bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
THE ROLE OF THE FIELD‐DEPENDENT AND FIELD‐INDEPENDENT COGNITIVE STYLES IN ACADEMIC EVOLUTION: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY
Authors: Witkin Herman A. , Moore Carol Ann , Oltman Philip K. , Goodenough Donald R. , Friedman Florence 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTTo assess hypotheses derived from field‐dependence theory about the role of cognitive style in students' academic choices, stability of choices, and achievement, a large group of students was followed longitudinally from college entry, through college graduation and into graduate/professional school. As predicted, in their preliminary preferences at college entry, final college majors and graduate/professional school specialties, relatively field‐independent students favored impersonal domains which require cognitive restructuring skills (e.g., mathematics and the natural sciences) and relatively field‐dependent students favored interpersonal domains which do not emphasize such skills (e.g., elementary and early childhood education). Cognitive style related more strongly to final college majors and graduate/professional school specialties than to preliminary preferences at college entry. This outcome was in part a result of the tendencies of students whose preliminary choices were incongruent with their cognitive styles to shift to more compatible domains and of students with initially congruent choices to remain with those choices. In most analyses cognitive style contributed to prediction of academic choices and stability of choices beyond the contribution made by scholastic aptitude measures. Some tendency was found for students to do better in domains compatible with their cognitive styles, though field‐dependence‐independence was unrelated to such general achievement indicators as high school and college grade‐point averages.
ITEM‐ITEM CURVES AND CONSISTENT MENTAL TEST PARAMETER ESTIMATES1
Authors: Levine Michael V. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTIt is shown that empirical mental test P ‐ P plots are approximately‐equal to theoretical item‐item curves, at least for long tests administered to many people. This result is important because it leads to (1) a distribution free method for estimating points on item‐item curves, (2) a general method for defining estimates of item parameters and (3) the only parameter estimation method known to be consistent for some of the most important aptitude test models.
EFFECTS OF STIMULUS HIGHLIGHTING AND VARIATION IN NUMBER OF TRIALS ON CHILDREN'S INCIDENTAL LEARNING
Authors: Hale Gordon A. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTChildren aged 8 and 12 years performed a task requiring attention to the “relevant” element in each of several two‐element stimuli, then were tested for memory of the second, or “incidental” element in each stimulus. Highlighting the relevant element (i.e., circling the element in red) lowered the amount of incidental information acquired. However, highlighting failed to alter the basic developmental result–an increase with age in performance on the initial task but a decrease in incidental recall. As in previous studies, the latter result is believed to reflect a developmental improvement in children's selective attention to task‐relevant information. Since highlighting was designed to facilitate the initial discrimination of relevant from incidental material, the data support the view that this initial discrimination process is not a key factor in the developmental trend toward greater selectivity in attention. In another comparison, the developmental results were found to be the same whether the initial task consisted of 2 or 6 trials; thus, older children's superiority in attention deployment is evident from the outset of a task and, contrary to the author's earlier view, does not become more pronounced as the task progresses.
FIELD DEPENDENCE REVISITED
Authors: Witkin Herman A. , Goodenough Donald R. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTResults of the large number of studies stimulated by the theory of psychological differentiation now make revision of the theory necessary. The model that is proposed seeks to accommodate, the recently accumulated findings on interpersonal behavior, cognitive restructuring skills and localization of neurophysiological functions. Central components of this model are the field‐dependent and field‐independent cognitive styles. These styles are conceived as tendencies to rely on internal or external referents in information processing, stemming from differences in extent of self‐nonself segregation. Reflecting these contrasting tendencies, field‐independent people do well in cognitive restructuring tasks and are limited in social sensitivity and social skills; field‐dependent people have greater social sensitivity and social skills but are not as competent in cognitive restructuring. The field‐dependence‐independence cognitive‐style dimension is thus bipolar with regard to level, having no clear “high” or “low” ends; and it is neutral with regard to value, each pole having qualities adaptive in particular circumstances. A distinction is drawn between people who are fixed in their use of a field‐dependent or field‐independent style and those who are mobile, having access to both.
COMPARING HIGH SCHOOLS WITH RESPECT TO STUDENT PERFORMANCE IN UNIVERSITY
Authors: Rubin Donald B. , Stroud T. W. F. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThis report presents data analyses investigating the relationship of high school final average, X, and first year university average, Y, in a Canadian university. The statistical summaries are (1) a matrix of observed “relative grading standards” of each high school in each matriculation year, and (2) a quadratic regression relating Y to X in each year. These summaries suggest that (1) the grading standards for some of the schools are changing consistently in time, and (2) the general relationship between Y and X is becoming more quadratic and less linear in time. The implication is that the high school attended is a more important predictor of university performance for students with poorer high school records than for students with better high school records, especially in recent years.
