Pretest and Posttest Confidence Ratings in Test Performance by Low-, Medium-, and High-Scoring Students

1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen P. Sjostrom ◽  
Alan Marks
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
Introductory Psychology ◽  
Test Material ◽  
Relative Difficulty ◽  
High Group ◽  
Average Performance ◽  
General Ability ◽  
Before And After

Before and after taking 12 successive tests, 90 introductory psychology students rated their level of confidence in passing each test. Students were divided into high, medium, and low groups based on their semester test scores. Students in the high group had higher ratings and were better able to predict their average performance than students in the low and medium groups. Ratings for all students averaged across the 12 tests correlated significantly with average test scores, but students were unable to evaluate their readiness for taking individual tests. Results suggest that ratings were based primarily on students' assessments of the relative difficulty of the test material and on their general ability in the course, rather than on the effectiveness of their study.

Learning by Writing in Introductory Psychology

1994 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 563-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary P. Boyles ◽  
Paul W. Killian ◽  
Kathryn K. Rileigh
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Writing Across The Curriculum ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
Final Examination ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Control ◽  
Experimental Group

The writing-across-the-curriculum movement suggests that writing assignments can enable students to think more clearly about a discipline. Performance of three groups of beginning psychology students on class tests under two conditions was compared (1) after completing lecture-based writing assignments ( ns = 21 and 23) and (2) without writing assignments ( n = 25). Test performance improved for one experimental group on the objective portion and for the other experimental group on the essay portion of the tests; however, the experimental and control groups did not differ on the comprehensive multiple-choice final examination. The two experimental groups were taught by different instructors, which might account for the difference in test scores. Responses to the questionnaire indicated that students responded positively to the writing assignments. Faculty stated that the writing assignments provided them valuable information about students' learning.

Self-Report Measures of Ability, Effort, and Nonacademic Activity as Predictors of Introductory Psychology Test Scores

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Woehr ◽  
Timothy A. Cavell
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Predictive Value ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Introductory Psychology ◽  
Academic Ability ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Predictor Variables ◽  
Academic Effort

Self-report measures of academic ability, academic effort, and nonacademic activity were used to predict students' performance on their first introductory psychology test. Collectively, these predictor variables explained a significant proportion of the variance in test performance. In addition, academic ability, academic effort, and nonacademic activity each contributed significantly to the prediction of test scores. The relative predictive value of different aspects of academic effort was also examined. Results are discussed in terms of how introductory psychology instructors might advise students who wish to improve their test performance.

Biracial Testing: The Question of Clinicians' Influence on Children’s Test Performance

1977 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Ratusnik ◽  
Roy A. Koenigsknecht
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Setting ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Drawing Test ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Preschool Age Children

Six speech and language clinicians, three black and three white, administered the Goodenough Drawing Test (1926) to 144 preschoolers. The four groups, lower socioeconomic black and white and middle socioeconomic black and white, were divided equally by sex. The biracial clinical setting was shown to influence test scores in black preschool-age children.

Influence of General and Crystallized Intelligence on Vocabulary Test Performance

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Ullstadius ◽  
Jan-Eric Gustafsson ◽  
Berit Carlstedt
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Model ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Verbal Ability ◽  
Testing Procedure ◽  
Intellectual Ability ◽  
Analysis Of Covariance ◽  
Categorical Variables ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Crystallized Intelligence ◽  
General Ability

Summary: Vocabulary tests, part of most test batteries of general intellectual ability, measure both verbal and general ability. Newly developed techniques for confirmatory factor analysis of dichotomous variables make it possible to analyze the influence of different abilities on the performance on each item. In the testing procedure of the Computerized Swedish Enlistment test battery, eight different subtests of a new vocabulary test were given randomly to subsamples of a representative sample of 18-year-old male conscripts (N = 9001). Three central dimensions of a hierarchical model of intellectual abilities, general (G), verbal (Gc'), and spatial ability (Gv') were estimated under different assumptions of the nature of the data. In addition to an ordinary analysis of covariance matrices, assuming linearity of relations, the item variables were treated as categorical variables in the Mplus program. All eight subtests fit the hierarchical model, and the items were found to load about equally on G and Gc'. The results also indicate that if nonlinearity is not taken into account, the G loadings for the easy items are underestimated. These items, moreover, appear to be better measures of G than the difficult ones. The practical utility of the outcome for item selection and the theoretical implications for the question of the origin of verbal ability are discussed.

