Problems in measuring the attitudes of whites toward blacks have included: (1) Lack of contemporary content in existing measures; (2) Difficulty of determining scale validity; and, (3) The strong social reinforcement for being "tolerant" toward blacks making the assessment of "true" racial attitudes more difficult. The…

The development of an objective diagnostic scale to measure atypical behavior is discussed. The Atypical Response Scale (ARS) is a structured projective test consisting of 17 items, each weighted 1, 2, or 3, that were tested for convergence and reliability. ARS may be individually or group administered in 10-15 minutes; hand scoring requires 90…

The resistance of the Personal Orientation Inventory to deliberate attempts to fake in a positive direction was investigated for samples of Spanish- speaking Nicaraguan students and industrial workers. Results were consistent with findings from American samples, particularly the consistently lower existentiality scores. (Author/JKS)

Rebuts an article that claimed to overthrow the authors' 1969 findings. It is demonstrated that the original study concerned syntactic organization and that interpretation of it as bearing on comprehension is largely unjustified. Comments on their prior work in light of new developments in child language are included. (EJS)

A discussion of the influences of impulsivity on test performance is presented, along with suggested procedures for ascertaining more accurately the cognitive abilities of impulsive children. (Author)

This study compared 38 Hispanic and 28 Anglo college students with respect to the amount of time allocated to items on a reasoning test administered by microcomputer. Results suggested that a time constraint may penalize Hispanic examinees. The applicability of computerized testing for studying test-taking strategy problems is illustrated.…

Three rating scales--with all positive or all negative wording, or a mixture of both--were administered to 522 children in grades four through six. The results indicated that it was difficult for students to indicate agreement by disagreeing with a negative statement. This affected test validity. Author/GDC)

Responses of 483 Anglo and 328 Mexican American male and female university sophomore students to Jourard's Self Disclosure Questionnaire were greatly affected by examiner gender, ethnicity--Anglo or Mexican American--and style of administration--nondirective, directive, or neutral. Effects were compounded when respondents were of different gender…

Assessed the effectiveness of a stress management program for nursing students. The stress management group effectively reduced trait anxiety and showed a reduction in state (test-taking) anxiety from mid-semester to final examinations, while the control group showed a slight increase. (Author)

Subjects were immediately tested on a reading passage, and received feedback after 30 minutes or one day, or no feedback. After a week, subjects identified their original responses to three types of test items. One-day delay of feedback gave better results than the 30-minute delay. (GDC)

The effects of student teaching and the pretesting of attitudes on student teachers' attitudes were studied. Results suggested that pretesting of attitudes was detrimental to attitude improvement. Appropriate designs for assessing changes in attitudes were discussed. (Author/MH)

The results of a series of simulation studies designed to investigate the influence of guessing and item pool characteristics on the bias, accuracy, and information properties of the trait estimates derived from Owen's Bayesian sequential testing strategy are reported. (RC)

Assumptions of a servocontrol model of test item feedback were tested in a study of 94 junior and senior high school students receiving feedback or no feedback with 2 retention intervals. Results support the assumption that response certitude is related to the learner's ability to comprehend a given item. (SLD)

Studies response style characteristics among 1,908 Hispanic Americans and 14,425 non-Hispanic whites in 4 studies. Hispanic Americans prefer extreme responses on rating scales more than do non-Hispanic Americans. Hispanic Americans are more likely to agree with a given item. Results are discussed in the contexts of acculturation and education.…

Creative thinking styles of Native American students were investigated to determine the existence of creativity as a homogeneous trait among this culture. Seventy-nine Cherokee students in grades 4 and 6, attending a small rural school in eastern Oklahoma, were administered the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking--Figural Form A. Thirty-eight…