The reliability of a method of adjusting grade point averages for differences in departmental grading standards was examined, as were the effects of such adjustments on the predictive validity of high school grades, SAT scores, and achievement test scores. The index of differential grading standards for all on-time graduates of the Dartmouth College class of 1986 was quite reliable, and its use in adjusting grade averages increased predictive validity, reduced its erosion over years, reduced the apparent underprediction of women, and improved predictions for blacks. Differential group enrollment in courses in the science division seems to account for much of the effect of adjustment on grades. Improvement in the reliability of the criterial grade averages also was shown to have similar effects on gender and race prediction in another data set,In an earlier paper (Strenta & Elliott, 1987) we showed that the prediction by Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores of first-year grade point averages (GPA1) or four-year cumulative (CUM) grade point averages were improved when the variance in the GPA criterion associated with different departmental grading standards was reduced, either by adjusting the grades by an index of differential grading rigor, or by employing as a criterion a course or courses in which grading standards were nearly uniform. The data came from all the members of the Dartmouth class of 1983 and from all psychology majors over a period of 9 years.In the present investigation, using data from all on-time graduates of the class of 1986, we extended the prior analyses in several ways. First, we speculated that adjusting for within as well as between-department standards would improve prediction, and we made such adjustments here. Second, we extended the between-department analysis from 18 to 33 departments and programs in order to make the index more complete. Third, we employed all three traditional predictors--SAT, Achievement Test scores (ACH), and high school rank (HSR)--in the analyses. Fourth, we analyzed the prediction of independently and annually computed GPAs (GPAI, GPA2, etc.) to examine the effect of criterion adjustment on the course of prediction over the undergraduate career. Fifth, we examined the effect of criterion adjustment on prediction by ethnicity and by gender, using current as well as earlier data not heretofore reported.The circumstances that occasion GPA adjustments are these: Certain depart-333
The goal of this study was to compare children's and adults eyewitness identification accuracy when presented with an array of possible suspects (‘lineup’) versus one suspect (‘showup’). Kindergarten children and adults were shown a slide show of a staged theft and subsequently asked whether, of the photo or photos shown them, the perpetrator was present or not. Children were more likely than adults to identify the perpetrator correctly when that suspect was present in the lineup or showup. Children were also more likely than adults to make an incorrect identification of another person when the perpetrator's photo was not present in the lineup or showup. Because false positive identification errors are more difficult to detect with the showup than the lineup, use of the showup may be less appropriate with child witnesses than with adults due to children's greater tendency to make positive identifications.
The differential grading standards described by Goldman and Widawski (1976) exist in the same magnitude and in roughly the same order a decade later in a different kind of institution. Major fields that attract as majors students who score higher on SATs employ stricter grading standards. These differential grading standards serve to attenuate the correlation between SAT scores and grades, which is, even in highly selective institutions, substantial.
The background review, the study, and its discussion are concerned with males only. It is clear from the results of Witkin, Lewis, Hertzman, Machover, Meissner, and Wapner (1954) and Bieri, Bradburn, and Galinski (19S8), that the introduction of sex as a variable in perception-personality relationships leads to a large and bewildering number of interactions.
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