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Currently, the mood states are regarded as monopolar. This study tested in psychiatric subjects for the presence of five bipolar mood states after the influence of extreme response bias had been removed. The affective states hypothesized were: composed vs anxious, agreeable vs hostile, energetic vs fatigued, elated vs depressed, and clear-thinking vs confused. The sample of 303 cases included anxious, depressed and agoraphobic cases. Ratings of the 72 adjectives of the Profile of Mood States were intercorrelated. After extreme response bias score was partialled out the resulting correlations were analyzed by the method of principal components. The five factors isolated clearly support the bipolar nature of mood states postulated.

A - Core Course.- Inaugural Address: Statistical Extremes: Theory and Applications, Motivation and Perspectives.- Introduction, Order Statistics, Exceedances. Laws of Large Numbers.- Asymptotics Stable Laws for Extremes. Tail Properties.- Slow Variation and Characterization of Domains of Attraction.- Introduction, Gumbel Model.- Statistical Estimation of Parameters of the Weibull and Frechet Distributions.- Univariate Extremes Statistical Choice.- Statistical Estimation in Extreme Value Theory.- Probabilistic Aspects of Multivariate Extremes.- Bivariate Models for Extremes Statistical Decision.- Extremes in Dependent Random Sequences.- Extremes in Continuous Stochastic Processes.- Comparison Technique for Highly Dependent Stationary Gaussian Processes.- Extremes in Hydrology.- Application of Extreme Values in Structural Engineering.- Extremes in Meteorology.- Extreme Values in Insurance Mathematics.- B - Specific Lectures.- Use and Structure of Slepian Model. Processes for Prediction and Detection in Crossing and Extreme Value Theory.- Spline and Isotonic Estimation of the Pareto Function.- Extremal Processes.- Extreme Values for Sequences of Stable Random Variables.- C - Workshops.- Large Deviations of Extremes.- Uniform Rates of Convergence to Extreme Value Distributions.- Rates of Convergence in Extreme Value Theory.- Concomitants in a Multidimensional Extreme Model.- A Short Cut Algorithm for Obtaining Coefficients of the BLUE's.- Statistical Choice of Univariate Extreme Models. Part II.- Doubly Exponential Random Number Generators.- Probability Problems in Seismic Risk and Load Combinations for Power Plants.- D - Contributed Papers.- The Distribution of the Maximal Time till Departure from a State in a Markov Chain.- The Box-Jenkins Model and the Progressive Fatigue Failure of Large Parallel Element Stay Tendons.- The Asymptotic Behaviour of the Maximum Likelihood Estimates for Univariate Extremes.- On Upper and Lower Extremes in Stationary Sequences.- Modelling Excesses over High Thresholds, with an Application.- Stationary Min-stable Stochastic Processes.- Strong Approximations of Records and Record Times.- High Percentiles Atmospheric SO2-Concentrations in Belgium.- Extreme Response of the Linear Oscillator with Modulated Random Excitation.- Frost Data: A Case Study on Extreme Values of Non-Stationary Sequences.- Estimation of the Scale and Location Parameters of the Extreme Value (Gumbel) Distribution for Large Censored Samples.- Asymptotic Behaviour of the Extreme Order Statistics in the Non-Identically Distributed Case.- Limit Distribution of the Minimum Distance between Independent and Identically Distributed d-Dimensional Random Variables.- Approximate Values for the Moments of Extreme Order Statistics in Large Samples.- Estimation of Parameters of Extreme Order Distributions of Exponential Type Parents.- On Ordered Uniform Spacings for Testing Goodness of Fit.- Inequalities for the Relative Sufficiency between Sets of Order Statistics.- POT-Estimation of Extreme Sea States and the Benefit of Using Wind Data.- Threshold Methods for Sample Extremes.- On Successive Record Values in a Sequence of Independent Identically Distributed Random Variables.- Two Test Statistics for Choice of Univariate Extreme Models.- On the Asymptotic Uperossings of a Class of Non-Stationary Sequences.- Author Index.

Five groups of 19 subjects made ratings on 11 personality trait scales of overlapping subsets of 59 artificial stimulus persons who were described by one to five personality trait adjectives. The data were analyzed per group of subjects (blockwise) and per type of stimulus person (questionnaire-wise) by means of three-mode principal component analyses. This yielded highly similar structures for the scales, and in the blockwise analyses, for the stimulus persons. This similarity was substantiated by external three-mode analyses, which showed that all stimulus persons can be mapped into one overall configuration. In all analyses it was found that differences between subjects consisted of differences in extremity of judgment, which suggests the operation of response style.

