Kindergarten, first, second, third and fourth grade disadvantaged Black children were given the A-State and A-Trait scales of Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC). For the grades K-2 samples, the STAIC A-State scale was administered under two stress conditions: mathematics and communication achievement tests. The…

A number of examples are presented to illustrate a common flaw in the published research on learning, memory, and instruction. Experimental subjects--often college students--have certain expectations about the problems they will be asked to solve and about the questions that will appear on reading comprehension or recall tests; these expectations…

In a 1977 review of the literature on test answer changing, Mueller and Wasser (EJ 163 236) cited 17 studies and concluded that students changing answers on objective tests gain more points than they lost by so doing. Higher scoring students tend to gain more than do the lower scoring students. Six additional studies not reported in the Mueller…

Thirteen graduate students were asked to indicate for each of 24 multiple-choice items whether the item tested "recall of specific information," a "higher order skill," or "don't know." The students were also asked to state their general basis for judging the items. The 24 items had been previously classified according to Bloom's cognitive-skills…

This study tested a variation of the random response surveying strategy designed for lengthy questionnaires to be used in group administrations or mail surveys. A questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 3,000 company grade officers divided into three groups. One group received a conventional questionnaire. The second group received a random…

This paper considers (1) the requirements imposed on data in order to conform to the Rasch model, (2) some common sources of departure from the model, and (3) a procedure for recognizing the occurrence of these disturbances. The specific disturbances discussed are guessing, practice, speededness, and bias. The observed characteristic curve for…

The influence of an individual's cognitive style on hypothesis testing behavior was investigated. Thirty analytic and 30 global subjects each solved 24, 16-trial problems with intermittent reinforcement, i.e., E said "right" or "wrong" after every fifth response. Results indicated that the analytic subjects solved more problems…

Four selected scales from the Learning Environment Inventory (LEI) were rewritten to measure the students' individual perceptions of their classroom environment, rather than their estimates of the opinions of the class as a whole. Both scales were then administered to 10 7th grade math classes and 4 10th grade social studies classes. The rewritten…

An examinee is required to express his confidence in the correctness of each choice of a multiple-choice item in a probabilistic test. For the responses to be valid indicators the confidence expressed in each choice should be determined by an examinees' knowledge. This study assessed the relationship of the certainty of examinees' responses to…

In this comparison of the political "images" of Richard Nixon and George McGovern, public opinion data were collected on President Nixon in 1968 and 1972 and on Senator McGovern in 1972 just before and just after the television broadcast of the biography of McGovern. Changes in political attitudes toward Nixon and McGovern as a result of…

This study investigated whether various kinds of preschool programs have differential cognitive effects on different kinds of children. Relevant literature was reviewed and data, generated in the first 2 years of the Head Start Planned Variations Study (PVS), were analyzed. The eight preschool programs associated with the PVS were considered.…

The study was an experimental investigation of the effects of item difficulty and subject ability on subjects answer-changing behaviors. Subjects were administered an achievement test composed of items at three levels of difficulty via slides, followed by a printed copy of the test. Analyses revealed no effects attributable to subject ability.…

The objectives of this study were to ascertain the existence of any widely held, systematic sets in response position selection (RPS) and to evaluate the potential biasing effects of such sets on multiple choice and true-false test results. It is concluded that a sudden change in the accustomed pattern of keyed response positions can shift…

This 42-item Student Attitude Inventory (SAI) was administered to entering college freshmen at the University of Illinois (see TM 001 015). The SAI items are divided into nine categories on the basis of content as follows: voting behavior, drug usage, financial, Viet Nam war, education, religious behavior, pollution, housing, and alienation. A…

Item data from two scales of the Ohio Vocational Interest Survey were used to investigate the relationship between item-favorability and sex bias. Item-response data, item sex group interaction data, and item-total score correlational data were examined. It was found that item-favorability was not a suitable criterion for the identification of…