Response changes on multiple-choice items tend to improve test scores of elementary school children. (Author/MJB)

The Modifiers and Perceived Stress Scale measures stressful life events by number and amount of perceived stresses and provides scores for variables such as anticipation of events, responsibility for events, and amount of social support from family and friends in coping with each event that modify the way stress is perceived. (Author)

A more generalized error model for time-limit tests is developed. Model estimates are derived for right-attempted and wrong-attempted correlations both within the same test and between different tests. A comparison is made between observed correlations and their model counterparts and a fair agreement is found between observed and expected…

Author presents a method for calculating item factor scores which are independent of item trait scores. (MB)

During early attempts to interpret factors represented in scores on the Gumpgookies test, an instrument designed to tap motivation to achieve in young children, the factors identified by ordinary factor-analytic techniques were found to be confounded by the subjects' response sets. This paper proposes a method for defining objectively irrelevant…

Both groups show evidence of a response style biased toward the extreme right of multiple choice arrays which was, however, more reliable among the Bedouins. (Author/AM)

Examined whether lengthy responses to the blank card reflect a contaminating factor such as glibness in creativity research. Two groups of college students completed the Remote Associates Test, Thematic Apperception Test, or Hand Test. Results suggested that blank cards among ambiguous stimuli evoke not glibness but economy of expression. (JAC)

According to conventional wisdom, a test taker should not change his/her first response to a multiple-choice, although empirical evidence has consistently supported such changes. Quizzes for masters level students in educational measurement and evaluation showed increments due to answer changing. Low anxious students tended to make more changes…

Indices that detail aspects of student test responses include overall aberrancy; tendencies to miss relatively easy items; tendencies to correctly answer more difficult items; and a combination that indicates how the latter tendencies balance each other. Mathematics test results for 368 college students illustrate the indices. (SLD)

This study investigated factors related to score differences on computerized and paper-and-pencil versions of a series of primary K-3 reading tests. Factors studied included item and student characteristics. The results suggest that the score differences were more related to student than item characteristics. These student characteristics include…

Several possible faking predictor scores were related to a continuously measured index of faking based on differences between faked and normal records and also to a dichotomous criterion of faking on the Comrey Personality Scales (CPS). Correlational analysis revealed that a total CPS summary score best indicated fakery. (Author/BJG)

Students instructed on research findings regarding answer changing made gains comparable to those of uninstructed students when changing item responses. Most changed their answers because they rethought or reread items. Counselors should not discourage students from changing answers. (Author)

The impact of answer changing on the test scores of students studying educational statistics is investigated. The results show that students who make changes in their original responses significantly improve their overall test performance, and high-scoring students make a greater number of changes than low-scoring students. (Author/GSK)

The authors examined and compared the susceptibility of three Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) scale sets (Clinical, Restructured Clinical [RC], and Content) to over- and underreporting using five analog samples. Two samples of 85 and 191 undergraduate students, respectively, took the MMPI-2 under underreporting versus…

It was hypothesized that using asterisks as attention focusing devices would cause students to read all asteriked test items more carefully and would improve test scores of undergraduate education students. Sixty-three undergraduates majoring in elementary or special education were administered a 36-item objective test. Asterisks were used to…