A frequency-domain procedure for the extreme surge response prediction of tension leg platforms (TLP) under waves and current loading is presented and evaluated. The procedure incorporates both first- and second-order viscous and potential (inviscid) effects. The evaluation is based on results of hydrodynamic tests performed on a 1/60 scale model of a TLP. The tests were specifically designed to quantify the wave current interaction effects on surge. Therefore, the TLP model was tested under currents only (simulated by towing), waves only, and combined waves and current. The procedure is shown to perform well for predicting the extreme response in random waves and current except when groups of large waves are present. In this case, the extreme response is underpredicted. Areas in which this situation can be improved are identified.

Corotis and Marshall (1977) have studied the extreme response of a single degree of freedom linear oscillator to Gaussian white noise modulated by a deterministic function in the form of a sum of exponential terms. This form of excitation provides a broad range of descriptive capabilities for different physical situations — in particular for earthquake excitation. In this paper the question of uniqueness of definition of the envelope of such a process is raised, following Hasofer (1979) and a solution presented. It is then argued that the use of stationary formulae for estimating the uperossing rate of such a response at high levels might seriously underestimate the actual rate. Exact formulae are then presented for the uperossing rate of the response and its envelope. It is shown that Vanmarcke’s (1975) concept of “qualified uperossings” can be extended to the case under consideration, resulting in a considerable improvement in the estimation of the reliability function of the response. Finally numerical results are presented to illustrate the main conclusions.

Questionnaires of extraversion, neuroticism, rigidity and extreme response set were given to 146 normals, 108 neurotics and 56 schizophrenics. It was found that rigidity and extreme positive response set, which intercorrelated significantly, were relatively independent of extraversion and neuroticism. Correlations with various performance scores were quoted to suggest that rigidity of the kind described may play an important part in the measurement of the normal personality. Particular emphasis was placed on the relevance of rigidity to abnormality. Rigidity and extreme response set differentiated significantly between normals and both abnormal groups. Differentiation was in general as effective as with a neuroticism questionnaire. A specific effect was described showing that schizophrenics score significantly higher on positive extremes than neurotics, while the latter score significantly higher on negative extremes.

In a study of the relationship between pathology and rating style, 68 Ss rated 10 Rorschach inkblots on 15 semantic differential scales. Ss were selected from a total of 158 Japanese college students as extreme neuroticism and/or extraversion scorers based on the Japanese version of the Maudsley Personality Inventory. It was found that neurotics made significantly more extreme ratings than non-neurotic Ss and that stable introverts had significantly fewer extreme ratings than neurotic extraverts. No significant differences were found in intermediate and neutral ratings.

The present investigation was undertaken to examine the generality of the findings of a number of studies whose results indicated that psychiatric patients, as compared with normals, exhibited a higher frequency of checking the polar extremes of the semantic differential. Three carefully matched groups of normals, neurotics and psychotics completed a 7-concept, 9scale form of the semantic differential and their scale-checking styles were compared. The results supported the hypothesis that psychiatric patients check the extremes more often than normals but did not confirm the finding that psychotics are significantly more extreme in their responses than neurotics. It was suggested that the observed extreme response tendencies of psychiatric patients could reflect an important aspect of emotional maladjustment.

This study investigated the attitude structure of schizophrenic patients with particular reference to rigidity. Zax, Gardiner and Lowy (1964) have shown that schizophrenics give more extreme responses to unstructured materials and other evidence has suggested that such patients display rigid and stereoryped responses, expressed, for example, by inabiliry to shift set or adopt flexible strategies (Shakow, 1963). Such a response style is often heightened in the presence of personally relevant and anxiety arousing material. This study examined this phenomenon in relation to attitudes about relevant and irrelevant topics in a group of schizophrenics attending a day treatment center in an outpatient clinic. (1) Schizophrenics were expected to give more extreme answers than normals in filling out attitude questionnaires; (2) all Ss to give more extreme answers in atticudinal areas that are personally relevant than those which are less so; (3) diagnosis and relevance would interact, such that schizophrenics would give more extreme responses in personally relevant areas than normals. Schizophrenics (n = 40) and 40 normal veterans who attended a medical service in the same clinic and were without known history of emotional disorder filled out a 60-item attitude questionnaire. There were two personally relevant topics, mental illness and work, and two personally irrelevant topics, teenage music and men's clothing styles. Individual items were answered by checking off a six-category Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagvee. Topic relevance was established beforehand by asking 20 schizophrenic and 20 normals similar to chose in the study to choose from 30 topics 3 most and 3 least personally relevanr. Their choices were tallied and topics were selected from the

