Analyzes the effects of selected deletion patterns, blank conditions, and scoring modes on the cloze test performance of sixth-grade students. (FL)

A study involving undergraduate college students enrolled in an introductory psychology course showed that test item arrangement by difficulty or by order of content presentation has no effect on total achievement test score. The data also fail to demonstrate any influence of test item order on student perception of test difficulty. (RM)

Examines the CUNY-WAT program and questions many aspects of it, especially the choice and phrasing of topics. (FL)

Psychology students studied one of two versions of a passage that explained several concepts. One version included definitions of concepts and examples; the other included definitions only. A major finding was that the increased performance of students who received examples was obtained on applied questions but not on literal questions. (Author/RM)

Describes a study of the influence of wording changes in essay questions on test performance. Results did not support the hypothesis that such changes would affect writer performance. (HTH)

Compares multiple choice testing with free response formats in terms of the cognitive operations each type demands. (HOD)

This study directly compared the effects of a picture selection response with a rotational one. Eighty preschool children were compared on the response modes. Half the children indicated perspective inferences by selecting from a set of photographs while the others rotated a replica. Children were tested on three nonegocentric perspectives.…

A set of linear conditions on the item response functions is derived that guarantees identical observed-score distributions on two test forms. The conditions can be added as constraints to a linear programming model for test assembly that assembles a new test form to have an observed-score distribution optimally equated to the distribution of the…

A competency test was developed to assess students skills in using electronic library resources. Because all students were required to pass the test, and had multiple opportunities to do so, multiple test forms were desired. Standards had been set on the original form, and minor differences in form difficulty needed to be taken into account.…

Recently, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) changed by including a writing section that gives the examinee an option between computer and handwritten formats to compose their responses. Unfortunately, this may introduce several potential sources of error that might reduce the reliability and validity of the scores. The seriousness…

Recently, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) changed by including a direct writing assessment where examinees choose between computer and handwritten composition formats. Unfortunately, examinees may have differential access to and comfort with computers; as a result, scores across these formats may not be comparable. Analysis of…

Assessing people who operate in different languages necessitates the use of multiple language versions of an assessment. However, different language versions of an assessment are not necessarily equivalent. In this paper, the psychometric properties of different language versions on an international employee attitude survey are evaluated. This…

A constrained computerized adaptive testing (CAT) algorithm is presented that automatically equates the number-correct scores on adaptive tests. The algorithm can be used to equate number-correct scores across different administrations of the same adaptive test as well as to an external reference test. The constraints are derived from a set of…

Whatever the purpose of test adaptation, questions arise concerning the validity of inferences from such adapted tests. This paper considers several advantages and disadvantages of adapting tests from one language and culture to another. The paper also reviews several sources of error or invalidity associated with adapting tests and suggests ways…

The validity of spelling tests in several formats was investigated against the criterion of an estimate of spelling accuracy in ranked writing samples. The correlation between writing samples and spelling production was greater than with recognition of correct spelling. Variations in reliability and rankings were not responsible for the…