States that taking a high school psychology course did not improve the performance of college students in an introductory psychology class on a modified version of Vaughan's misconceptions test (Test of Common Beliefs). Concludes that while college experience did lead to some improvement, comparison with other studies indicates that perhaps the…

An assessment instrument of the visual skills required for reading among macular loss individuals is presented along with a study involving 48 adults to evaluate its reliability. Data are included to verify claims regarding aspects of reading that are particularly problematic for macular loss individuals; rehabilitation techniques are suggested.…

Examined the reliability of the 30-item Modified Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (MRAS) using the test-retest method over a three-week period. The MRAS yielded correlations of .74 using the Pearson product and Spearman Brown correlation coefficient. Correlations for males yielded .77 and .72. For females correlations for both tests were .72.…

Surveyed 65 couples beginning marital therapy and 37 couples from the community to examine interspousal reliability on reports of marital violence. Agreement between partners on the occurrence of violence was low to moderate for both samples. Husbands underreported their violent behavior, and/or wives tended to overreport violence performed by…

A systemic view of training and development emphasizes art and science touched with creativity. In such a view, media are central to the concept of human reliability, and should be specifically designed to enhance communication. (SK)

Bilingual subjects (N=61) completed the three forms of the Depression Adjective Check Lists (DACL), each of which was printed half in Spanish and half in English. No significant effects were found either for language or sex of subject. Findings supported use of DACL Spanish version with Spanish-speaking subjects. (NRB)

Holds that interrater agreement for journal manuscript reviews has seemed unacceptably low because it has been assessed using techniques such as the intraclass correlation, which compares error variance with the variance due to manuscripts. Describes and recommends an alternative approach for computing interrater agreement. (GC)

Presented data on the translation and on the reliability and concurrent validity of the Chinese version of the Depression Adjective Check Lists (DACL). Reliability and validity coefficients are significant and of sufficient magnitude to warrant their use in research (N=37).(Author)

Some suggestions for measuring marginal symmetry in agreement matrices for categorical data are discussed, together with measures of item-by-item agreement conditional on marginal asymmetry. Connections with intraclass correlations for dichotomous data are noted. (Author)

Reports reliability data for Wechsler Subtest comparisons to supplement the data in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised manuals. Results indicated that the reliabilities of the differences between Wechsler Subtest scores are low enough to warrant the exercise of caution in interpreting…

Understanding the nature of science, especially how scientists err, is an essential tool for: (1) assessing the reliability and scope of scientific claims; (2) perceiving the scope of these claims; and (3) making personal and public decisions. What features of the nature of the science are most important to know? Recent consensus highlights the…

This paper describes procedures for estimating various indices of classification consistency and accuracy for multiple category classifications using data from a single test administration. The estimates of the classification consistency and accuracy indices are compared under three different psychometric models: the two-parameter beta binomial,…

The purposes of this paper are to identify common errors made by researchers when dealing with reliability coefficients and to outline best practices for reporting and interpreting reliability coefficients. Common errors that researchers make are: (1) stating that the instruments are reliable; (2) incorrectly interpreting correlation coefficients;…

Testing programs that report a single score based on multiple choice and performance components must face the issue of how to derive the component scores. This paper identifies and logically evaluates alternative component weighting methods. It then examines composite reliability and validity as a function of weights, component reliability,…

This paper reviews issues involved in converting continuous variables to nominal variables to be used in the OVA techniques. The literature dealing with the dangers of dichotomizing continuous variables is reviewed. First, the assumptions invoked by OVA analyses are reviewed in addition to concerns regarding the loss of variance and a reduction in…