The comparative effects of various sequences of test items were examined for over 900 graduate students enrolled in an educational research course at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. experiment, which was conducted a total of four times using four separate tests, presented three different arrangements of 50 multiple-choice items: (1)…

Six studies which were conducted to determine the effects of testwiseness training on middle school and undergraduate college students' test scores are described. Testwiseness was defined as the cognitive ability or set of skills which a test taker can use to improve his or her score. Testwiseness training presented methods for using deductive…

The study investigated the effect of response mode variation (the use or non-use of separate answer sheets) on subject responses (N = 1017) to affective instruments treating both instrument and subject characteristics. Instrument characteristics examined included attitudinal versus personality scale composition, scale items written in first versus…

Effects of response mode, response format, perceived response style, sex, and anonymity on raw scale scores and extreme response tendencies for two distinct measures of affective behavior were investigated. The two measures were a self-acceptance scale developed by J.R. Phillips and the Machiavellianism IV scale. Where (response mode) and how…

Men's and women's immediate reactions to completing the Self Directed Search (SDS) and the Strong Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) were assessed, as well as the impact of this testing on their subsequent behaviors four weeks later. A random sample of college freshmen at the University of Kansas (N=96) completed either the SDS, SCII, or both…

A visual analogue mood scale was developed that included an option indicating subjects didn't understand the meaning of an adjective in an item. The item content significantly affected responses, raising questions about the adequacy of recently proposed affective taxonomies that were based on restricted samples of emotion-descriptive adjectives.…

Investigates spontaneous reasoning of 709 French, Belgian, and British students in elementary dynamics using the relations between force, energy and motion as the study topic. Students were selected from the last year at secondary school to the third year at university. (HM)

When Chinese adults tried to name the color of characters which represented conflicting color words, they showed greater interference than did English speaking readers of the same task in English. This effect cannot be attributed to bilingualism. There may be fundamental differences in the perceptual demands of reading Chinese and English.…

Different instructions accompanied faculty/course evaluation questionnaires distributed in university courses (stratified by level and size). Instructions differed in information conveyed about use and disposition of results. Instructions containing information about administrative or course improvement use produced higher ratings than those given…

Analyzes the differences in responses of 94 bilingual South African college students to questionnaires in both English and Afrikaans. Concludes that the use of translated questionnaires need not lead to biased results. (FMW)

This study examines the relationship between test-wiseness, memory, and grade-point average in college students. Test wiseness is defined as a subject's capacity to utilize the characteristics and format of a test to receive a higher score, independent of the examinee's knowledge of the subject matter. Researchers hypothesized that test-wiseness…

This study compared responses to three vignettes describing incidents between a male patient and a female nurse that involved the nurse being mildly assaulted, severely assaulted, or verbally abused (the control condition) by the patient. After reading each vignette, 32 of 42 female senior-year nursing students and 28 of 48 practicing nurses…

This study investigated the effect of timed testing on developmental students' scores and developed data that might better reveal students' reading and testing behaviors. Three tests were administered to provide six variables, including the Cooperative English Test, Form 1A (Coop 1A); Cooperative English Test, Form 1B (Coop 1B); and Degrees of…

To test the effects of altering situational variables in stressful examinations on high test anxious and low test anxious undergraduates, mid-terms and final examinations were administered in two environmental settings: large lecture halls and small language laboratories. Mean test scores for high test anxious students in the language labs were…

To determine whether placement of items on a teacher rating scale affects the factor structure underlying the scale and to determine whether changing the item format alters the ratings given, a 12-item, high-inference student rating scale was developed containing two global items pertaining to overall teacher effectiveness and 10 evaluative items…