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Henmon's P.E. vocabulary-difficulty scaling method

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Description

The article adapts Buckingham's spelling-scaling method to assign each Latin word a difficulty weight. Percent-correct values are converted to probable-error equivalents on the base line of a normal frequency surface, referenced to a zero point 3.8 P. E. below the median, so that equal raw percentage differences near the tails count as larger difficulty differences than near the median. The article states that assuming ability "follows the normal distribution," a 2 percent difference between words remote from the median "is not the same as the difference between par 64 percent correct and occido 62 percent correct." Year scale values and a general scale value averaging positions across four years are produced for the 239-word list.

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  • P. E. scale values for vocabulary difficulty via Buckingham's normal-distribution method: The article adapts Buckingham's spelling-scaling method to assign each Latin word a difficulty weight. Percent-correct values are converted to probable-error equivalents on the base line of a normal frequency surface, referenced to a zero point 3.8 P. E. below the median, so that equal raw percentage differences near the tails count as larger difficulty differences than near the median. The article states that assuming ability "follows the normal distribution," a 2 percent difference between words remote from the median "is not the same as the difference between par 64 percent correct and occido 62 percent correct." Year scale values and a general scale value averaging positions across four years are produced for the 239-word list. (V. A. C. Henmon (1917))

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Key Sources

  • V. A. C. Henmon. (1917). The Measurement of Ability in Latin. Part I. Vocabulary. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22The+Measurement+of+Ability+in+Latin%22+Henmon
Page metadata
Field Value
type research-method
id henmons-pe-vocabulary-difficulty-scaling-method
title Henmon's P.E. vocabulary-difficulty scaling method
description The article adapts Buckingham's spelling-scaling method to assign each Latin word a difficulty weight.
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-25
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