In this paper, we consider a two-level multidimensional item response model that examines country differences in extreme response style (ERS) as a possible cause for the achievement-attitude paradox in PISA 2006. The model is an extension of Bolt & Newton (2011) that uses response data from seven attitudinal scales to assess response style and to control for its effects in estimating correlations between attitudes and achievement. Despite detectable variability in ERS across countries and detectable biasing effects of ERS on attitudinal scores, our results suggest that the unexpected between-country correlation between attitudes and achievement is not attributable to country differences in ERS. The remaining between-country correlations between mean attitudes and mean achievement once controlling for ERS can be explained by the observation that (1) despite detectable country differences, most variability in ERS occurs within, as opposed to between, countries, and (2) ERS appears to be only weakly correlated with achievement. The methodological approach used in this paper is argued to provide an informative way of studying the effects (or lack thereof) of cross-country variability in response style.

The wind-induced extreme responses with various mean recurrence intervals (MRIs) can be estimated by accounting for the aleatory uncertainties in wind speed and extreme response coefficient in terms of their probability distributions. These distribution models when determined from limited samples of data also have uncertainties, referred to as epistemic uncertainties. This study addresses the epistemic uncertainties in probability distributions of wind speed and extreme response coefficient, and their influence on the estimated extreme responses with various MRIs. Closed-form expressions for quantifying the epistemic uncertainties in terms of coefficients of variation of the distribution model parameters are presented as functions of sample size. The influence of epistemic uncertainties on the predicted extreme responses with various MRIs is also estimated using closed-form expression in terms of confidence intervals. Based on the proposed formulations, a parametric study is carried out to shed light on the importance of consideration of various epistemic uncertainties. The results show that the epistemic uncertainty of wind speed generally predominates the predicted extreme response, while the epistemic uncertainty in the extreme response coefficient can also have considerable effect when the aleatory uncertainty in wind speed is low and that in extreme response coefficient is high. The proposed method is then applied to a long-span roof structure using wind loads determined from a wind tunnel test.

The influence of turbulence conditions on the design loads for wind turbines is investigated by using inverse reliability techniques. Alternative modeling assumptions for randomness in the gross wind environment and in the extreme response given wind conditions to establish nominal design loads are studied. Accuracy in design load predictions based on use of the inverse first-order reliability method (that assumes a linearized limit state surface) is also investigated. An example is presented where three alternative nominal load definitions are used to estimate extreme flapwise (out-of-plane) bending loads at a blade root for a 600kW three-bladed horizontal-axis wind turbine located at onshore and offshore sites that were assumed to experience the same mean wind speed but different turbulence intensities. It is found that second-order (curvature-type) corrections to the linearized limit state function assumption inherent in the inverse first-order reliability approach are insignificant. Thus, we suggest that the inverse firstorder reliability method is an efficient and accurate technique of predicting extreme loads. Design loads derived from a full random characterization of wind conditions as well as short-term maximum response (given wind conditions) may be approximated reasonably well by simpler models that include only the randomness in the wind environment but account for response variability by employing appropriately derived “higher-than-median” fractiles of the extreme bending loads conditional on specified inflow parameters. In the various results discussed, it is found that the higher relative turbulence at the onshore site leads to larger blade bending design loads there than at the offshore site. Also, for both onshore and offshore environments accounting for response variability is found to be slightly more important at longer return periods (i.e., safer designs).

It is well known that the self-report survey method suffers from many idiosyncratic biases, such as varying response styles due to different survey modes used. Using latent state-trait theory it is argued that response styles will also vary intra-individually, depending on the particular survey situation. In this study we examine intra-individual variation in extreme response style behavior (ERS) using mixed-mode survey panel data as a quasi-experimental setting. Data from the Irish National Election Study panel are used, which consists of repeated face-to-face and mail-back surveys. Latent transition analysis is used to detect switches in ERS, distinguishing ‘stable’ and ‘volatile’ respondents in terms of their response style. Overall, ERS is inflated in the intermediate mail component of the panel, whereas preliminary analyses suggest that low education and ideological extremity are drivers of that change. Results are discussed with regards to measurement errors in mixed-mode and longitudinal surveys.

