It has been established that construct measures often contain measurement error and method effects. However, the extent of these measurement problems and their effects on personality constructs has not been fully examined. In this study, an analysis of published data sets affords estimates of the amount of trait, method, and error variance of measures used in the social/behavioral sciences. It was found that traits accounted for less than 50 percent of the variance in construct measures among the entire group of data sets included in the study. Measures of attitudes and personality variables contain considerably less trait variance. Implications for theory testing are discussed.

The current study evaluated the developmental characteristics of printed and cursive letter writing in early school-age children. We predicted fewer age-related changes on spatial and temporal measures in cursive letter writing due to lower explicit timing demands compared with printed letter writing. Thirty children wrote the letters e and l in cursive and printed forms repetitively. For printed letters, significant age effects were seen in temporal consistency, whereas cursive letters showed age-related improvement in spatial consistency. Children tended to have higher consistency for printed handwriting than they did for cursive writing. Because of an overall advantage for printed handwriting, the explicit timing hypothesis was not fully supported. We argue that experiential factors influence the development of handwriting.

No abstract

Process control of dielectric CMP has become more stringent as device dimensions decrease. This study repons on the improvement in process control that was obtained by using an integrated metrology tool, and automated, factory-level, process control algorithms. The control methodology was proven to be capable of handling mUltiple pattern levels, with diff erent pattern densities, on multiple polishers in an advanced-prototype/development fab. The improvement in controland throughput with respect to offline metrology and manual control is presented ..Residual sources of variation are analyzed, and schema for junher improvements in control capability are presented, based on tests conducted.