In this paper, Shoemaker's (1972, 1973b) conclusions related to the influence of various data base characteristics (reliability, variability of item difficulty indices, and degree of skewness in the normative distribution) on the standard error of a mean estimated via Multiple Matrix Sampling (MMS) procedures are examined. It is noted that these conclusions are true under fairly restrictive conditions. Also, it is shown that even under these conditions it is more reasonable to attribute changes in the standard error to changes in examinee variability rather than to changes in these other data base characteristics.
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