This study investigated the effect of concept mapping over traditional instruction on students' understanding and retention of heat and temperature concepts. The sample of this study consisted of 5th grade students from two classes of a elementary school (n=75). One intact class was randomly assigned to the comparison group whereas the other one…

This study investigates the effects of student teachers' hands-on experience with evaluation on their preferences for assessment methods. A course on child development within the 1st year of the elementary teacher education program provides the quasi-experimental learning/teaching setting. Five research conditions are linked to four assessment…

This study addresses concerns about boys' underperformance on literacy tasks compared to girls, by investigating male and females students' responses to narrative texts. Participants were 142 Grade 9 and 10 students. Achievement orientations, including goals, self-efficacy, and self-handicapping, were measured and approach and avoidance factors…

The present study investigated the relative contributions of experiential and ability factors to second language (L2) passage comprehension and L2 vocabulary retention. Participants included a cross section of 99 adult learners of Spanish as a foreign language enrolled in beginning through advanced level university Spanish courses. Participants…

Electronic examination systems, which include Internet-based system, require extremely complicated installation, configuration and maintenance of software as well as hardware. In this paper, we present the design and development of a flexible, easy-to-use and secure examination system (e-Test), in which any commonly used computer can be used as a…

Multiple-choice tests are generally scored using a conventional number right scoring method. While this method is easy to use, it has several weaknesses. These weaknesses include decreased validity due to guessing and failure to credit partial knowledge. In an attempt to address these weaknesses, psychometricians have developed various scoring…

An index is proposed to detect cheating on multiple-choice examinations, and its use is evaluated through simulations. The proposed index is based on the compound binomial distribution. In total, 360 simulated data sets reflecting 12 different cheating (copying) situations were obtained and used for the study of the sensitivity of the index in…

A two-phase FORTRAN IV program called ITANA-III for an IBM 1130 computer is described that permits computation of psychometric characteristics of multiple-choice examinations including test statistics (phase I) and item statistics (phase II). Consisting of 280 statements, the program can handle up to 200 items with not more than 9 alternatives…

Compares the predictive capabilities of readability formulas derived from cloze and multiple-choice reading comprehension tests. (RB)

Of three experiments using a multiple-choice procedure, two were designed to test the hypothesis that unlearning would occur if first-list responses were present as distractors during second-list learning in the A-B, A-C paradigm. (Editor)

Contrary to common belief, reliability estimates of number-right multiple-choice tests are not inflated by speededness. Because examinees guess on questions when they run out of time, the responses to these questions show less consistency with the responses of other questions, and the reliability of the test will be decreased. The surprising…

The purposes of the study were to develop a measure of overconfidence on probabilistic tests, to assess the measurement characteristics of such a measure, and to investigate the relationship of overconfidence on tests to knowledge and to risk-taking propensity. (Author/BB)

The expected reliability of a multiple choice test is maximized by the use of three alternative items. (Author)