PEER RATINGS OF DOCTORAL PROGRAM FACULTY: THEIR STABILITY AND MEANING1
Authors: Hartnett Rodney T. , Clark Mary Jo , Baird Leonard L. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTPeer ratings of doctoral program faculty quality were obtained in a 1975 national survey of chemistry, history, and psychology departments. The ratings were then compared to those obtained six and eleven years earlier by the American Council on Education. The rankings obtained from the ratings proved to be extremely stable over the 11‐year period.Ratings were also obtained for disciplinary subspecialties. Though it is clear that variation in quality among subspecialty faculties do exist and are important for individual program evaluations, it is unlikely that such subspecialty ratings would be feasible or useful in national surveys of doctoral program faculty.Finally, the ratings were examined in relation to various other doctoral program characteristics, and were found to be highly related to a number of research‐oriented variables (e.g., size, productivity, percentage of alumni holding academic positions at Ph.D.‐granting universities), but unrelated (or related very weakly) to such program features as the student‐reported quality of teaching and degree of faculty concern for students, or faculty‐reported degree of departmental effort toward the career development of junior members of the faculty.
THE EFFECTS OF SPECIAL PREPARATION ON SAT‐VERBAL SCORES
Authors: Alderman Donald L. , Powers Donald E. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThis study examined the effectiveness of secondary school programs specifically designed to improve student performance on the SAT‐Verbal component. Students at eight schools were randomly assigned to either a treatment group which was given special preparation for the SAT‐V or a control group with access to the same preparation delayed for the purposes of the study. The programs of special preparation were those already in place at the public and private secondary schools selected as participants. A special administration of the SAT served as the posttest. Special preparation resulted in an overall difference of eight points, on the SAT‐V scale of 200–800 points, between the treatment and control groups. The difference corresponded to one additional item correct for students receiving special preparation and stemmed primarily from student performance on analogy and antonym test items.
EFFECTS OF TAKING THE SAT ON RATE OF WORK AND GUESSING
Authors: Powers Donald E. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe College Board recently published Taking the SAT, a booklet designed to Improve candidates' familiarity with the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Test of Standard Written English (TSWE). This note examines the extent to which receiving the new booklet altered (a) candidates' strategies with regard to responding in the face of uncertainty and (b) the rate at which examinees proceeded through the test. It Is suggested that specific instructions found in the booklet are related to changes in examinees' test‐taking behaviors in both of these areas.
AN EVALUATION OF GRE SENDER SCORES AS A MEASURE OF GRADUATE ADMISSIONS SELECTIVITY IN TWO FIELDS
Authors: Clark Mary Jo 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe average GRE Aptitude Test scores of test‐takers who had their scores sent to 57 history and 60 chemistry departments in 1972–73 (“score senders”) are compared with the average Aptitude Test scores of first‐year students who enrolled in these departments in the fall of 1973 (“enrolled students” or “matriculants”). There is a positive correlation of .5 to .7 between the department mean sender and mean matriculant scores; however, about an equal number of departments in both fields were found to enroll students with average test scores that were relatively lower as well as relatively higher than their average sender scores. Results were similar for departments with high, moderate, and low reputational ratings. Though the self‐selection of applicants appears to account for a large part of departmental “selectivity” as this is represented by average GRE Aptitude Test scores, the study concludes that average sender scores should not be used to describe the admissions selectivity of individual graduate departments in these two fields.
HOW COLLEGE SENIORS PERCEIVE THEIR WORLD
Authors: Barrows Thomas S. , Clark John L. , Klein Stephen F. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTStudents graduating from American colleges in 1980 live in a world whose elements are increasingly interdependent. Are these educated world citizens prepared to understand the interactions of nations in an interdependent world? Do they apprehend world problems from a catholic, multi‐disciplinary point of view, and can they note and appreciate the immense complexity of the problems in both cause and effect? Do they perceive the extent to which individual lives, including their own, are affected by global or international conditions, and do any historical perspectives guide their understanding?In February 1980, Educational Testing Service, having received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U. S. Department of Education, surveyed a nationally representative random sample of over 3,000 students at two‐year and four‐year colleges. This paper describes partial results for the sample of seniors. Forthcoming reports will provide full results for freshmen, seniors, and students at two‐year institutions.
