Thirty-three percent of a sample of 45 power lifters surveyed by questionnaire admitted to using steroids, while 55 percent of 20 lifters surveyed by phone admitted steroid use. The researchers suggest that there was significant underreporting by these athletes, who consider steroids primarily as a means to improve athletic performance. (IAH)

Describes Campbell Development Surveys, integrated battery of five surveys covering organizational satisfaction, leadership characteristics, interests and skills, team morale, and community life. Notes that all surveys have common set of features: identical item formats, homogeneous scoring scales, standard T scores, procedural checks, and similar…

Commencing in 1985, a small body of experimental studies on the effects of test taking on delayed retention learning of technical subject matter has been completed in technology education settings. Much of the learning in technology education courses, especially the hands-on aspects, are best assessed via instruments and techniques other than…

In many school districts, the pressure to raise test scores has created overnight celebrity status for formative assessment. Its powers to raise student achievement have been touted, however, without attending to the research on which these claims were based. Sociocultural learning theory provides theoretical grounding for understanding how…

The Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD), a cognitive assessment model designed to measure cognitive processes during problem solving, emphasizes determination of specific types of thinking abilities used in mastering cognitive tasks rather than just on the solution. The LPAD is seen as an important advance in evaluating individual…

Educational records of 40 hearing-impaired children (3-15 years old) given both the Leiter International Performance Scale and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, Performance Scale, were reviewed. The Leiter had a standard deviation significantly greater than that reported in the examiner's manual. Care is suggested when…

Counseling psychologists (N=8) recorded the time needed to score the Counselor Rating Form (CRF) and the CRF-Quick Score (CRF-QS). Then 120 students viewed a counseling videotape and completed both measures. Results showed the two are comparable but the CRF-QS is significantly less time-consuming to score. (JAC)

Fifty-five dyslexic and 30 normal readers (8-12 years old) were administered the K-ABC. Normal readers demonstrated significantly higher scores on the cognitive subtests of "Hand Movements,""Number Recall, Word Order," and "Matrix Analogies" as well as on each achievement subtest, the "Sequential" and…

Tests of mental ability provide the most precise and efficient means of assessing a person's structure of knowledge. Tests help in cultivating cognitive competence, in developing and identifying excellence. The harmful consequences of not testing are outlined. (Author/AL)

Reviews federal guidelines for psychological test use in employee selection. Summarizes findings on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) use in selection of candidates for police officers. Notes that MMPI scales measuring defensiveness and hysteria have been reported as positively correlated with performance, whereas scales measuring…

Discusses knowledge needed by counselors to help in choosing appropriate tests for particular clients and problems under consideration and in properly interpreting test scores and integrating them into the total assessment process. Focuses on both statistical and technical knowledge about tests and substantive psychological knowledge about…

Reviews three self-report inventories designed to respond to syndrome of burnout in helping professionals: Maslach Burnout Inventory, Staff Burnout Scale for Health Professionals; and Tedium Scale. Describes each instrument, its development, and related research. Provides recommendations for future research. Discusses suggestions for use of the…

Older adults (n=224) completed Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) and questionnaire eliciting information about subjects' perceptions of WAIS-R across five categories. Most subjects experienced WAIS-R as interesting, challenging, motivating, and within their endurance. Picture Arrangement and Block Design were only two subtests…

Subtest specificities were determined for each of the 11 subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised (D. Wechlser, 1981) for a sample of 200 psychiatric inpatients. Seven subtests were judged to have adequate to ample specificity; four subtests were found to have inadequate specificity for ipsative interpretation. (SLD)

The first article in this section, "Rating Scales and Shared Meaning," by Winifred A. Lopez, discusses the analysis of rating scale data. The second article, "Rating Scale Categories: Dichotomy, Double Dichotomy, and the Number Two," by Mark H. Stone, argues that dichotomies in rating scales are more useful than multiple…