The Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ) was developed by Johnson, Foley, Suengas, and Raye (1988) to assess the characteristics of memories of external and internal origin, postulated in the source monitoring model (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993). The MCQ was translated into Spanish using a back-translation method. Psychometric properties of the translated MCQ were tested using responses collected from an experimental study simulating a forensic context. Ten police officers and 8 psychologists individually interviewed 240 university students who completed the MCQ after reporting what they had seen in a film. Half of the participants were asked to tell the truth, while the other half were asked to lie. The results have shown adequate psychometric properties of the Spanish MCQ items for the total sample and across experimental conditions. Cronbach’s alpha value was .79 for the total sample, .78 for the honest condition, and .76 for the lie condition. Validity evidence of dimensionality supports that the factor structure of Spanish MCQ was equivalent to that proposed by the authors of the original version. Also, a two-factor ANOVA (video clip x condition) was performed to analyze experimental data. Neither interaction effects, F(236) = 1.189; p = .277, nor main effects were found to be significant between those asked to tell the truth and those asked to lie. These results demonstrate that the Spanish MCQ has adequate psychometric properties.

Answering questions from texts are assessment and instructional activities that are frequently used in schools. Nevertheless, little is known about the strategic processes that students take while performing these tasks. We explored the amount and frequency that students initially read of a text before they answered questions pertaining to the material. In a procedure similar to the one used in the PISA (Program for International Students Assessment), one-hundred-seventy students between 7th and 9th grade read and answered several questions designed to assess task-oriented reading in three specific texts. We recorded on-line indexes that evaluated student behavior (e.g., the amount of text that students read before answering questions raised within a given text), performance, and comprehension skill. The results revealed that students skilled in comprehension initially read a high proportion of the texts, which in turn improved their overall performance in two of the three texts read (text 1: CI95%: 0.01 to 0.09; text 2: CI95%: –0.01 to 0.05; text 3: CI95%: 0.04 to 0.20). Therefore, we conclude that this strategic behavior should be considered during the assessment and instruction of reading literacy.

Many changes in the socioeconomic scenario led to the emergence of different models of career guidance, among which the protean career stands out. This model works with the prospect of a career that is self-directed and aligned with personal values, with important propositions for both professionals and students entering the work market. In the Brazilian scenario, however, there is a lack of appropriate measures to evaluate protean aspects among college students without work experience. Thus, the present study aimed at adapting and validating the attitudes towards the Protean Career Scale to this population. The sample consisted of 902 students aging from 18 to 30 years old (M = 22.52; SD = 6.53) attending 34 different undergraduate courses. Exploratory and confirmatory analysis attested the two-dimensional nature of the scale structure. The reliability indexes were satisfactory: over .65. The correlation between the protean models and factors such as personality, values, and locus of control provided adequate evidence of the measure’s predictive validity (p < .05).