Innovativeness has been believed to be a significant psychological construct underlying individual differences in adopting novel ideas, experiences or approaches. Although few recent studies have contributed to identifying the factors that predict innovativeness, there is a lack of research showing the impacts of implicit theories and goal…

The relationship between teaching and research is a controversial issue in higher education research. Many empirical studies have reported a near zero relationship although academics believe that teaching and research are related in diverse ways. This study focused on how the relationship differs by faculty characteristics (career stage and their…

Previous research on the primacy effect in ability attribution has focused on intellectual ability, using intelligence test problems as the stimulus material. To examine ability attribution under conditions of ascending (improving), descending, and random patterns of performance on a typing task, 179 college students (69 males, 110 females)…

In the context of Ireland's changing demographics, this paper explores the importance of pedagogic research in informing both philosophies and pedagogical practices in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) which endeavours to facilitate student teachers' engagement with the teaching and learning process in Ireland's multicultural classrooms. By…

This research program was designed to investigate the applications of item response theory and computerized adaptive testing to the unique problems of the measurement of ability and the measurement of achievement. The research utilized a combination of monte carlo simulation studies and live-testing studies. The research approach for adaptive…

Presents two experiments involving 16 and 14 college students that were designed to enhance the sensitivity of reaction time as an information-processing correlate of general ability. Data from both are interpreted in terms of mental efficiency theories of intelligence. (SLD)

Theories of human motivation have focused on the distinction between task-involvement (a concern with task mastery) and ego-involvement (a concern over evaluating performance relative to normative or other external criteria). Nicholls (1984) has proposed that competence is construed differently under task-involving and ego-involving conditions.…

Measurement specialists routinely assume examinee responses to test items are independent of one another. However, previous research has shown that many contemporary tests contain item dependencies and not accounting for these dependencies leads to misleading estimates of item, test, and ability parameters. In this study, methods for detecting…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the viability of the property of parameter invariance for the one-parameter (1P), two-parameter (2P), and three-parameter (3P) item response theory (IRT) models for the Medical College Admissions Tests (MCAT). Invariance of item parameters across different gender, ethnic, and language groups and the…

Analysis of 116 students revealed those who preferred to process mathematical information by verbal-logical means outperformed more visual students on tests. Spatial ability and knowledge of spatial conventions had less influence on performance than expected. (MP)

This study reports the results of an investigation into the accuracy and efficacy of item calibration schemes used by two commercially available personal computer programs, BILOG and MicroCAT, when used to calibrate a test that is currently used in higher education. A calibration of 1,000 randomly selected students' responses to a 72-question math…

Investigated the allocation of positive and negative outcomes of joint work. College students (N=94) allocated gain or loss based on information about their own and partner's ability and effort and differences in performance. Allocations to discount differences in contributions were based on differences in ability rather than effort. (RC)

This study demonstrates the utility of a HYBRID psychometric model, which incorporates both item response theoretic and latent class models, for detecting test speededness. The model isolates where in a sequence of test items examinee response patterns shift from one providing reasonable estimates of ability to those best characterized by a random…

An approximation procedure is proposed for the posterior means and standard deviation of the ability parameter in an item response model. The method is illustrated for the two-parameter logistic model using data from a 39-item American College Testing mathematics test. The effect of sample size is considered. (SLD)

Subjects were presented with tasks varying in the extent to which success was diagnostic of high ability and failure was diagnostic of low ability. Results supported the self-assessment theory--high achievement-motivated subjects were more interested in obtaining diagnostic information than in succeeding at difficult tasks. (Author/GDC)