bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY TESTS FOR NAVAL OFFICER SELECTION II. VALIDATION OF EXPERIMENTAL TESTS AT U. S. NAVAL ACADEMY
Authors: Ricciuti Henry N. , French John W. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe objective of this research, which was conducted with the cooperation of the U. S. Naval Academy, was the development of personality measures to supplement the more scholastically oriented aptitude tests used in the selection of Naval Officers. Approximately the first year of the research was devoted to an analysis of the ratings of aptitude‐for‐service, or leadership potential, used at the Naval Academy. The second phase of the research, which is described in the present report, involved the development and validation of several personality tests intended to predict midshipmen aptitude‐for‐service ratings.On the basis of findings obtained in the first phase of the research, five experimental personality tests were developed and administered in September 1951 to 462 midshipmen of the class of 1953. Three of these tests were objectively scorable: the Sense of Humor, Personality Trait, and Association Tests. Two of the tests, the Picture Interpretation and Story Completion Tests, were of the projective type.Nine objective scores from the first three tests were intercorrelated with: a) aptitude‐for‐service ratings, b) class standings in conduct and in courses, and c) ability test scores. These personality test scores showed virtually no correlation with the aptitude‐for‐service ratings. An empirical key for the Personality Trait Test was developed on one‐half of the sample and cross‐validated on the other half, yielding a validity of .13. It is concluded that the objective tests included in the present analysis possess little or no validity for the prediction of aptitude ratings.The Story Completion Test was analyzed by classifying the stories written by 118 midshipmen, representing upper and lower criterion groups, into categories which were assigned à priori scoring values. This à priori key yielded a small significant correlation (.25) with aptitude‐for‐service ratings. Using only the five best story stems resulted in a correlation of .22. An empirically modified key using only the best scoring categories for these five story‐stems yielded a significant validity of .19 when applied to the stories of another group of 116 midshipmen. Although these validities are not of immediate practical value, it is concluded that, with further refinements and research, including administration to pre‐admission groups, this type of test may hold considerable promise for the prediction of aptitude‐for‐service ratings.It was not possible to analyze and validate the Picture Interpretation Test within the time and budgetary limitations of the present contract.
EFFECTS OF DIRECTIONS REGARDING GUESSING ON ITEM STATISTICS OF A MULTIPLE‐CHOICE VOCABULARY TEST
Authors: Swineford Frances , Miller Peter M. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTA 100‐item vocabulary test containing 80 words of normal difficulty, ten extremely difficult words, and ten nonexistent “words” was administered to a group of 801 Annapolis first‐year students. There were three sets of directions, one third of the population being told nothing about guessing, one third being warned against guessing, and one third being encouraged to guess.Directions not to guess were found to have the most direct effect on the number of questions attempted; students who were told nothing about guessing acted very similarly to students who were encouraged to guess. The tendency to guess proved to have an almost negligible positive relation to ability in the area of the test. The reliability of the test was lowered by the presence of the special items. Individual item difficulties were affected by the directions, deltas being higher where there was least guessing. Biserial correlations of the ordinary items were adversely affected, but to a slight extent only, by the presence of the special items. The very difficult items were found to react in exactly the same way as the nonsense items.
SPECTRAL ANALYSIS AND THE STUDY OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE PERFORMANCE OF ROUTINE, REPETITIVE TASKS
Authors: Abelson Robert P. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTFor the purpose of studying individual differences in the performance of routine, repetitive tasks, mathematical methods of analysis of data which is ordered along the time dimension are considered. Spectral analysis is chosen as the best method, since it gives a complete summarization of the stationary properties of time‐ordered data, and the measures derived from it possess convenient and orderly statistical properties. Spectral analysis decomposes the total oscillation of a time‐series into oscillations of varying rates, specifying the relative contribution of each of the components of oscillation.Spectral analysis as an analytical tool is applied to available psychological data; in one case, to a study of “mental blocking,” and in another, to a study of serial patterns of response in an auditory discrimination. In both cases, spectral analysis leads to a modification and clarification that had been reached by the previous authors. Spectral analysis is then applied to the experimental data of the present paper.The experimental task was that of jabbing a stylus repeatedly at a target line or lines. The deviations of the jabs from a reference line were measured in serial order, and the series were then subjected to a spectral analysis. Thirty‐three subjects were tested on five variations of the main task. Fifteen of the subjects were retested a month later. Task variations proved unimportant, but reliable individual differences were found in three measures, two of which did not depend on spectral analysis and one of which did.These three measures were related to general personality characteristics by means of an inductive process. An individual who had had considerable contact with the experimental subjects in interview situations over a period of two years was asked to suggest personality factors which might have produced the differences found on each of the three measures. Without knowledge of the nature of the experimental measures, he suggested personality factors corresponding to them. These personality factors and their relation to routine, repetitive tasks are discussed.
ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIVE MOVEMENT TEST BY A METHOD OF INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS
Authors: Lucas Charles M. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to analyze performance on the Relative Movement Test, a part of the U. S. Navy Officer Classification Battery, in order to obtain a better understanding of what the test measures. More adequate information about the test should be of value in indicating how more effective measures may be produced for use by the Navy in selection and classification of personnel.A preliminary analysis of answer sheets for the Relative Movement Test revealed that under normal administration conditions the test is speeded. The proportion of items not reached was considerably greater for the Relative Movement Test than for the other tests in the battery.The analysis to be described here was based on data obtained from individual interviews. A sample of officer candidates, who had previously taken the test, were asked individually to do the problems aloud in an interview situation. Each subject described how he solved each of the group of selected items presented to him. All interviews were tape‐recorded.At a later date, six judges listened to the recordings for the first 20 items of the test, and each judge wrote a description of the mental process he thought was involved in each solution. These descriptions were then sorted into categories according to type of mental process described and also according to item number.The findings were as follows:
The test seems to provide a measure of spatial and deductive ability. The element of speededness in the regular examination procedure very likely provides a modifying condition, however.
Three groups of items were identified: (1) those judged to be primarily spatial, (2) those judged to be primarily deductive, and (3) those judged to be both spatial and deductive to an approximately equal extent.
Items judged as primarily spatial were generally the ones that required course or bearing answers, whereas those judged as primarily deductive generally required relative speed answers.
There was almost universal agreement among judges that spatial and deductive processes were involved in all but few of the reports. Judges differed among themselves with respect to the predominance of spatial and deductive processes.
No subject showed a tendency to employ any one of the above‐mentioned processes consistently from item to item. Processes were found to vary more as a function of the item than as a function of the subject.It was recommended that studies should be performed in order to discover the relative validities of spatial items, deductive items, and items which involve both spatial and deductive ability, both under speeded and unspeeded conditions. Such studies would provide the final evidence regarding how best to use Relative Movement Test items in selection and classification of Naval personnel.
A FOLLOW‐UP VALIDITY STUDY OF THE NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL TEST AND SOME OF ITS COMPONENTS
Authors: Mollenkopf William G. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThis report presents the first direct evidence on the validity of the Naval Postgraduate School Test, Form ZNP. For student officers tested in its first operational use in the fall of 1951 who subsequently entered the Engineering School in 1952, a correlation of .41 was found between test scores and quality‐point ratios for the first three terms of academic work.Both for this group and for other groups entering earlier who had been given tests corresponding to sections of Form ZNP, bar charts are presented relating test scores to academic performances. In general, results corroborate earlier studies, although the effectiveness of the tests given “in‐the‐fleet” in the fall of 1949 was not as great as for tests given at the School, or for the operational form of the selection test.Of most consequence is the finding regarding Form ZNP. Taken in conjunction with all the other evidence that has been gathered about the validity of tests similar to sections of Form ZNP, the observed effectiveness of this test seems sufficient to warrant its description as a useful instrument for selecting Postgraduate Engineering School students.