DEVELOPMENT OF METHODS FOR SELECTION AND EVALUATION IN UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION
Authors: Frederiksen Norman , Ward William C. , Case Susan M. , Carlson Sybil B. , Samph Thomas 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe purposes of this study were (1) to develop and validate measures of diagnostic problem solving that might be useful in the selection of medical students and in evaluating performance during training, and (2) to improve our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in such problem solving.The study involved three kinds of measures. (1) Criterion tests were paper‐and‐pencil simulations of the salient aspects of medical diagnostic situations. Three such problems used a free‐response format that required examinees to think of ideas for themselves, while three employed a structured‐response (expanded multiple‐choice) format. (2) Experimental selection tests were paper‐and‐pencil simulations of situations that present problems of a nonmedical nature and that could presumably be solved by methods like those used for medical problems. Both free‐response and structured‐response problems were included. (3) Process measures were selected from existing test batteries to measure cognitive abilities and personality characteristics thought to be involved in carrying out problem‐solving activities.All three kinds of measures were administered to 122 fourth‐year medical students. The selection tests and the process variables were given to 97 first‐year students. Finally, a small number (30) of advanced residents took the criterion tests only. Data from student records, such as MCAT and National Board scores, were also obtained as appropriate.
EVIDENCE AND ETHICS IN THE EVALUATION OF TESTS1
Authors: Messick Samuel 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTEstablishing the validity of educational and psychological tests entails judgments of both evidence and consequence for each of the two distinct but interrelated functions of tests – interpretation and use. The evidential basis of test interpretation is construct validity. The evidential basis of test use is also construct validity, but elaborated to determine the relevance of the construct to the applied purpose and the utility of the measure in the applied setting. The consequential basis of test interpretation entails an appraisal of the value implications of alternative interpretations, while the consequential basis of test use requires appraisal of the potential social consequences of the proposed use and of the actual consequences when used. The delineation of a consequential basis for test validity as well as an evidential basis means that standards for evaluating tests must take explicit account of social context and social purpose, and test validity comes to be based on ethical as well as evidential grounds.Implications of this unified view of test validity as an overall judgment of the adequacy and appropriateness of inferences and actions based on test scores are examined for the measurement of four constructs prevalent in current educational practice – namely, intelligence, competence, mastery, and scholastic ability. Implications are also adumbrated for the responsibilities of test users and for the ethics of test use. (41 pp.)
RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY AND TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS
Authors: Centra John A. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the relationship between research productivity and teaching effectiveness to shed light on the long‐debated question of whether performance in one area enhances performance in the other. The academic field and the stage of a faculty member's career were both considered in the analyses. Two samples of 2,973 and 1,623 faculty members from a variety of institutions were studied. In considering results of both analyses, teachers of social science courses were the only group for which there were consistent though modest relationships between the number of published articles and student ratings of instructor effectiveness. Thus “spill‐over” effects, or a “general ability” factor, or other reasons for a possible link between research and teaching performance are not totally supported. The relationship between performance in the two areas is either nonexistant or, where it appears, too modest to conclude that one necessarily enhances the other.
A NEW INDEX OF DIFFERENTIAL SUBGROUP PERFORMANCE: APPLICATION TO THE GRE APTITUDE TEST
Authors: Stricker Lawrence J. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe items on the GRE Aptitude Test were analyzed for race (white vs. black) and sex differences in their functioning, using three procedures for identifying items that perform differently: item partial correlations with subgroup membership (race or sex), controlling for total score; comparisons of item characteristic curves for subgroups; and plots of item difficulties for subgroups. All of these methods assume that the test is unidimensional and the total score (or the typical item) is relatively free of differential functioning, and rely on internal analyses of the test to identify deviant items.Appreciable proportions of the items in each section of the test were identified as performing differentially for each race and sex by the partial correlation and ICC indexes, but only small proportions were identified by the item difficulty index. Although many items were identified by the two indexes, these measures were generally very small in magnitude, indicating that they detected a minimal degree of differential functioning.About the same proportions of significant items and the same magnitude of effects occurred in a replication of the analyses in new samples. All of the indexes generally exhibited substantial consistency in identifying the same items in the replicated and original analyses.The partial correlation and ICC indexes substantially agreed in the particular items that they identified as functioning differentially for males and females, but did not agree in the items that they identified as performing differently for whites and blacks; the item difficulty index did not agree with the others in either of these analyses.The items identified by the indexes generally did not differ from the remaining items in type or content, a major exception being that verbal items with female content which were identified by the partial correlation index as performing differently for each sex favored females.The prevalence of differential functioning implied by the present results and the factorial complexity observed in other research brings into question the tenability of the assumptions underlying these indexes. The effect that violating these assumptions has on the findings needs to be determined in further empirical work before the question of the differential performance of these items can be fully answered.
