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This study appraised the utility of SAT scores in combination with grades in high school courses and the number and quality of these courses in predicting college grades in various fields of study, with the object of providing students with predictions of their academic performance for guidance purposes. The possible impact of this feedback on the flow of students into these fields was also assessed. Data for an entering class at a large state university were used. The SAT and collateral variables were able to predict college grades in different academic areas by taking account of marked variations in grade distributions among fields. These predictions could be potentially useful in guidance. Students' predicted grades in the fields and their intended majors were unrelated, and many students had their highest predicted grades in the humanities, though few intended to major in this field. Hence this feedback would probably stimulate students to take courses or major in the humanities.

A biographical inventory has been used in the selection of students for naval aviation training since World War II, and its validity in predicting their retention in this training has been well established. This study investigated the constructs underlying the inventory and their relations to student retention criteria. A factor analysis of the items on the inventory for student pilots identified five factors. One factor, being a commissioned officer, appeared to account for the inventory's validity.

This study assessed the usefulness of response latency data for biographical inventory items in enhancing the inventory’s validity. The Armed Services Applicant Profile (ASAP) was administered by computer to Navy recruits, and the regular score, latency-weighted scores, and measures of deviant latencies were obtained. The latency-weighted scores did not improve the ASAP’s validity in predicting 6-month retention, when used instead of or in addition to the regular score, and the deviant latency measures did not function as suppressor or moderator variables to increase the ASAP’s validity. However, subgroups of items with differing latencies varied systematically in their internal-consistency reliability (with increased reliability for subgroups with shorter latencies), and a small subgroup of items with moderate latencies was almost as valid as the regular score, suggesting that latency data may be useful in writing and selecting inventory items.

A recent multidimensional scaling analysis of item response data for the TOEFL identified clusters of items in the test sections and suggested that these clusters might be more homogeneous and more distinct than their parent sections, and hence better suited for diagnostic use. The present study explored the feasibility and value of using such cluster scores. The original analysis was based on all the item responses (choosing one of the four alternatives, or omitting or not reaching an item). That analysis was repeated, this time using the traditional scoring of item responses as correct or incorrect. Scores were then obtained for the clusters identified in the new analysis. The new dimen sions and clusters were similar to the old ones. The corresponding scores for the clusters and the test sections did not differ in their internal-consistency reliabilities and intercorrelations for the total sample, but diverged inconsis tently for high- and low-scoring examinees.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of disclosing a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) form on the retest performance of examinees who initially took the disclosed form and subsequently took a different form. Retest performance was compared for three ran dom samples of examinees who took the SAT as high school juniors in the May 1981 administration in New York and then retook it in the October 1981 adminis tration : two experimental groups that were sent the standard set of disclosed material for the May SAT, along with either a noncommittal or an encouraging letter intended to vary their motivation to use the ma terial, and a control group that was not sent anything. The three groups were generally similar in the level and retest reliability of their October scores, indicating that access to the disclosed material had no apprecia ble effects on retest performance.

Verbal items on the GRE Aptitude Test were analyzed for race (white vs. black) and sex differences in their functioning, using a new procedure—item partial correlations with subgroup standing (race or sex), controlling for total score—as well as two standard methods—comparisons of subgroups' item characteristic curves and item difficulties. The partial correlation index agreed with the item characteristic curve index in the proportions of items identified as performing differentially for each race and sex. These two indexes also agreed in the particular items that they identified as functioning differentially for the sexes, but not in the items that they identified as performing differently for the races. The partial correlation index consistently disagreed with the item difficulty index in the proportions of items identified as functioning differentially and in the particular items involved. The items identified by the partial correlation index as performing differentially, like the items identified by the other indexes, generally did not differ in type or content from items not so identified, with one major exception: this index identified items with female content as functioning differently for the sexes.

A prototype measure of interpersonal competence, designed to measure effectiveness in dealing with other people, was developed-the Interpersonal Competence Instrument (ICI). The ICI is based on the videotape presentation of scenes of subordinates talking to a superior in a business setting. The examinee takes the role of the superior, his or her tape-recorded replies are assessed for effectiveness and originality, and his or her written judgments are evaluated for accuracy. In a pilot study (1) the three scores for the ICI were reliable, in terms of both interrater agreement and internal consistency; (2) the effectiveness and originality scores for replies were only moderately correlated with the accuracy scores for judgments, but the two replies scores were highly intercorrelated ; and (3) the correlations of the scores with background measures and other instruments, including measures of verbal ability and accuracy in social perception, generally supported the ICI's construct validity.

