A series of 4 studies involving 547 college students and community adults report the development of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, its validity with clinical and nonclinical samples, and its correlation with measures of related constructs. The scale provides information about heightened responses to aversive procedures or events. (SLD)

The validity of intuitive classifications of experienced diagnosticians was examined for 10 experienced diagnosticians evaluating child behavior problems. Results showed that intuitive prototypes corresponded poorly with empirical core syndromes in the assessment system of T. M. Achenbach and others. Reasons for differences are discussed. (SLD)

This case study profiled an experienced teacher as she used two problems from a problem-oriented unit developed in a middle school mathematics curriculum project. The curriculum offered the students opportunities to make substantive mathematical connections, but teacher goals may have prevented some connections from being made. (SLD)

Associations between perceived psychosocial climate and student outcomes among a sample of 1,512 students in grade-5 mathematics classes in Singapore were investigated using multiple linear regression and hierarchical linear modeling. Results suggest the existence of associations between outcomes and environment and the usefulness of both data…

The willingness of 104 college students to seek instructor help was studied as a function of student age and class size and whether a supportive statement was placed on the syllabus. Students were more willing to seek help when offered the support. Younger students were less willing in the neutral condition. (SLD)

Responses of 138 third and fourth graders to failures and successes in mathematics computation were studied in 4 experimental conditions varied by social learning context and modeling. The collaborative learning context increased student persistence after failure and dynamism after success, and modeling increased persistence and dynamism in an…

It is argued that outlier-prone distributions reduce the power of nonparametric tests, but power can be restored through procedures usually associated with parametric tests. Computer simulation is used to show how an outlier detection and downweighting procedure augments the power of the t-test and the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. (SLD)

Post hoc and planned comparison procedures for interpreting chi-square contingency table test results are presented, and a planned comparison procedure that simplifies the process of creating a contingency table by creating single-degree-of-freedom contrasts through a regression-based approach is proposed. (SLD)

A person-fit method that allows researchers to identify nonfitting response vectors is the l(z) statistic. Simulation results show that l(z) may not perform as expected when estimated person parameters are used rather than true person parameters. Other considerations in using true and estimated person parameters are discussed. (SLD)

The closed-interval signed area (CSA) and closed-interval unsigned area (CUA) statistics were studied by Monte Carlo simulation to detect differential item functioning (DIF) when the reference and focal groups had different parameter distributions. Different behaviors of the CSA and CUA as functions of the parameters are discussed. (SLD)

This study examined how well current software implementations of four polytomous item response theory models fit several multiple-choice tests. The main conclusion is that fitting polytomous item response models to multiple-choice item responses is more complex than fitting the three-parameter logistic model to dichotomously scored responses. (SLD)

The minimum chi-square method for computing equating coefficients for tests with dichotomously scored items was extended to the case of F. Samejima's graded response model. When compared with the test response function method, the minimum chi-square method was less demanding computationally and yielded similar equating coefficients. (SLD)

The effects of different degrees of smoothing on results of equipercentile equating in random groups design using a postsmoothing method based on cubic splines were investigated, and a computer-based procedure was introduced for selecting a desirable degree of smoothing. Results suggest that no particular degree of smoothing was always optimal.…

Simulations demonstrate the effects of correlated errors on the person-by-occasion design in which the confounding effect of equal time intervals results in correlated error terms in the linear model. Two specific error correlation structures were examined. Conditions under which underestimation and overestimation occur are discussed. (SLD)

A statistic used by R. Meijer (1994) to determine person-fit referred to the number of errors from the deterministic Guttman model (L. Guttman, 1950), but this was, in fact, based on the number of errors from the deterministic Guttman model as defined by J. Loevinger (1947, 1948). (SLD)