This paper concerns experimental measurements of the interaction of a taut moored floating body, representing a point absorbing wave energy converter in survivability mode, with extreme waves. The extreme waves are modelled in four ways. NewWave theory is first used to generate focused wave groups of varying steepness. Steepness is shown to have negligible effect on peak mooring loads, but causes significant differences in the resulting motion. The NewWave group is then constrained into both regular and irregular background wave trains so that the floating body has a load history caused by previous waves when interacting with the focused wave group. It is shown that an independent focused wave group is insufficient to properly model the extreme response of the floating body. However differences between the target and measured constrained time series due to non-linear wave-wave interaction limited the potential benefits of this approach. Finally the results from these tests are compared with measurements taken using irregular waves without any deterministic focused wave groups present. This comparison found cases where the floats response was greater than during any of the constrained NewWave tests, indicating that the assumption made that NewWave will generate the largest response was incorrect in this case.

This study presents a new approach of estimating wind load effects (responses) for various mean recurrence intervals (MRIs) with consideration of both directionality and uncertainty of wind speed and wind load effects. The joint probability distribution model of directional extreme wind speeds is established based on extreme wind speed data using multivariate extreme value theory with Gaussian Copula. The distribution of yearly maximum wind load effect is then calculated through the exceeding probability of directional wind speeds over the corresponding levels. The uncertainty of extreme response conditional on wind speed and direction is further considered using the theorem of conditional probability. The proposed analytical framework can be considered as an analytical formulation of the existing approach based on historical directional wind speed data, but with an additional capability of accounting for the uncertainty of extreme response conditional on wind speed and direction. It can also be regarded as an extension of the existing fully probabilistic methods with an additional capability of accounting for directionality. Applications of the proposed approach are presented and the results are compared with those from the existing approach to demonstrate its accuracy. The characteristics of directionality factor for wind load effects are discussed. Finally, the influence of uncertainty of extreme response conditional on wind speed and direction is further examined.

Statistical screening of self-report data is often advised to support the quality of analyzed responses - For example, reduction of insufficient effort responding (IER). One recently introduced index based on Mahalanobis's D for detecting outliers in cross-sectional designs replaces centered scores with difference scores between repeated-measure items: Termed person temporal consistency (D2ptc). Although the adapted D2ptc index demonstrated usefulness in simulation datasets, it has not been applied to empirical data. The current study addresses D2ptc's low uptake by critically appraising its performance across three empirical applications. Independent samples were selected to represent a range of scenarios commonly encountered by organizational researchers. First, in Sample 1, a repeat-measure of future time perspective (FTP) inexperienced working adults (age >40-years; n = 620) indicated that temporal inconsistency was significantly related to respondent age and item reverse-scoring. Second, in repeat-measure of team efficacy aggregations, D2ptc successfully detected team-level inconsistency across repeat-performance cycles. Thirdly, the usefulness of the D2ptc was examined in an experimental study dataset of subjective life expectancy indicated significantly more stable responding in experimental conditions compared to controls. The empirical findings support D2ptc's flexible and useful application to distinct study designs. Discussion centers on current limitations and further extensions that may be of value to psychologists screening self-report data for strengthening response quality and meaningfulness of inferences from repeated-measures self-reports. Taken together, the findings support the usefulness of the newly devised statistic for detecting IER and other extreme response patterns.

Summary 1Motile phytoplanktonic flagellates display a suite of sensory-mediated behavioural preferences to single-environmental gradients. However, in nature multiple gradients of essential resources are often spatially and temporally conflicting, therefore it is important to understand how flagellate behaviours interact under these conditions. 2Five species of these photosynthetic micro-organisms were exposed to combinations of representative physical and chemical gradients in laboratory preference chambers. Using single-factor responses as templates, the effects of multiple gradients were investigated and hierarchies of preferences constructed. 3Three distinct interaction responses were observed: ‘dominance’ of one of two preferences; bisecting ‘compromise’ interactions, suggesting co-dominance while potentially optimizing resource acquisition; and an ‘extreme response’ in which preferences appeared more important than avoidance of unfavourable conditions. 4In all species, preference for light was dominant over preference for temperature and phosphate. More complex dominance, compromise and extreme interaction responses were induced by combinations of light, oxygen and carbon dioxide gradients. 5Construction of a hierarchy of dominant responses demonstrated that, depending on species, response to light generally superseded preferences for CO2, O2 and recessive preferences for temperature and phosphate. 6Interaction responses may confer functional ecophysiological advantages, with dominant preferences influencing the spatial and temporal distribution, migration, depth regulation and succession of phytoplanktonic flagellates in freshwater ecosystems.

