Kinds Of Items Research Articles

Interference in a typeface variant of the Stroop test

Ss were asked to name the typeface in which a printed item appeared in a discrete trial variant of the Stroop color-word test. Two kinds of items were used: (a) typeface names appearing in antagonistic typefaces, e.g., the word SCRIPT printed in bold type; and (b) nonsense strings constructed by jumbling; the letters in a typeface name, e.g., PSRTCI printed in bold type. Typeface-naming latencies were found to be significantly longer for items of the first kind. Examination of the distributions of individual trial latencies for the two kinds of items indicated that modification of Morton’s (1969) account of the Stroop test is required.

Acquiescence and Conservation

ROSE, SUSAN ANN. Acquiescence and Conservation. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1973, 44, 811-814. Conservation of number was tested in a situation that required the child to give a single yes or no response to each problem. By including problems of both equality and inequality, response sets are readily detected and justifications become unnecessary. In addition, using both kinds of items guards against the spurious success sometimes found when a limited range of problems is used. The results indicate that 3and 4-year-olds tend to adopt an acquiescence response set. When 5and 6-year-olds err, on the other hand, it is because they systematically judge number in terms of relative length.

SOME COMMENTS ON CULTURE FAIR TESTS1

SummaryAn attempt has been made in this paper to show that culture fair tests have some problems associated with them. These tests should be examined and reviewed closely before being used and should not be regarded as the answer to testing the culturally disadvantaged.The following points were made in this paper: Culture fair tests measure different psychological functions. Culture fair tests today measure such functions as spatial visualization, abstract reasoning, perceptual speed, etc. Culture fair tests vary considerably in format. Some are pencil and paper tests, some are performance tests. Some use verbal instructions, others do not. There are many test parameters along which culture fair tests now vary. Some evidence suggests that culture fair tests possibly increase the differential between the culturally disadvantaged and the more advantaged population. Use of these tests may not be in the best interests of minority groups. It is not yet definite about the kind of items on which culturally disadvantaged people perform poorer. Some evidence suggests that they do better on verbal items and worst on perceptual items, which is in contrast to the assumption of most proponents of culture‐fair tests. The validity of culture fair tests has not been shown to be better than more traditional tests. In contrast, some research even indicates that they do not show relationships as high.What is to be done, if anything, about the test differentials between the culturally disadvantaged and the majority population? Some individuals (Lorge, 1964; Coffman, 1964) agree that the elimination of group differences on tests is futile and argue that the real task at hand is a realistic attempt to study the behavioral significance of test differences. In essence, this is an all out attempt to collect validation information. Does a particular score for a black have the same behavioral implications of a higher (or lower) test score for a white? Are there criterion differences that are related to test differences? Do differential validities exist for various subgroups? Are the standard errors of estimates different for different groups? This approach is essentially what has been pursued by individuals investigating the “moderating” effects of subgrouping by race and/or socio‐economic factors. The investigation of test differences within and between subgroups is called for.In my opinion, attempting to mask test differentials by using culture fair tests may in actuality have a reverse effect than what was intended. Test differentials may actually increase, making it more difficult for culturally disadvantaged individuals to be selected into schools, jobs, etc.Clearly, the construction of culture fair tests is not the only answer to testing the disadvantaged.

When item recognition and visual search functions are similar

The effect of prolonged practice upon item recognition performance was investigated under conditions of nested positive sets and complete response consistency. Nesting is defined by each positive set containing all the items contained in smaller positive sets. Response consistency is defined by each item in the stimulus set consistently requiring only a positive or only a negative response. A low error level was maintained. Twelve Ss worked with three positive set sizes in each of 36 sessions. Half the Ss worked with digit stimuli and half with pictures. The item recognition function (that function relating response latency and positive set size) was found to be negatively accelerated throughout the course of practice. The effect of positive set size decreased significantly (p < .001) with practice, and set size effects were significantly (p < .03) greater for positive response trials than for negative response trials. Kind of item had no effect on the set size effect. A theoretical framework consistent with these results is suggested. Results from the present study are compared with findings obtained previously from visual search studies. It is concluded that when the procedures in both tasks include response consistency, nested positive sets, and low error levels, the effects of prolonged practice upon the set size from item recognition and visual search are qualitatively very similar.

Preparing Tests to Measure Course Objectives

Abstract Ideally the test questions we give to students reflect our educational objectives. Recent curriculum developments in geography show a change in these objectives, from an emphasis on imparting knowledge towards a greater stress on involving students in solving geographic problems. Most teachers, however, are accustomed to writing questions which measure factual knowledge. What kinds of questions can we ask which would be better aligned with our objectives? This paper is an attempt to indicate some such questions. It discusses aspects of test design, item classification, and styles of presentation which facilitate the preparation of tests measuring a variety of objectives. It also comments briefly on student performance on different kinds of items.