The value of noncognitive measures in medical school admissions was assessed in light of the exist ing literature. These measures appear to have limit ed usefulness in predicting success in academic work but may be valuable in forecasting both per formance in clinical training and performance as a physician, as well as forecasting choice of the type of practice and its location. Noncognitive measures are useful as predictors of such criteria and may be valuable in forecasting the decisions of admissions committees; their use as moderator variables, how ever, is problematic. Newer personality and interest inventories, along with biographical questionnaires, are the most promising measures. Older interest in ventories may have some value; but traditional per sonality inventories and projective techniques, as well as interviews, seem to have limited usefulness. The merit of the other measures is uncertain: Let ters of recommendation are probably of little use; but cognitive style tests, objective performance de vices, and special adaptations of projective tech niques deserve more attention. The evaluation of noncognitive measures is hampered by inadequate criteria. Distortion by examinees threatens all self- report measures but can be controlled.

The relations between examinee background characteristics and performance on the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test were appraised by a structural equation modeling analysis. The examinees' initial characteristics (gender, ethnicity, parental education, geographic region, and age) had modest relations with their test performance. Of these, parental education had the most consistent and strongest association. Gender also had an appreciable association but it was limited to the Quantitative score. College-related characteristics (college major and the institution's public vs. private control, Carnegie classification, selectivity, and doctoral productivity) and undergraduate grade point average generally had stronger and more pervasive relations with test performance than did the examinees' initial characteristics, not only mediating the associations of the examinees' initial characteristics with test performance but also making independent contributions in their own right. Parallels with results for less selective samples establish the generality of the observed relations. The findings underscore the importance of socioeconomic status, a neglected construct in recent years, and intervening process variables in research on group differences in performance on cognitive tests.

The stability was evaluated of a partial correlation index and two other methods-comparisons of item characteristic curves and comparisons of item difficulties-in assessing race (white vs. black) and sex differences in the performance of verbal items on the GRE Aptitude Test. In general, the partial correlation index, like the other indexes, exhibited substantial consistency in identifying the same items in different samples from the same populations and displayed appreciable congruence in its values in these samples. The major exception concerned the general instability of the indexes in the analyses of sex differences for blacks, probably stemming from the small samples of blacks involved. It was tentatively recommended that all these indexes be restricted to samples of a least 1,500, with no fewer than 300 in the smallest subgroup.

This study's aim was to explore the relationship of acquiescence, social desirability (SD), and defensiveness response styles with first, second, and any higher order factors on the 16 PF. All the various kinds of response bias indexes were appreciably correlated with the first order factor scales. Each kind of response style measure predominantly loaded a different second order factor— four such factors were extracted, three of them corresponding to well established 16 PF second order factors. SD scales defined a novel factor somewhat resembling an anxiety factor, and acquiescence and defensiveness measures loaded but did not define independence and anxiety factors, respectively. None of the various kinds of response style indexes consistently loaded an extroversion factor. And none loaded the single third order factor obtained. This factor was not similar to previously reported 16 PF third order factors and its nature was unclear.

The membership of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology was surveyed in order to determine its opinions about a variety of matters concerning the Society, including the relations of the Society and its members with the American Psychological Association, the Society's structure, its publications, and its convention program. How the survey was carried out is described, and its main findings are summarized.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a self-report inventory which is intended to measure four variables stemming from the Jungian personality typology: extraversion-introversion, sensation-intuition, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceiving. The construct validity of each of its scales was assessed in a series of studies which investigated the scales' correlations with ability, interest, and personality scales and differences on the scales between the sexes and between students in different high school programs. The findings suggest that the Sensation-Intuition and Thinking-Feeling scales may reflect restricted aspects of the dimensions that they are intended to represent, and the Extraversion-introversion and Judging-Perceiving scales may reflect something quite different from their postulated dimensions.