Apparatus and method for Cloze-Elide testing

Claim 2

A Cloze-Elide automatic test system, comprising a test sheet of predetermined dimensions and having a plurality of defined marking areas thereon arranged in rows, each said marking area having respective predetermined position on said sheet, a text of printed words of a first optical reflectivity arranged in said rows, each said printed word defining a word position corresponding to one or more of said marking areas, indicia of a second optical reflectivity overmarking selected ones of said words, and optical scanning means having different optical sensitivities to said words and said overmarking indicia, for scanning said sheet to determine the positions of said overmarked words.

Claim 3

The system as described in claim 1, wherein said printed text contains randomly inserted distractor words, said system further comprising position storage means for storing data representative of positions of said inserted distractor words, means for generating overmark data representative of the determined positions of said overmarked words, means for comparing said distractor word data with said overmark data, and means for indicating said comparison in numerical terms.

Claim 4

The system as described in claim 1, wherein said sheet comprises registering indicia representative of predetermined sheet positions, and wherein said optical scanning means comprises means for sensing said registering indicia and using same in determining the positions of said overmarked words.

Claim 5

The system as described in claim 3, wherein said registering indicia comprise row marks.

Claim 6

The system as described in claim 4, wherein said optical scanning means comprises means for scanning each row of said text sequentially and for generating data signals representative of said marking areas in each said row wherein said overmarked words are sensed.

Claim 7

An automatic system for Cloze-Elide testing, wherein a text of words is printed on a sheet and said text contains inserted distractor words which are to be overmarked by a test-taker, comprising said text being arranged in a plurality of rows, each word of said text having a respective determinable word position on said sheet, said text being printed with a first optical reflectivity storage means for storing distractor data corresponding to at least the word positions of said distractor words, said text having overmark indicia of a second optical reflectivity after being marked by the test-taker, optical scanning means having different optical text sensitivities to said text words and said overmark indicia respectively, for scanning said sheet to generate overmark data corresponding to sensed positions of said overmark indicia, and means for comparing said overmark data with said stored distractor data, whereby an automatic determination of the test result can be made.

Claim 8

An automatic system for Cloze-Elide testing, wherein a text of words is printed on a sheet and said text contains inserted distractor words which are to be overmarked by a test-taker, comprising said text being arranged in a plurality of rows, each word of said text having a respective determinable word position on said sheet, said text being printed with a first optical reflectivity storage means for storing distractor data corresponding to at least the word positions of said distractor words, said text having overmark indicia of a second optical reflectivity after being marked by the test-taker, optical scanning means having different optical text sensitivities to said text words and said overmark indicia respectively, for scanning said sheet to generate overmark data corresponding to sensed positions of said overmark indicia, and means for comparing said overmark data with said stored distractor data, whereby an automatic determination of the test result can be made.

Claim 9

A Cloze-Elide automated testing system, comprising a test display surface containing a text of words, said text having inserted distractor words therein which are to be elided, said distractor words being positioned on said surface at respective predetermined surface positions, storage means for storing data representative of said predetermined positions, elide means for determining the positions of words selected to be elided from said text and for generating data representative of said determined positions, and comparison means for comparing said predetermined and determined positions and for providing a numerical indication of said comparison, thereby providing a test score representative of the accuracy of selection of said distractor words.

Claim 10

A Cloze-Elide automated testing system, comprising a test display surface containing a text of words, said text having inserted distractor words therein which are to be elided, said distractor words being positioned on said surface at respective predetermined surface positions, storage means for storing data representative of said predetermined positions, elide means for determining the positions of words selected to be elided from said text and for generating data representative of said determined positions, and comparison means for comparing said predetermined and determined positions and for providing a numerical indication of said comparison, thereby providing a test score representative of the accuracy of selection of said distractor words.

Claim 11

The system as described in claim 7, wherein said elide means comprises electronic means for eliding words from said text display.

Claim 12

The system as described in claim 8, wherein said text display is a video terminal.

Claim 13

The system as described in claim 9, wherein said electronic means comprises removal means for removing a selected word from said terminal display.

Claim 14

The system as described in claim 7, wherein said means for comparing comprises software controlled computer apparatus.

Claim 15

The system as described in claim 11, wherein said software controlled computer apparatus also comprises said means for determining.

Claim 16

The system as described in claim 7, wherein said test display is a sheet and said text is printed thereon.

Claim 19

A Cloze-Elide automated testing system, comprising a text display surface containing a text of words, said text having inserted distractory words therein which are to be elided, storage means for storing data representative of said distractor words, elide means for determining the words of said text selected to be elided and for generating data representative of said selected words, and comparison means for comparing said selected data and said distractor word data, thereby providing an indication of the accuracy of selection of said distractor words.

Claim 20

A Cloze-Elide automated testing system, comprising a text display surface containing a text of words, said text having inserted distractory words therein which are to be elided, storage means for storing data representative of said distractor words, elide means for determining the words of said text selected to be elided and for generating data representative of said selected words, and comparison means for comparing said selected data and said distractor word data, thereby providing an indication of the accuracy of selection of said distractor words.

Claim 25

The method as described in claim 17, comprising displaying said text including said distractor words, said distractor words being located at positions corresponding to said stored position data.

Claim 26

A method as described in claim 18, wherein said displaying step comprises displaying said text on a video terminal.

Claim 27

A method as described in claim 18, wherein said displaying step comprises printing said text on a sheet of paper.

Claim 28

The method as described in claim 17, comprising further steps taken after a test taker has elided selected words from said text, said further steps comprising automatically determining the positions of said elided words, comparing said elided word positions with said stored distractor positions, and computing a test score reflective of the test taker's accuracy in properly eliding said distractor words.

Claim 29

The method as described in claim 21, wherein said computing comprises determining which distractor words have been properly elided and also what words which are not distractor words have been elided.