Curriculum-Based Measurement

Abstract

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) has evolved as a reliable and valid method for measuring and monitoring student performance in basic academic skills. While the efficacy of CBM for assessing reading skills is not in question, issues remain regarding whether or not a difference exists between CBM probes derived directly from the instructional curriculum and generic probes. The current study extends previous research comparing the utility of two types of CBM reading probe materials. Both types of probes were administered to 13 second grade students twice weekly for 5 weeks. No significant differences were found between the two probe types' measurement of performance or progress over time, which suggests that school psychologists and educational professionals can use generic or curriculum-dependent probes in curriculum-based measurement.     

Family Measurement Techniques

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which a brief, structured couples therapy program based on Imago Relationship Therapy was associated with improvements on the COMPASS scales of individual psychological functioning as well as on a measure of relationship satisfaction, the Marital Satisfaction Inventory. An examination of pre- to post-treatment differences revealed statistically significant differences on three of the four COMPASS scales and all three MSI scales. The rate of improvement in individual distress per couples therapy session was approximately equal to the improvement, found in previous studies, yielded by individual therapy. The results support previous findings that couples therapy may be an effective modality for the treatment of intrapersonal difficulties, and suggest that both relationship and individual distress indices should be utilized in the evaluation of the efficacy of marital therapies.     

Measurement of visual cluster

The cluster continuum is described, along with how to measure degree of cluster and how to generate stimuli that vary along the continuum. Five experiments were performed on cluster discrimination and rating, numerosity estimation, pattern discriminability, and random generation. Difference thresholds were obtained for discrimination between random and clustered patterns, and ratings exhibited a power function with respect to cluster values of the stimuli. Numerosity estimates decreased with increasing degree of cluster, and random patterns were easier to discriminate than clustered ones. When subjects were asked to arrange items so that they appeared random, they erred on the side of regularity. The cluster continuum was discussed in relation to the distribution of living organisms and to the ecological approach of Gibson. The cluster metric was compared with the measures used in the study of response organization in free recall.     

Measurement of subjective values

Four different value laws are developed and tested by using them to predict the scale values of composite stimuli from the scale values of their components. These four laws are: an additive law, a square-root law, a logarithmic, and a negative exponential law. They are tried out on a set of food preferences by means of Pearson's Method of False Position. The negative exponential law of diminishing returns gave the best fit to the data but was not markedly better than any of the other laws.     

Measurement theory in linguistics

This paper presents a novel semantic analysis of unit names (like pound and meter) and gradable adjectives (like tall, short and happy), inspired by measurement theory (Krantz et al. In Foundations of measurement: Additive and Polynomial Representations, 1971). Based on measurement theory’s four-way typology of measures, I claim that different adjectives are associated with different types of measures whose special characteristics, together with features of the relations denoted by unit names, explain the puzzling limited distribution of measure phrases, as well as unit-based comparisons between predicates (as in the table is longer than it is wide). All considered, my analyses support the view that the grammar of natural languages is sensitive to features of measurement theory.     

Measurement of communal strength

Communal strength refers to a person's degree of motivation to respond to a communal partner's needs. The development and testing of a questionnaire measure of communal strength is described. Study 1 involved item selection. Studies 2 and 3 found that the 10‐item communal strength measure taps a construct distinct from behavioral interdependence as measured by the Relationship Closeness Inventory of Berscheid, Snyder, and Omoto (1989) and distinct from liking for the partner. As expected, the measure correlated highly with Rubin's (1970) Love Scale. Studies 4 and 5 found the measure predicted allocation of benefits to peers and reports of giving help to, and receiving help from, friends. Study 6 found that, when answered in relation to the respondent's spouse, the measure predicted the spouse's marital satisfaction, after controlling for the respondent's communal orientation and own marital satisfaction.     

Nontransitive Decomposable Conjoint Measurement

Traditional models of conjoint measurement look for an additive representation of transitive preferences. They have been generalized in two directions. Nontransitive additive conjoint measurement models allow for nontransitive preferences while retaining the additivity feature of traditional models. Decomposable conjoint measurement models are transitive but replace additivity by a mere decomposability requirement. This paper presents generalizations of conjoint measurement models combining these two aspects. This allows us to propose a simple axiomatic treatment that shows the pure consequences of several cancellation conditions used in traditional models. These nontran- sitive decomposable conjoint measurement models encompass a large number of aggregation rules that have been introduced in the literature.     

Measurement of perceived oscillation

In earlier studies of perceived oscillation a comparison stimulus placed at a different distance and in a different direction from the observer than the Standard stimulus was used. The usual indicators were angles relating the turning positions, produced on a comparison stimulus, to a physical frame of reference, common for Standard and comparison. In three experiments where both Standard and comparison were “full-cuc,” the effect of different spatial arrangements was studied. Difference in distance did not affect the angles describing the response, nor did monocular or binocular vision, but difference in direction from the observer and the order of giving the two turning positions, combined with the position of the comparison stimulus before responding, had significant effects. The difference between Standard and comparison stimulus, which in an earlier series of experiments with artificial Standard stimuli had been rather large, was not very large for most conditions in the present experiments, where a real object was used as Standard stimulus. The correspondence was better, however, if another indicator, the angle describing the perceived extent of oscillation, was used. The spatial arrangements of Standard and comparison stimulus affect this indicator less than the indicators relating the perceived turning positions to the axes of the physical space.     

Measurement in Cross-Cultural Neuropsychology

The measurement of cognitive abilities across diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic groups has a contentious history, with broad political, legal, economic, and ethical repercussions. Advances in psychometric methods and converging scientific ideas about genetic variation afford new tools and theoretical contexts to move beyond the reflective analysis of between-group test score discrepancies. Neuropsychology is poised to benefit from these advances to cultivate a richer understanding of the factors that underlie cognitive test score disparities. To this end, the present article considers several topics relevant to the measurement of cognitive abilities across groups from diverse ancestral origins, including fairness and bias, equivalence, diagnostic validity, item response theory, and differential item functioning.     

Measurement and Computational Skepticism

Putnam and Searle famously argue against computational theories of mind on the skeptical ground that there is no fact of the matter as to what mathematical function a physical system is computing: both conclude (albeit for somewhat different reasons) that virtually any physical object computes every computable function, implements every program or automaton. There has been considerable discussion of Putnam's and Searle's arguments, though as yet there is little consensus as to what, if anything, is wrong with these arguments. In the present paper we show that an analogous line of reasoning can be raised against the numerical measurement (i.e., numerical representation) of physical magnitudes, and we argue that this result is a reductio ad absurdum of the challenge to computational skepticism. We then use this reductio to get clearer about both (i) what's wrong with Putnam's and Searle's arguments against computationalism, and (ii) what can be learned about both computational implementation and numerical measurement from the shortcomings of both sorts of skeptical argument.     

Measurement of cathectic energies

An objective verbal cathexis test was developed in a series of experimental studies. The test was utilized to examine the validity of a personality theory which was defined within a biological frame of reference. A total of 293 normal subjects, 22 neurotics, and 16 habitual drunkards participated in the experiments. The results showed high reliabilities of the verbal test (r=0, 75-0.95), significant validity of the theory (confirmatory factor analysis, p>0.01, empirical validity, p<0.01), and that extreme cathexis for social objects was related to deviating adaptation in modern society.