This study introduces closed-form formulation for estimating wind load effects with various mean recurrence intervals (MRIs), which was originally derived for assessing probabilistic seismic performance of structures, but has not been adopted in wind engineering community. The accuracy of the closed-form formulation is verified by comparing its estimations with those from traditional numerical integration for a wide range of probabilistic responses of both rigid and flexible structures. The closed-form formulation sheds more physical insights regarding the influence of uncertainties in wind speed and extreme response coefficient. It results in a more convenient and accurate definition of design response for a target MRI over the widely used Cook–Mayne coefficient in wind engineering. With this closed-form framework, the influence of epistemic uncertainties attributed to limited knowledge and data is also quantified in terms of confidence interval of estimation in closed-form formulation.

This study examined the effect of alternative scale formats on reporting of extreme attitudes on Liken scales of agreement. The formats were tested on samples of university students who responded to a set of statements about economic systems. In general, a two-stage format generated a greater percentage of extreme-position responses than did the common one-stage format, with a modified one-stage version falling in between.

Hamilton (1968) reviewed the literature dealing with the extreme response style (ERS) as a personality measure. Of the several techniques of scoring ERS mentioned by Hamilton, the "deviation from the midpoint" technique seems most widely used when deriving ERS scores from Semantic Differential ratings (Mogar, 1960; Peak, Muney, & Clay, 1960; Neuringer, 1961). The common proced~ue is to assign a score of 0, 1, 2, or 3 to each response depending on the distance of the response from the midpoint. The purpose of this note is to take issue with the assumption that a midpoint response is least indicative of ERS. A case can be made that, on the contrary, midpoint responses are extreme responses and should be so scored. It may seem logically inconsistent to consider a midpoint (neutral) response as an extreme response but it is psychologically consistent to do just that. The psychological importance of an exueme response as it relates to personality is that it is one which is concrete, well-anchored, and low in ambiguity. A midpoint response, which is indicative of total neutrality, can be viewed as in this category. The question of whether midpoint responding is indicative of ERS can be answered empirically by determining whether the tendency to use the midpoint category is positively or negatively related to the tendency to use categories at either end of [he scale. Semantic Differential ratings which had been previously obtained for other purposes were reanalyzed in order to answer this question. Ratings were made by 74 college students (36 males and 38 females) of 18 concepts (animals, objects, parts of clothing, and parts of the body) on six Semantic Differential scales with high loadings on the potency factor. The tendency toward midpoint responding was measured by obtaining for each S the proportion of responses in the three middle categories which were midpoint responses. The proportion of all responses in the outer four categories that were in the two end categories was also computed. These two proportions were rransformed by means of an arcsin transformation. The product-moment correlation of the obtained values was .50 (n = 78; p < .01). This indicates

