Empirical distributions of correlations as a tool for scale reduction

A Visual Basic program for generating a distribution of correlations as a t ool for scale reduction is presented; the program is available free from th e author and runs on IBM-compatible personal computers under the Windows 95 /98/NT operating systems. The program generates a list of item combinations and correlations between the unit weighted sum of the items and a criterio n score. The list can be used to locate item combinations that have high co rrelations with the original full-length test. An example application is pr esented to illustrate the use of the program. The compiled program and its source code can be downloaded from http://personal.bgsu.edu/-stanton/r_cnmc h/r_crunch.zip.