The main objective of this methodological article is to discuss the contribution of response times as a tool in education research. The use of response times in research is largely a legacy of the work carried out in cognitive psychology, which has made it possible to describe the cognitive processes involved in information processing. In…

This special issue investigates early responses--responsive actions that (start to) unfold while the production of the responded-to turn and action is still under way. Although timing in human conduct has gained intense interest in research, the early production of responsive actions has so far largely remained unexplored. But what makes early…

We describe a hands-on project in which students collect data on the impact of distracted driving on driver reaction time. Initially they do this in class via a virtual driving applet, using themselves and fellow students as test subjects. Different applet versions simulate driving with and without distraction and measure the time it takes to…

This coda describes various affordances and constraints associated with technology-rich language teaching and learning. It begins with a discussion of articles in this special issue of Classroom Discourse and then expands to engage with broader dynamics associated with uses of digital tools in language education. In particular, we address research…

Van der Linden's hierarchical model for responses and response times can be used in order to infer the ability and mental speed of test takers from their responses and response times in an educational test. A standard approach for this is maximum likelihood estimation. In real-world applications, the data of some test takers might be partly…

The identification of rapid guessing is important to promote the validity of achievement test scores, particularly with low-stakes tests. Effective methods for identifying rapid guesses require reliable threshold methods that are also aligned with test taker behavior. Although several common threshold methods are based on rapid guessing response…

Attentional impairments are among the earliest identifiable features of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Three attention networks have been extensively studied using the attention network test (ANT), but this long and repetitive task may pose challenges for individuals with ASDs. The AttentionTrip was developed as a more engaging measure of…

Linguists have found that certain dynamics of conversation are consistent across languages worldwide, and these dynamics can affect the classroom discussions that teachers use to assess student understanding and make instructional decisions. Carrie Holmberg and Jamaal Muwwakkil discuss how conversational pauses, for example, might lead questioners…

So far, modeling approaches for not-reached items have considered one single underlying process. However, missing values at the end of a test can occur for a variety of reasons. On the one hand, examinees may not reach the end of a test due to time limits and lack of working speed. On the other hand, examinees may not attempt all items and quit…

These days, smartphones are popular commodities among students in high school and college. Students carry their devices all the time, so why not use such a popular electronic device to measure physical quantities such as "g" in physics labs? In this work, we report a "multiple tasking" method, a measurement technique that we…

In a signal detection theory (SDT) approach to multiple choice exams, examinees are viewed as choosing, for each item, the alternative that is perceived as being the most plausible, with perceived plausibility depending in part on whether or not an item is known. The SDT model is a process model and provides measures of item difficulty, item…

A procedure for one-pot preparation and characterization of silver 1D nanostructures is described. The main advantages of this synthetic approach are the simplicity and reproducibility, where the size of the final product can be controlled just by changing the reaction time. This experiment is designed as a laboratory introduction to colloidal…

Attribute amnesia is a phenomenon in which information about a stimulus that was just recently used to perform a task is poorly remembered in a surprise test (Chen & Wyble, 2015a). In a recent article by Jiang, Shupe, Swallow, and Tan (2016), this effect was replicated but with an additional priming measure that revealed some carryover memory…

This article will highlight the details of Hass v. RhodyCo Productions (2018), which stems from the 2011 Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon. Peter Hass, a runner participating in the marathon, crossed the finish line and promptly collapsed. According to witnesses, the response rate by race officials was slow and confusing, and it took…

What kind of knowledge informs the practice of English teachers? Recent policy developments, in England and elsewhere, have sought to specify a knowledge base for teachers. Drawing on case studies produced by pre-service English teachers, this essay explores the complex, multifaceted and situated character of the knowledge that teachers develop in…