USE OF THE OFFICIAL BULLETIN OF INFORMATION AND PUBLISHED PRACTICE BOOKS AS PREPARATION FOR THE SELECTIVE SERVICE COLLEGE QUALIFICATION TEST
Authors: Schultz Douglas G. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this research was to determine the use made by students during the 1951 Selective Service College Qualification Test Program, and the effects of such use on test score, of (1) the official Bulletin of Information, (2) published books sold to prepare candidates for the examination, and (3) other types of special preparation. The subjects were approximately 2350 male students in four private colleges and two state universities who had taken the Selective Service College Qualification Test (SSCQT) in either May or June of 195. A questionnaire inquiring into the use made of the Bulletin of Information and other types of preparation was sent to the subjects soon after they had taken the test. On the basis of the responses to the questions, several subgroups were formed and the SSCQT scores of these subgroups were compared, holding constant scores from an aptitude test administered before or soon after admission to college. Fire separate analyses were made for each of two questions.The sample problems in the official SSCQT Bulletin of Information were found to have been widely consulted and there was some indication that among freshman students the relatively few candidates who did not work over these problems were at a slight disadvantage. Very few students said they used special preparation books and, according to the analyses, those who did use them did not benefit from them. Students who used these books described both helpful and harmful features of them. Special correspondence or class courses, practice on objective tests and other types of group instruction were rarely reported. Most of the students who made any special preparation thought it had not helped them much.It is concluded that the official Bulletin of Information played an important role in preparing for the SSCQT, whereas students did not benefit from the published books as they were used.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COLLEGE GRADES AND APTITUDE TEST SCORES FOR DIFFERENT SOCIOECONOMIC GROUPS
Authors: Schultz Douglas G. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this research was to compare the relationship between college grades and aptitude test scores for students from families of high, middle, and low socioeconomic status. The subjects were approximately 1700 male students in seven colleges who took the Selective Service College Qualification Test (SSCQT) in May or June of 1951. A questionnaire, including items on income and occupation of family head, was sent to the subjects soon after they had taken the SSCQT. On the basis of responses to each of these items, three socioeconomic groups were formed. The regression of grades on SSCQT scores was determined for each of the three groups separately and the three regressions compared using an analysis of covariance technique. The same procedure was applied to the regressions of grades on scores from an aptitude test (SAT or ACE) administered before or soon after admission to college.The differences among the regressions for the status groups with regard to standard errors of estimate, slopes, and intercepts were found not to be statistically significant (with one minor exception) and to be small and inconsistent. This was true even though there was some tendency for aptitude test scores alone to increase from low to high status levels. It is concluded that scholastic aptitude test scores predict grades equally well and neither overpredict nor underpredict for all socioeconomic classes among college students and this equivalence is not altered after a period of college attendance. These conclusions must be interpreted in light of the fact that among the subjects there was a very inadequate representation of the lowest socioeconomic levels.
VALIDATION OF NEW ITEM TYPES FOR THE SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST OF THE COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMINATION BOARD
Authors: French John W. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe College Board is looking forward to the possibility of adding to the Scholastic Aptitude Test several scores in addition to the present Verbal and Mathematics scores. Towards this end, eleven newly developed or newly adapted tests were tried out in combinations of four at ten colleges. The intercorrelations and validities for these tests have been computed for the groups of students taking the more popular freshman courses, a total of 79 groups. A composite college table and a list of cases where the experimental test raised the prediction above that already provided by SAT have been set up to aid in decisions with regard to the tests. Some very satisfactory gains in the multiple correlation were obtained. Corrections for restriction of range and for attenuation are regarded as unnecessary but were carried out in a couple of cases for illustrative purposes.
THE STANDARD ERRORS OF VARIOUS TEST STATISTICS WHEN THE TEST ITEMS ARE SAMPLED*
Authors: Lord Frederic M. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTSuppose that a large number of forms of the same test are administered to the same group of examinees, each form consisting of a random sample of items drawn from a common pool of items. If some test statistic is computed separately for each form of the test, the value obtained will (ignoring practice effect, fatigue, etc.) differ from form to form because of sampling fluctuations. The standard deviation of the values obtained represents, approximately, the standard error of the test statistic when the test items are sampled.Formulas for such standard errors are here derived for a) the test score of a single examinee, b) the mean test score of a group of examinees, c) the standard deviation of the scores of the group, d) the Kuder‐Richardson reliability of the test, formula 20, e) the Kuder‐Richardson reliability, formula 21, f) the test validity. In large samples, the foregoing statistics (with the possible exception of d) are approximately normally distributed, so that significance tests can be made by familiar procedures.Consideration is given to the relation of certain of the foregoing standard errors to the conventional standard error of measurement, to the Kuder‐Richardson reliability coefficients 20 and 21, and to the Wilks‐Votaw criterion for parallel tests. Practical applications of the results are briefly discussed. In particular, it is concluded that the Kuder‐Richardson formula‐21 reliability coefficient should properly be used in certain practical situations instead of the commonly preferred formula‐20 coefficient.
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF AN INTERLINEAR TEST OF WRITING ABILITY1
Authors: Swineford Frances , Olsen Marjorie 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTDuring recent years the English Composition Test of the College Entrance Examination Board has included an “interlinear” test of writing ability. This test was designed to meet the demand of English teachers that the candidate be required to do some writing and at the same time that the test reach satisfactory levels of objectivity, reliability, and validity.The interlinear test is a passage containing a number of errors and examples of awkward construction which the examinee is expected to detect and to correct on the test copy. A staff of thoroughly trained readers rate the corrections as acceptable, partially acceptable, or unacceptable in accordance with a set of detailed instructions.Twenty‐four candidates' papers of the March, 1952, form were planographed, and each was read by about thirty‐four of the readers. Extremely high agreement between readers was found. The reliability of the reading, an indication of objectivity, is .95. The test reliability is .81, an acceptable figure for a thirty‐minute, forty‐five‐item test.Studies of the validity of the interlinear test as a predictor of freshman English grades were carried out at eight College Board colleges, including more than 2400 freshman students. The average correlation of first‐term English grades with the interlinear section of the English Composition Test is .39. By comparison, the average validity of total scores on the English Composition Test is .41, and that of the Scholastic Aptitude Test Verbal score is .42. The small advantage of SAT‐Verbal over the total English score or the interlinear score is worthy of note, since SAT‐Verbal has typically shown a more substantial advantage over the English test in a large number of studies from 1926 to the present.
