The experience of developing a set of comprehensive aptitude batteries for computer administration for the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory's Learning Abilities Measurement Program resulted in the formulation of nine principles for creation of a computerized test battery. These principles are discussed in the context of research on…

Responds to article by Ross investigating whether psychologists possess psychometric knowledge necessary to evaluate discrepancies within individual's test performace with sufficient accuracy to ensure reliable decision making. Presents arguments within context of guidelines for test interpretation and estimation of error. Offers suggestions for…

Reacts to response of Barnett and Macmann concerning Ross's investigation into whether psychologists possess psychometric knowledge necessary to evaluate discrepancies within individual's test performace with sufficient accuracy to ensure reliable decision making. Contends that ways need to be found to implement and evaluate promising…

Three studies of college students (n=178, 129, and 96) evaluated the reliability and validity of the Assessment of Attributions for Career Decision-Making instrument. Factor analysis supported a three-factor structure. The instrument demonstrated adequate internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct, criterion, and incremental…

Studies a new approach to ipsative analysis of children's profiles on a test of ability. Uses the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) processes measured by the Cognitive Assessment System to illustrate how profile analysis could be accomplished. Results suggest that the ipsative approach may offer promise for identification of…

This study compares two methods commonly used (concordance and prediction) to establish linkages between scores from tests of similar content given in different languages. Score linkages between the Verbal and Math sections of the SAT I and the corresponding sections of the Spanish-language admissions test, the Prueba de Aptitud Academica (PAA),…

This article discusses the innovative minority. Gifted students differ from the average students. There are those who argue that the differences are a matter merely of quantitative degree reference studies of IQ scores, or SAT scores, which are clearly quantitative scales, and point out that gifted students appear at the top level of these scales…

How can one create a system for university admission that is equitable, valid, and representative of the broad range of abilities that students can bring to university settings? Conventional tests of abilities and achievements are narrow and do not measure the full range of abilities relevant to university and life success. In this article I…

The College Board's SAT[R] data are used to illustrate how the score equity assessment (SEA) can help inform the program about equatability. SEA is used to examine whether the content change(s) to the revised new SAT result in differential linking functions across gender groups. Results of population sensitivity analyses are reported on the…

The project reported here consisted of a sensitivity review of the items of Forms 11, 12, and 13 of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). Because administration of this battery is a required step in the accession process, it should be free from perceived bias or offensiveness that could detract from the measurement process. In…

A quantitative method, meta-analysis, is used to integrate research findings from a representative group of 38 coaching studies. Because different studies reported results on different scales, effect size was used to transform all results to a common metric. This meta-analysis showed that there are two distinct literatures on the effectiveness of…

Testing and studying of 373 college students enrolled in an introductory five credit-hour course in data processing indicated that a very large proportion of the students appeared to possess sufficient aptitude for computer programming training. No significant difference was noted between freshmen and seniors or between males and females. (EA)

Foreign language aptitude was the subject of much research in the 1950s and has been the subject of intermittent research for the last 30 years. Aptitude is measured by the amount of time it takes an individual to learn. Foreign language aptitude appears to differ from general aptitude or intelligence. One theory states that foreign language…

The history of military manpower policy and college student deferment is reviewed, with attention to the Selective Service College Qualification Test (SSCQT). By passage of the Selective Service Act of 1948, Congress recognized the need to maintain an adequate number of scientific, professional, and specialized personnel in both civilian and…

In June 1983, 456 presidents from among 5,000 of the largest companies in the United States took a vocabulary test designed by the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation, with the purpose of reexaming the contention that a large and exact vocabulary is an attribute characterizing executives. This Executive Vocabulary Test consisted of 50…