A response tendency resulting from the length of a group-administered questionnaire instrument is described. Respondents answering items that are included in large sets toward the later parts of a long questionnaire are more likely to give identical answers to most or all of the items, compared with those responding to items in smaller sets or in shorter questionnaires. While means and intercorrelations among items within the same set are affected by this "straight-line" response pattern, intercorrelations between items from different sets are much less affected by it. These investigations are based on comparisons between a long questionnaire, administered to 1,050 high school seniors in nine high schools across the nation in 1978, and five shorter questionnaires administered to large national samples of high school seniors. A. Regula Herzog is Study Director and Jerald G. Bachman is Program Director at the Survey Research Center, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104. The authors would like to thank Pamela KIttel for competent research assistance, Frank Andrews, Patrick O'Malley, Willard Rodgers, and Howard Schuman for helpful comments on a draft of this paper. This research was supported by Grant No. NIE-G-780036 of the National Institute of Education. Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 45:549-559 ? 1981 by The Trustees of Columbia University Published by Elsevier North-Holland, Inc. 0033-362X/81/0045-549/$2.50 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.145 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 05:55:25 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 550 HERZOG AND BACHMAN Little empirical evidence is available for either contention, particularly with regard to response quality. A study by Clancy and Wachsler (1971) on personal interviews shows no substantial increase in agreement bias or willingness to report socially undesirable behaviors when questions are asked at the end of a 25-minute telephone interview rather than at the beginning. Sudman and Bradburn (1974) report little effect of the position of a question in the survey instrument in their systematic review of response effects in surveys, but also acknowledged that only a few relevant studies are available. On the other hand, two studies of the responses to questionnaires that were administered in groups are more suggestive of a negative effect of length of instrument. Findings reported by Kraut et al. (1975) show an increasing use of the modal response category and decreasing use of the extreme response categories in later parts of a 168-item questionnaire. Johnson et al. (1974) observed fewer responses to an open-ended question when such a question was included at the end rather than at the beginning of an 18-item questionnaire. We recently had the occasion to examine some effects of questionnaire length on response quality as part of an ongoing study of high school seniors. The occasion was provided by the administration of a long questionnaire, which was a composite of five shorter questionnaire forms. The short questionnaires were designed so that the great majority of high school seniors would be able to complete them within a single 45-minute class period. In order to cover a broad range of topics despite the imposed time restriction, multiple questionnaire forms were used (with roughly 40 percent of the material common to all forms and 60 percent unique to each form). Since this design severely restricts correlational analyses in which items from one form are related to items from another form, a "long" form was developed combining most of the unique material from the five forms. It was recognized that the resulting long questionnaire, which required on the average over two hours to complete, would be much more demanding than the usual shorter forms, and that this would require both special efforts to motivate respondents and considerable caution in interpreting results. The efforts to motivate respondents included a five-dollar payment and released time from class (we judge the latter to be a positive factor for most students). The caution in interpreting results involved a considerable amount of comparison between long form data and the corresponding items from the shorter forms. On the whole, the comparisons of long and short forms revealed rather little evidence of systematic differences across a variety of means and correlations. We did, however, identify one particular effect of questionnaire length which appears to be limited to long sets This content downloaded from 207.46.13.145 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 05:55:25 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms EFFECTS OF QUESTIONNAIRE LENGTH 551 of items using identical response scales. The effect manifests itself as an increased tendency to use an identical response category for all items in such a set, a form of responding that we label in the following paragraphs as "straight-line" responding. In other words, respondents are increasingly likely to show some form of position bias in later parts of the questionnaire. This paper documents the existence of this response pattern and examines its possible effects on substantive

An explanation of extreme responses in the semantic differential in terms of the availability of intense responses which are not inhibited, was tested by relating frequency of extreme responses to associative commonality in word association. A small but significant relationship was found amongst teachers’ training college students.

In a review paper, Rorer (1965) dismisses the importance of response style factors in test interpretation. He states that stylistic elements are test-specific, unstable, and not ro be considered a general component of an individual's mode of response. Rorer notes that statistically significant correlations between stylisric factors have occurred primarily in content-loaded situations and that such relationships are based on response set (i.e., a conscious or unconscious desire on the part of S to create a certain impression of himself) rather than response style (i.e., a personal mode of responding independent of test content), Thus, in order to establish the importance of response style, one would have to demonstrate its generality and stability in a situation where the influence of response set could not operate. A convenient way to eliminate the operation of response set or content factors from influencing S's response is to minimize the content available for S to use in forming his response. When this is done responses based on content or response set become less probable and personal stylistic factors begin to become major in S's response. The aim of this study was to investigate the generality and stability of two minimalcontent measures of response style. Evidence of such generality and stability would contradict Rorer's (1965) conclusion that response style is a "myth." The response style used in this investigation was extreme response style (i.e., the tendency disproportionately to endorse extreme response alternatives). Method.-Ninety female Ss' were exposed to two minimal-content measures, one visual, employing flashing patterns of light; and the other auditory, employing tonal patrerns resembling dots and dashes. Ss were asked to rate each of the 10 visual and 10 auditory patterns on two semantic differential factors, pleasant : unpleasant, relaxed : tense (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957). An extreme response was designated as a rating in the 1 or 7 position on the semantic differential. Since two sense modalities were rated on two scales, the maximum total extreme response style score was 40. A repetition of the above procedure was required for the initial 33 Ss for the purpose of measuring test-retest reliability of the minimal-content measures. Results.-The product-moment correlation between auditory and visual measures was .68 (p < .01, two-tailed), indicating a substantial degree of generality berween the two diffe~ent minimal content measures. To explore the stability of the measures, productmoment correlations were computed between scores obtained in the initial testing and those obtained in retest after 1 wk. The correlations for visual, auditory, and combined measures were .GO, .75, and .74 respectively. All correlations were significantly different from zero (p < .01) and indicate that minimal-content measures are reliable over time. The mean rating on the seven-point scale was 3.78 for the visual, 3.89 for the auditory, and 3.84 for the combined measure. Since the means are close to their scale midpoints the stimuli seem of minimal content with respect to the semantic differential scales. Extreme response style is not test-specific, is not unstable, and should be viewed as important in understanding S's mode of response.