Concerned with the prediction of success in the academic components of a nursing-training program conducted in a large metropolitan hospital, this study involved the determination of the relationship between each of 15 predictor variables (primarily reflecting cognitive abilities and studies skills) and each of 13 criterion measures representing course grades and scores on the National League for Nursing Achievement Tests. For each of 3 samples of 223 Caucasians, 73 Mexican-Americans, and 67 Negroes, validity coefficients of individual predictor variables and of composites of predictor variables were obtained along with an identification of rotated factors common to predictor variables and criterion measures. In general, higher validity coefficients both of individual predictor variables and of optimally weighted composites of these variables were obtained for the sample of Caucasians than for either one of the other two ethnic groups. A measure of reading vocabulary was the single most valid predictor variable for all three samples. For all three ethnic groups, similar factorial dimensions emerged to describe the interrelationships obtained among the predictor and criterion variables.EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT 1976, 36, 421-431.

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Sumntary.-TWO dogs were trained to perform a left-right discrimination task in which depressing a treadle presented a compound visual and auditory stimulus in random ordcr appropriate to one or the other of two distant reinforcement stations. Depression of the appropriate discrimination treadle was reinforced by water presentation. A modified correction procedure was used in training. Following acquisition, probe test trials consisting of the visual stimulus component alone, the auditory stimulus component alone, and reversed or cues-opposed compound stimulus were presented. Test trials demonstrated the visual component of the compound stimulus to have acquired discriminative control, but the cues-opposed test trials also demonstrated a low but extant degree of discriminative control exerted by the auditory stimulus component. As the compound stimulus employed here consisted of visual components differing only in location and auditory components differing only in pitch, implications for future research manipulating further these qualitative and quantitative variables were discussed.One interpretation of discrimination learning (Spence, 1936;Hull, 1952) holds that when a response is made and followed by a satisfying state of affairs, all stimuli striking receptors at the time will become associated with that response. Subsequent investigation~ have demonstrated that the degree to which stimuli concurrent with the reinforced response become associated with that response varies as a function of a number of variables. A more specific description of this variability, referred t o as "selective attention," is that on those conditional discrimination tasks employing compound stimuli, one dimension of the stimulus complex typically acquires more control over responding than another correlated dimension. Attempts to explain selective attention data have attributed the effect t o differences in relative saliency of particular types of stimuli (Krechevsky, 1932; Mackintosh, 1 9 6 5 ) , to quantitative relationships between discriminatively different stimuli correlated with different responses (Spence, 1 9 3 6 ) , and to a biological preparedness factor influencing ease of acquisition of certain selected stimulus topography-response relationships (Seligman, 1970).

For each of three samples of 207 Caucasians, 61 Mexican-Americans, and 53 Negroes in a nursing training program at a very large metropolitan hospital, validity coefficients of 15 predictor variables available prior to training and of 13 predictor variables obtained concurrently with training were calculated relative to each of five subtests of a state board certification examination for nurses. In addition, stepwise multiple regression analyses relative to each of the same five criterion measures as well as with respect to an average score on the five subtests of the certification examination were carried out for selected sets of predictor variables in each of the three samples. Standardized test measures involving reading skills were the most valid of the predictor variables obtained prior to nursing training, whereas total grade point average in program courses as well as scores on the National League for Nursing (NLN) Achievement Tests provided highest validity coefficients for each ethnic group. In terms of the predictor variables selected, the stepwise multiple regression analyses served essentially to reinforce the other correlational findings. THIS paper represents an extension of a validity study that was concerned with the prediction of the success of three ethnic samples in the academic components of a nursing training program conducted at a very large metropolitan hospital (Haney, Michael, and Martois, at UNIVERSITE LAVAL on July 7, 2015 epm.sagepub.com Downloaded from

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