Social scientists have long agreed that satisficing behavior increases error and reduces the validity of survey data. There have been numerous reviews on detecting satisficing behavior, but preventing this behavior has received less attention. The current narrative review provides empirically supported guidance on preventing satisficing by…

Insufficient effort responding (IER) affects many forms of assessment in both educational and psychological contexts. Much research has examined different types of IER, IER's impact on the psychometric properties of test scores, and preprocessing procedures used to detect IER. However, there is a gap in the literature in terms of practical advice…

This paper presents a framework for choosing between 4-and 6-point response options for use with online surveys. Using data that have both 4- and 6-point Likert-type items, we compare correlations, fit of factor analytic models, and several different reliability estimates as a way of identifying if there is empirical support for choosing a…

Extreme response set, the tendency to prefer the lowest or highest response option when confronted with a Likert-type response scale, can lead to misfit of item response models such as the generalized partial credit model. Recently, a series of intrinsically multidimensional item response models have been hypothesized, wherein tendency toward…

Four hypotheses regarding stability of response process and response in personality testing are tested and supported. (RC)

A three-dimensional (3-D) test, comparable to twenty-five items from the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, constructed to determine whether 3-D stimuli would facilitate responses when compared to two dimensional (2-D) stimuli, revealed no significant effects for the version of the test (2-D or 3-D) or the order of administration. (MB)

A total of 1,247 college students participated in this study on the effect of scale format on the reliability of Likert-type rating scales. The number of response categories ranged from 3 to 9. Anchor labels on the scales were provided for each response option or for the end points only. The results indicated that the scales with few response…

A multiple true-false item is one where a testee has to identify statements as true or false within a cluster (of two or more) of such statements. Clusters are then scored as items. This study showed such a procedure to yield less reliable results than traditional true-false items. (JKS)

A novel scoring procedure was investigated in order to obtain scores from a conventional multiple-choice test that would be free of the guessing component or contain a known guessing component even though examinees were permitted to guess at will. Scores computed with the experimental procedure are based not only on the number of items answered…

The Answer-Until-Correct (AUC) procedure has been proposed in order to increase the reliability of multiple-choice items. A model for examinees' behavior when they must respond to each item until they answer it correctly is presented. An expression for the reliability of AUC items, as a function of the characteristics of the item and the scoring…

Examined the effects on their test performance of junior high school students changing responses. Results indicated that changing answers neither increases the reliability nor decreases the standard error of measurement of the test. (Author/RC)

This study examined effects of negative versus positive symptom formats on the assessment and subsequent classification of ADHD in children in public schools. Symptoms associated with the disorder based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) were presented to parents and teachers of referred children…

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…

Various aspects of Confidence Weighting are examined. Variant of Confidence Weighting, its effect on test reliability, and the validity of Confidence Weighting are discussed. (DG)

A strategy for comparing two sets of results (one based upon early childhood recollections (ECR) and another upon video taped (VT) group behavior) from the Perceptual Characteristics Rating Scale was developed. The null distribution of the mean deviation was estimated by randomly matching an ECR response vector with a VT response vector. To…