Temporal Personality Variations among Participants from a University Subject Pool

1987 ◽  
Vol 60 (3_part_2) ◽  
pp. 1247-1254
Author(s):  
Ronald R. Holden ◽  
John R. Reddon
Keyword(s):  
Psychology Students ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Introductory Psychology ◽  
Personality Variables ◽  
Personality Differences ◽  
Personality Research ◽  
Subject Pool

This study examined personality differences in participants from a university subject pool as a function of the time of participation during the academic term and year. For 150 introductory psychology students with required participation in a subject pool, significant associations were found between time of participation and specific personality variables as measured by Jackson's Personality Research Form. Significant temporal associations with more general personality modal profiles were also obtained. Investigators using university subject pools are warned that these temporal variations in personality may represent possible confounds in research.

Perceptual and Linguistic Encoding in Recognition Memory and Paired-Associate Learning

1971 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 803-806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar A. Chenoweth ◽  
Gerry L. Wilcove
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Paired Associate ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
Paired Associate Learning ◽  
Introductory Psychology ◽  
Associate Learning ◽  
Paired Associates

A perceptual paired-associates task was presented in which pictures of objects and consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams served as stimulus and response members of the P-A unit, respectively. Introductory psychology students had been classified previously into encoding groups on the basis of their performance on a memory task. The prediction that the linguistic encoders would learn the PA task more slowly than the perceptual encoders was supported by the results.

Mood State, Issue Involvement, and Argument Strength on Responses to Persuasive Appeals

2007 ◽  
Vol 101 (3) ◽  
pp. 739-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Sinclair ◽  
Tanya K. Lovsin ◽  
Sean E. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Mood State ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
Introductory Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Responses ◽  
High Involvement ◽  
Argument Strength ◽  
Induction Condition ◽  
Issue Involvement ◽  
Thought Listing ◽  
Sad Mood

This study investigated the effects of mood state, issue involvement, and argument strength on responses to persuasive appeals. Through an unrelated second study paradigm, 144 introductory psychology students were randomly assigned to High or Low Issue Involvement, Happy or Sad Mood Inductions, and Strong or Weak Argument conditions. Attitudes, measured on 9-point Likert-type scales, and cognitive responses, measured through a thought listing, were assessed. On attitudes, people in the Happy Induction condition were equally persuaded by Strong and Weak Arguments, whereas people in the Sad Induction condition were persuaded by Strong, but not Weak, Arguments. Involvement had no effect. On the thought-listing measures, people in the Happy Induction condition showed modest elaboration. A stronger pattern of effects, consistent with high elaboration, was noted on the thought listings of people in the Sad Induction condition and who were in the High Involvement group. Interestingly, people in the Sad Induction condition who were in the Low Involvement group showed mood-congruency on thoughts. The data suggest that the effects of mood state are not moderated by the effects of issue Involvement on this measure of attitudes but that there may be some moderation on measures of elaboration. Implications and directions for research are discussed.

Cultures of Diversity

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-107
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Guest ◽  
Zachary L. Simmons ◽  
Andrew Downs ◽  
Mark R. Pitzer
Keyword(s):  
Psychology Students ◽  
Introductory Psychology ◽  
Multicultural Awareness ◽  
Important Goal ◽  
Multicultural Sensitivity ◽  
Psychology Courses ◽  
Nature And Nurture ◽  
Undergraduate Psychology ◽  
Multiple Challenges ◽  
Topical Knowledge

Teachers of psychology tend to agree that learning about diversity is an important goal for undergraduate psychology courses. There is significantly less agreement about what aspects of diversity psychology students should understand. The current research proposes and investigates two potentially distinct ways students might understand diversity: more scientific understandings of topical knowledge related to nature and nurture and more humanistic understandings related to multicultural awareness and sensitivity. Drawing on standardized surveys and open-ended responses to diversity questions from the beginning and end of introductory psychology courses, results indicate that students’ topical knowledge of diversity is not strongly associated with multicultural sensitivity. These results emphasize the importance of clarifying the meanings of addressing diversity as a course goal and are discussed in relation to the multiple challenges of teaching about diversity in psychology courses.

Paying for Whose Performance? Teacher Incentive Pay and the Black–White Test Score Gap

2021 ◽  
pp. 016237372110014
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Hill ◽  
Daniel B. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Test Scores ◽  
Test Score ◽  
Performance Pay ◽  
Incentive Pay ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Teacher Incentives ◽  
Test Score Gap ◽  
Before And After ◽  
White Test ◽  
Matched Data

Teacher performance pay is often introduced with the goal of reducing gaps in test scores across groups, yet little is known about how well they achieve this aim. We ask, “Do test score-based teacher incentives impact the Black–White test score gap?” Using student–teacher matched data and a difference-in-differences approach in which the performance of a teacher’s students before and after the policy is compared, we find that performance pay increases the conditional Black–White gap. The effect is particularly evident when bonuses are large, consistent with a causal response to performance pay.

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