized. Precautions as to the interpretation and possible application of the findings are discussed. (Author/CM)

Effects of item presentation mode on degree of leniency bias in responses to field research questionnaires were studied. Two modes were examined: first with items measuring the same dimensions grouped together and second with such items distributed randomly. The random mode showed substantially less leniency response bias. (Author/BW)

Admissions testing and its consequences are looked upon as a reflection of the current debate occurring in Western capitalist democracies concerning the optimization of freedom, fairness, and wealth. In dealing with the competition and conflict of values and interests, there can be no factual but political resolution. (Author/AL)

Rajaratnam, Cronbach and Gleser's generalizability formula for stratified-parallel tests and Raju's coefficient beta are generalized to estimate the reliability of a composite of criterion-referenced tests, where the parts have different cutting scores. (Author/GK)

It is suggested that error of measurement cannot be routinely incorporated into the "error term" in statistical tests, and that the reliability of test scores does not have the simple relationship to statistical inference that one might expect. (Author/GK)

The assertion that the guaranteed anonymity of the respondent is an essential aspect of the accurate measurement of attitude by means of questionnaires was tested among children in relationship to a questionnaire measuring attitude towards religion. No significant difference in attitude scores was found. (Author/GK)

Student self-selection in deciding to repeat a test was examined by contrasting the test performance of students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) as juniors and again as seniors with the test performance of students taking the SAT only once as juniors. Results suggest there is self-selection in test repetition. (Author/GK)

The empirical evidence does not support the prevailing conventional wisdom that it is advisable to mix positively and negatively worded items in psychological measures to counteract acquiescence response bias. An experiment, evaluating subjects' ability to respond accurately to both positive and reversed items on a questionnaire, analyzed post-hoc…

The author deals with limitations on the use of work samples as predictors of vocational success of the disabled. The predictive model is briefly reviewed and ways in which the assumptions underlying this model can be violated or altered in vocational evaluation settings are described. (Author)

Examines teachers' major concerns about testing and offers advice about how to encourage teachers to respect the testing program. (WD)

The value of comprehensive final examinations in medical school is addressed. It is argued that such testing should be discouraged when it involves repeating earlier content with new or reused test items. It is seen as valuable when it can be used to challenge the student to integrate earlier concepts in more sophisticated tasks. (JMD)