Dear Colleagues in Cognition and Assessment,

Welcome to our SIG page! I am excited that you are here and are interested in our SIG. We hope you are excited enough to become a member or are already a member.

The Cognition and Assessment SIG was established to highlight and promote research integrating cognition into assessment design and analysis in order to improve the meaning and utility of assessment scores. Members of our SIG have diverse profiles and training in interconnected disciplines that each contribute to research in this area. Some areas of interest for our members’ research include theoretical models for applied cognition, psychometric models for representing more complex theories of cognition, assessment design processes for coordinating theoretical and psychometric models, and digital technologies for re-conceptualizing assessment design and delivery. 

 National and international accountability measures such as large-scale educational surveys continue to grow with increased expectations for assessments to provide more information with less test-taking time.  Research from our SIG members is critically important is help answer key questions being asked about cognitive underpinnings of where and why students are excelling, as well as struggling. 

 Through the SIG, we hope to connect professionals so that we can come together to critically think, discuss, and act around issues in modern cognition and assessment. This year, we have established a new blog to facilitate discussion among SIG members through the year. We plan to jump start the blog this year with bi-weekly posts by members of the SIG. So check back for more posts, share your comments with our group, and feel free to submit a blog entry of your own!

Should you have any ideas, questions, or other issues that you would like to bring to my attention please do not hesitate to contact me personally at [email protected]. We have also established a LinkedIn presence so that those of you on LinkedIn can communicate effectively with one another. Finally, as always, I will keep you posted about key issues and initiatives through our Listserv to which you have access as a member. So if you are not yet a member, please joint us right now!

 I hope to hear from you and, of course, I hope to see you at the 2017 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.!

 Sincerely,

Laine Bradshaw, SIG Chair

Assistant Professor

Quantitative Methodology

The University of Georgia