Edmond Marks

Procedures and Criteria for Evaluating Reading and Listening Comprehension Tests

READING and listening comprehension tests are two examples of a general class of test-taking situations in which the test taker is exposed to a more or less clearly specified type and amount of information and is then asked to respond to questions based on the material. In this kind of task the tester asks the subject to recognize a rule or set of rules which relates the elements of the information

A Note on a Geometric Interpretation of the Correlation Coefficient.

An alternate geometric interpretation of the correlation coefficient to that given in most statistics texts for psychology and education is presented. This interpretation is considered to be more consistent with the statistical model for the data, and richer in geometric meaning.

Machiavellian Attitudes: Some Measurement and Behavioral Considerations

Two studies were conducted, one to evaluate the role of test-taking strategies on the scores of Christies scale for Machiavellian attitudes (Mach V), and the other to examine the joint relationship of college academic achievement to scholastic ability, birth order and Machiavellianism. The first study indicated that subjects can manipulate their responses to the Mach V scale in specified directions given a specific test strategy. Academic achievement was found to be an additive function of scholastic ability and Machiavellianism, whereas the hypothesized moderator effect of ability on the relationship between Machiavellianism and achievement (i.e., brighter students are better able to implement Machiavellian strategies in the achievement of higher grades) was not supported. Results were discussed in terms of the conceptualization and measurement of Machiavellianism as a multidimensional vari

Further Comments Relating to the Measurement of Change

As part of their review of the estimation and use of “change” scores, Cronbach and Furby and O’Connor recommended procedures designed to increase the precision of estimators of individual true gain. The intent was to develop estimators which yielded smaller mean squares of (D ∞ –D ∞), where (D ∞ is true gain. The present study was designed to examine the effects of three parameters upon this mean square, where the estimator of D ∞ employed was one originally proposed by F. M. Lord. The three parameters studied were the correlation between the true score on the initial test and true gain (r ξγ), the reliability of the initial test r xx sample size. Of principal interest were the effects of the initial test true score-true gain correlation. The ANOVA results indicated that r ξγ has a pronounced effect upon the precision of D ∞ but this effect is moderated by r XX general, higher values of r ξγ yielded smaller errors in D D ∞. These results were considered in the discussion of the extended estimator proposed by Cronbach and Furby.

Methods for analyzing multidimensional contingency tables

Many problems investigated by researchers in higher education involve simple frequency counts and their analysis. Not too infrequently, these frequency counts arise from the cross-classification of a sample of observations on a number of qualitative variables. In this case, the investigator is usually interested in examining the multiplicative interactions among the classification variables. When the number of classification variables exceeds two, however, the investigator is faced with rather severe problems in undertaking his analysis. All too often, the researcher is reduced to breaking up his multidimensional contingency table into smaller, typically two-way tables, and analyzing each separately. This article describes a unified approach, developed by L.A. Goodman, to the analysis of the p-way contingency table which enriches our understanding of the relationships existing among the classification variables. Two examples from research in higher education are used to demonstrate the usefulness of the method.

Some considerations relating to the choice of an educational program

Abstract A random sample of 1098 new freshmen was cross-classified on sex and the extent to which the college major they selected was saturated with natural science and mathematics requirements. The responses of these students on 14 cognitive and 14 goal variables relating to the choice of an educational program were separately analyzed by means of the multivariate analysis of variance. The results of these analyses indicated that students entering natural science/mathematics programs tend to be oriented more towards the concrete and visible outcomes of an education and a career, e.g., training relevant to a career, an above average income, and success and recognition, than are students not choosing this type of program. Non-science students, on the other hand, value the interpersonal and usefulness to society outcomes of their educational and vocational pursuits. The results relating to the cognitive variables were less definitive, although students entering natural science/mathematics programs were more certain of successfully completing their educational program. Contrary to one of the major hypotheses the program groups did not differ with respect to the certainty of their choice of a college major. The results of this study were developed with a decision-making framework for choice of education and career.

Continuing problems in exploring the structure of job satisfaction

Abstract Job satisfaction ratings-defined as the product (importance) X (what the job should offer, what the job actually offers)-on 29 job dimensions were factor analyzed for two large and randomly drawn samples of management-level males. An identical analysis was also carried out on the perceived discrepancy score alone. Differences between the results of the analyses on the two types of measures indicated that while the importance weighted measure of job satisfaction is more elegant and conceptually appealing, it is embedded in considerable measurement difficulty. Some probable sources of and possible approaches to handling this difficulty were offered.

Nonadditive Effects in the Prediction of Academic Achievement

variable which singly provides the most information about future academic performance at the college level as measured by college grade point average (GPA) (Segel, 1934; Travers, 1949) or attrition (Lindsay, Marks, and Hamel, 1964). This predictive relationship has been attributed to the hypothesized multidimensional nature of HSA, which has been assumed to reflect such factors as scholastic ability, motivation, the development and utilization of skills relevant to scholastic performance, and others (Fishman, 1962). As such, HSA is treated as a vector, the several components of which reflect factors important to college academic achievement. Demonstration of the informational properties of HSA is typically undertaken by utilizing statistical models such as bivariate or kvariate regression where the equation is assumed linear in the parameters and in the independent variables. Where two secondary schools differ in quality of students, quality of instruction, competitiveness, or grading standards, there is

Scholastic Aptitudes, Vocational Interests, and Personality Characteristics of Journalism Students

JOURNALISM educators and the field of Journal ism in general are becoming increasingly concern ed about the fluid state of journalism enrollment, as reported by schools of journalism throughout the country. Although total enrollment remains fairly constant, the withdrawal from, and transfer to journalism is quite high, according to trends re ported over the past several years. Another disconcerting trend to journalism educa tors is the growing predominance of women in rela tion to men who are entering schools of journalism. Practical considerations for women, such as mar riage and motherhood, indicate a possible instabil ity in the status of journalism as a profession. Realizing the far-reaching implications of these trends, the School of Journalism of the Pennsyl vania State University is gathering data to be used both in the evaluation of the various hypotheses, and to indicate new hypotheses regarding these trends. Beside these immediate enrollment trends, the pro ject seeks to establish the concept or image of jour nalism which high school students and entering col lege freshmen have of such a career. The study reported here was conducted by Stu dent Affairs Research incollaborationwith the School of Journalism as part of that schools re search project. The present study attempts to de termine if there are any s ignificant differences in scholastic aptitudes, interest patterns, or person ality characteristics between those students en rolled in journalism and those students who had en rolled but later withdrew from that school.