Browsing by Author "Ward, William C."

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    A comparison of free-response and multiple-choice forms of verbal aptitude tests
    (1982) Ward, William C.
    Three verbal item types employed in standardized aptitude tests were administered in four formats-a conventional multiple-choice format and three formats requiring the examinee to produce rather than simply to recognize correct answers. For two item types-Sentence Completion and Antonyms-the response format made no difference in the pattern of correlations among the tests. Only for a multiple- answer open-ended Analogies test were any systematic differences found; even the interpretation of these is uncertain, since they may result from the speededness of the test rather than from its response requirements. In contrast to several kinds of problem-solving tasks that have been studied, discrete verbal item types appear to measure essentially the same abilities regardless of the format in which the test is administered.
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    Measures for the study of creativity in scientific problem-solving
    (1978) Frederiksen, Norman; Ward, William C.
    A set of Tests of Scientific Thinking were developed for possible use as criterion measures in research on creativity. Scores on the tests describe both quality and quantity of ideas produced in formulating hypotheses, evaluating proposals, solving methodological problems, and devising methods for measuring constructs. The tests were administered to 3,500 candidates for admission to graduate school in psychology, using an item-sampling procedure. Reliabilities based on 45-minute tests were adequate for research purposes. Correlations with GRE scores were low, especially for scores based on number of ideas. Follow-up questionnaires were sent to students asking for information about graduate school attendance, grades, accomplishments during the first year of graduate study, and self-appraisals of professional skills. Scores based on quantity (number of responses, number of unusual responses, and number of unusual responses that were also of high quality) were significantly related to self-appraisals and to reports of such professional accomplishments as collaborating in research, publishing scientific papers, and designing and maintaining research apparatus. The quantity scores also were related to indices reflecting the quality of the department attended and to conventional evaluations of student performance. GRE scores were better at predicting these indices of quality but poorer as predictors of accomplishments and self-appraisals.