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The Effects of Immediate Forewarning of Test Difficulty on Test Performance

Matt Drown. The Effects of Immediate Forewarning of Test Difficulty on Test Performance. Charles J. Weber Eastern Illinois University George Y. Bizer Union College The Journal of General Psychology Volume 133, Issue 3, July 2006, Pages 277-285 . Theory.

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The Effects of Immediate Forewarning of Test Difficulty on Test Performance

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  1. Matt Drown The Effects of Immediate Forewarning of Test Difficulty on Test Performance Charles J. Weber Eastern Illinois University George Y. Bizer Union College The Journal of General Psychology Volume 133, Issue 3, July 2006, Pages 277-285

  2. Theory • Forewarning right before an exam has an effect on test performance

  3. Hypothesis • There will be a difference in the performance of students with high trait anxiety and low trait anxiety • High anxiety will perform worse • Low anxiety will perform better

  4. Theoretical Construct I • Trait Anxiety • Operational Definition • 20-item trait-anxiety questionnaire from the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) • Measures level of dispositional anxiety

  5. Theoretical Construct II • Performance • Operational Definition • 10 multiple choice items from a prior administration of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)

  6. DESIGN

  7. Study and Subjects • Subjects • 62 students at Eastern Illinois University • psychology students • Partial fulfillment of course requirement

  8. Independent Variable I • Perceived test difficulty • Scale of Measurement • Qualitative • Levels of Independent Variable • 3 levels • Expected Easy (N=22) • Expected Difficult (N=18) • Neutral (N=22)

  9. Independent Variable II • Anxiety • Scale of Measurement • Qualitative • Levels of Independent Variable • 2 (low and high, based on median split)

  10. Dependant Variable • Performance • Scales of Measurement • Quantitative • Levels of Dependant Variable • 10 (number of correctly answered items)

  11. RESULTS

  12. Main Effect • There were no main effects of condition or trait anxiety on the number of correctly answered items

  13. Interaction • Significant difference among both high trait anxiety (p<.05) and low trait anxiety (p<.05) • Participants of low test anxiety told that the exam would be hard scored significantly higher than those told it would be easy • Participants of high test anxiety told that the exam would be hard scored worse than all other participants • No significant difference among no-instruction control

  14. Overall scores as a Function of Trait Anxiety and Condition

  15. Discussion

  16. I think it is a good idea for a study • Very few studies have tested forewarning immediately before a test • Suggests that forewarning of difficulty well in advance and immediately before an exam have distinct effects on performance

  17. But…. • Could have been done better • There were too many extraneous variables that were not controlled or taken into account • Maybe taking a larger, more diverse sample

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