The Kinds of Items that Work in an Interest Activities Index

The interest items to discussed consist of brief descriptions of activities. The subject indicates whether he would like, be indifferent to, or dislike participating in each activity. Full freedom was permitted to express a liking for many activities or few, and the subjects, freshmen in their first week of college, had no particular reason to fake their responses. The list of activities carefully avoided occupational names or experiences limited to older persons; it included situations familiar to high-school students, either through direct participation or through knowing other students who participated. Thus, a student's liking for familiar activities was used to estimate his potential interest in college fields that might not familiar to him. The present study asks what particular kinds of items in an index of this type can best predict success and satisfaction in more advanced work. For example, what is the relative effectiveness of items dealing with hobbies vs. those dealing with reading, of items concerned with study in the field vs. those concerned with practice, of items about one particular content area of a field vs. those about another?

The Kinds of Items That Work in an Interest Activities Index

The Kinds of Items That Work in an Interest Activities Index

VISCOMETRIC REMINISCENCE

If one consults an up‐to‐date list of approximate tests issued by a wholesale lubricating oil concern the following kind of item will be encountered : “150 Solv. Neut. Redwood viscosity at 70°F. 310″, at 140°F. 66″”. The grade number refers to a Saybolt reading and the viscosities are in Redwood seconds. But this is 19G2 and we are well in the kinematic era. Yet reference to empirical viscosity units is by no means uncommon. Brooding on this prompted the author to recall something of efflux viscometers, the transition to the capillary instrument and the persistance of an earlier tradition.

Contents of Crops, Gizzards, and Droppings of Bobwhite Quail Force-Fed Known Kinds and Quantities of Seeds

The merits and shortcomings of various methods used to obtain information on the food habits of wildlife have been discussed in many published papers during the past 50 years. This is especially true for gallinaceous birds where the contents of crops, gizzards and droppings have been studied, and where the volume, weight, frequency of occurrence, and number of units of each kind of item have been used as criteria of appraisal. The present experiment was planned to test and compare the assumed differences in a few of these alternative methods.

An Analysis of Scatter in Intelligence Test Results: A Review of the Literature

Clinical psychologists have long believed that the unevenness of attainment on different kinds of items in an intelligence test may be used to help recognize various mental illnesses. For almost 35 years attempts have been made to discover the relation between mental illness and such qualitative features of intelligence test results. Only within the past ten years have these attempts met with a measure of success. Diagnostic intelligence testing is now an indispensable tool of many clinical psychologists. In this review we shall trace the history of the use of scatter in intelligence and achievement test results. Scatter may be defined as unevenness in the level of attainment on different tests. For example, scatter is seen in a test like the Stanford-Binet in the subject's failing an item on a given mental age level, while he passes other items on higher mental age levels; or it can be seen in the comparison of the score obtained by a subject on a reading achievement test with the score obtained on an arithmetic achieve-

The difficulty of a test and its factor composition

A factor analysis of the ten sub-tests of the Seashore test of pitch discrimination revealed that more than one ability is involved. One factor, which accounted for the greater share of the variances, had loadings that decreased systematically with increasing difficulty. A second factor had strongest loadings among the more difficult items, particularly those with frequency differences of 2 to 5 cycles per second. A third had strongest loadings at differences of 5 to 12 cycles per second. No explanation for the three factors is apparent, but the hypothesis is accepted that they represent distinct abilities. In tests so homogeneous as to content and form, where a single common factor might well have been expected, the appearance of additional common factors emphasizes the importance of considering the difficulty level of test items, both in the attempt to interpret new factors and in the practice of testing. The same kind of item may measure different abilities according as it is easy or difficult for the individuals to whom it is applied.

A Statistical Study of a New Type of Objective Examination Question

The present study was undertaken to determine the reliability and validity of the Wrong-Word type of objective examination question. The Wrong-Word type of question is an adaptation of the kind of item used in the Chapman-Cook Speed of Reading Test. The following directions were used : In each of the following sentences pick out the one word that makes the sentence wrong and write it in the space on the left. The wrong word is never one of the first three words in the sentence. For example : hearing Spectacles are commonly used to improve the hearing. A few samples of the items used in the examination are given below. The correct answers are given in parentheses. (native) Habits are probably the most important native fac tors of advantage in attention in adults. (cerebellum) The pyramidal tract is a bundle of fibers extending from the higher motor centers in the cerebellum to the lower motor centers in the cord. (afferent) The autonomie nervous system, which is afferent in function, is a relatively independent system. The chief advantage of this kind of material is its flexibility. Any kind of sentence structure, simple or complex, can be used. Facts which do not readily lend themselves to formulation as analogies, single choice, and matching questions can usually be put into the form of Wrong-Word items. As compared with completion questions, which are also flexible in form, they have the advantage of objectivity in scoring. In completion questions, it is sometimes necessary to decide by subjective judgment whether a particular answer, different from that given in the key, is to be considered correct. It seemed worth while, therefore, to determine by statistical analysis the suitability of this kind of item for use in objective examinations.