AN ANALYTIC METHOD FOR ROTATION TO ORTHOGONAL SIMPLE STRUCTURE
Authors: Saunders David R. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe objective of simple structure rotation is to facilitate the interpretation and use of factor analytic results. However, a given factor analysis may fall short of this goal for many reasons other than ineffective rotation, It is therefore desirable to have a means for obtaining and/or recognizing a reliably good approximate rotation to simple structure in a given situation, when this rotation is uniquely determined.One basis is provided by identifying simple structure with the maximized kurtosis of the distribution of factor loadings, when each variable is tallied in both its normal and reflected form to eliminate the artifact of scoring. For orthogonal rotation this only requires maximization of the sum of fourth powers of all factor loadings, Q, where .Differentiation shows thatimagemust necessarily hold for each pair of factors, j and k. It is further shown that these functions vary sinusoidally with rotation in any plane, with period of ¼.These facts are used to develop two convenient computational routines – for hand computing and for high‐speed electronic computing – and to demonstrate the convergence of these routines to a stable position.The method is illustrated with two real and two hypothetical examples, and it is shown that the real data tend to yield a simple structure better than that obtainable when the same vectors are placed into random configurations. Certain difficulties of the method are discussed.
A FACTOR ANALYSIS OF SOME PERSONALITY ITEMS IN A DOMAIN OF SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION
Authors: Saunders David R. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTFive oblique simple‐structure factors are isolated in an analysis of 30 personality inventory items. All but factor II are apparently new. All but factor I are probably validly related to judgments of “positive character integration (Cattell's G)” and/or “social responsibility (Gough's Re).” Factor I may be a moderator variable (RB‐53‐23) in the prediction equations.Ten of the items studied do not load the factors. Eleven more items each load a single factor. Each of the remaining nine loads two adjacent factors. The factors are ranked into what appear to be the levels of maturity required for their expression.By way of hypothesis, the factors have been given interpretive labels as follows:

Insight: recognition of human frailty in people.
Attitude toward work: recognition of a basic mission in life.
Social optimism: recognition that we work for one another's benefit.
Democratic attitude: concern for others as individuals.
Social idealism: recognition of certain rights of groups over individuals.
A FOLLOW‐UP STUDY OF NAVAL ACADEMY GRADUATES OF THE CLASS OF 1951
Authors: Ricciuti Henry N. 
Published: August 2014

ABSTRACTThe primary purpose of this research was to study the relationships between undergraduate ratings of “aptitude‐for‐service” (or leadership potential“) at the Naval Academy, and shipboard officer performance subsequent to graduation. For 324 members of the class of 1951, officer performance measures (fitness report ratings) for shipboard assignments held during approximately the first year after graduation were correlated with the following measures of undergraduate performance: a) aptitude‐for‐service ratings for three cruises and two academic periods; b) class standings in selected courses, physical training and conduct; and c) ability test scores.The post‐graduation fitness report measures showed consistently positive, although not particularly high correlations with undergraduate aptitude‐for‐service ratings. These correlations were somewhat higher (.22 to .33) for ratings made during the academic year than for ratings based on summer training cruises (.14 to .33). Also undergraduate ratings by midshipmen yielded generally higher correlations with the post‐graduation performance measures than did ratings by officers. The over‐all findings indicated that the aptitude‐for‐service ratings were superior to the other undergraduate measures as predictors of subsequent officer performance, and led to the conclusion that these ratings represent an evaluation of important correlates of future success as a Naval officer, as judged by fitness report estimates.For a sub‐sample of 98 individuals, a study was made of the relationships between post‐graduation officer performance and several biographical or background factors, as well as several indices of the individual's manner of rating others at the Naval Academy. The principal finding of interest was a positive relationship (r = .28) between officer fitness report ratings and the age of the individual.It is suggested that continued longitudinal studies be made in order to determine the long‐range value of the aptitude‐for‐service ratings and of the other Naval Academy performance measures in predicting officer success in various types of duty assignments.