Results of research conducted to ascertain the effect on test grades of changing answer choices are presented. The main questions that were examined were: (1) Does the changing of responses to test items (presumably based upon item reconsideration) result in better test scores?; (2) Is the amount of changes related to the score a person receives…

Explored utility of disguise in structured self-report assessment of psychopathology, using university students. Data indicated that under normal test-taking circumstances, use of disguised test items was not advantageous. This relationship was moderated by several dimensional parameters. Results supported rational strategy of test construction,…

Individual differences in performance on figural analogy tests are usually attributed to quantitative differences in processing parameters rather than to qualitative differences in the formation and use of representations. Yet aptitude-related differences in categorizing standardized figural analogy problems between high and low scorers have been…

The randomized response technique, constructed by Warner (1965), was designed to reduce the number of untruthful responses to sensitive questionnaire items. The present study investigated the effectiveness of this technique for groups differing in the tendency to give socially desirable responses to questionnaire items. A questionnaire concerning…

College student and adult subjects were studied in five experimental formats to gauge how well people can estimate the frequency of death from specific causes. Subjects tended to overestimate the rate of rare causes, underestimate likely causes, and be influenced by drama or vividness. (Author/SJL)

Describes an experiment in which a presumptively behavioral anxiety-management technique known as "cue-controlled relaxation" (Russell, Miller & June, 1975) was compared with a "deactivated" version of Borkovec's (1972) Avoidance Response Placebo treatment and with no intervention as means of reducing self-reported test…

State test anxiety, worry, and emotionality were inversely related to performance, but partial correlations indicated that only worry was correlated with performance when the common variance between worry and emotionality was partialed out. High worriers performed less well than low worriers. No sex differences were found. (Author/MV)

This paper examines Longstreth's criticisms of Jensen's studies relating reaction-time to measures of intelligence and finds them unconvincing. While Longstreth raises some interesting questions, the authors found no evidence in the data for practice or order effects in a reaction-time paradigm. (BS)

Disguising scale purpose by using an innocuous skill title and filler items had no effect on the reliability and validity of Rotter's Interpersonal Trust Scale. (Author)

Study supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (RS)

Study investigated the relationship between the Zeigarnik effect (the tendency to recall incomplete or incorrect tasks rather than complete or correct tasks) and achievement motivation. (MB)

To test differential effects of treating cognitive and emotionality response components of test anxiety, test-anxious college students (N=48) were assigned to one of four groups: an attentional treatment; a relaxation treatment; a combined attentional-relaxation treatment; and a waiting-list control group. Significant performance changes were not…

Compared to control group data obtained under standard instructions, subjects (N=72) asked to fake replies to the Howarth Personality Questionnaire in the way they felt Machiavellian individuals would honestly respond scored significantly higher on Ascendance-Dominance, Trust vs Suspicion and Impulsiveness, and significantly lower on Superego,…

The authors assess the replicability of the two-factor model of underreporting response style. They then examine the relative performance of scales measuring these styles in analog (ARD) and differential prevalence group (DPG) designs. Principal components analysis produced a two-factor structure corresponding to self-deceptive (SD) and impression…