CONSTRUCT VALIDITY OF THE GMAT: A FACTOR ANALYTIC STUDY*
Authors: Swinton Spencer S. , Powers Donald E. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTA factor analytic study of the Graduate Management Admission Test was undertaken in order to gain a more thorough understanding of the psychological constructs underlying examinee performance on the test. The degree to which various dimensions or explanatory concepts account for test performance was established for three alternate forms of the GMAT and for several subgroups of examinees in order to determine the degree of equivalence of test forms and the similarity of measured constructs for various groups. Dimensions of test variation emerged that were thought to be useful to test development staff in sharpening test content specifications needed for the development of future equivalent forms of the test. One dimension that emerged which currently is not explicit in the GMAT specifications was the distinction between quantitative items that are abstract in nature and those that have a practical or applied nature. The relationship of each of three experi mental item types to the factors underlying the current operational test was also determined through factor extension analysis and recommendations were made regarding the use of these three new item types in future revisions of the GMAT.
EFFECTS OF SELF‐STUDY OF TEST FAMILIARIZATION MATERIALS FOR THE ANALYTICAL SECTION OF THE GRE APTITUDE TEST
Authors: Powers Donald E. , Swinton Spencer S. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTAn experimental study was conducted to (a) provide further information on the possible differential susceptibility to special preparation of three GRE analytical item types, (b) determine whether candidates' self‐study of test familiarization materials might result in analytical ability score improvements comparable to those resulting from formal instructional intervention, and (c) ascertain which components of the special preparation were most effective. To provide this information various sets of test preparation materials (practice tests, explanations of answers to practice questions, and suggested strategies for approaching each analytical item type) were mailed to random samples of GRE candidates approximately four to five weeks before the test date. Candidates' use of each set of materials was manipulated by encouraging random samples of candidates to study the materials.Comparisons of the subsequent GRE scores of the various groups of candidates (a) confirmed the susceptibility to special preparation of two of the analytical item types (analysis of explanations and logical diagrams), (b) suggested little susceptibility for either of the two subtypes of the third item type (analytical reasoning), (c) provided strong evidence that candidates can undertake effective self‐preparation for “coachable” item types like the ones studied here, (d) pointed to some components of test preparation (e.g., extra test practice) as more effective than others, and (e) strongly suggested that, even more than the particular kind of preparation undertaken, being engaged in some preparation is necessary for successful performance on these item types.
CONDITIONS INFLUENCING THE CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF PH.D.S
Authors: Clark Mary Jo , Centra John A. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThis study is a synthesis of two separate but related analyses which explored the influence of academic ability, training, and personal characteristics on postdegree careers and attainments of recent Ph.D.'s. Publication rates and income were used as indicators of attainments. The path model designed for the study viewed the employment setting as well as the kind of employment activity as mediating influences on the attainment measures. Academic ability was assessed by the GRE Aptitude and Advanced Tests and, for part of the sample, by graduate and undergraduate grades. Among the other individual characteristics included as predictors in the study were the number of years since receipt of the Ph.D., age, and sex. Finally, the study included estimates of the quality of the graduate program where the Ph.D. was received.Some fairly consistent findings emerge when viewing the results across all six of the major field/discipline area samples that were analyzed. Although the academic ability construct did not generally affect productivity or income directly, it correlated significantly with the quality of the program that granted the Ph.D. Program quality, in turn, was an important determinant of whether graduates were employed in positions that emphasized research, or teaching and research. Employment in such positions, according to the path analyses, influenced productivity in each of the subsamples. Thus, ability and training appear to influence productivity largely through the employment setting and the primary work activity. The other direct influences on productivity were the number of years since receiving the doctorate, or other time‐related variables. The length of time since earning the doctorate also positively influenced income in five out of six of the subsamples. Productivity helped to determine income in the samples of historians, psychologists, and physical scientists, but not in the other three samples. Employment as a college or university faculty member, or as an academic or non‐academic researcher, has a negative impact on income in all six subsamples. Those employed as administrators or as clinicians tended to report higher earnings. Academic ability, for the most part, did not affect income.