Context effects on examinations: The effects of time, item order and item difficulty.

1998 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur H. Perlini ◽  
David L. Lind ◽  
Bruno D. Zumbo
Keyword(s):  
Context Effects ◽  
Item Difficulty ◽  
Item Order

Performance on Achievement Tests as a Function of the Order of Item Difficulty

1980 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-96 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Item Difficulty ◽  
Achievement Tests ◽  
Item Order

After examining this study, you may decide never again to be concerned about item order in your examinations.

Implications for Altering the Context in Which Test Items Appear: A Historical Perspective on an Immediate Concern

1985 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda F. Leary ◽  
Neil J. Dorans
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Test Theory ◽  
Item Parameter ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Item Order ◽  
Item Parameters ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Testing Instruments

Research into the effects of item arrangement has been motivated by the need to know the potential effects on item statistics of different item arrangement schemes. This review of the literature confirms that many of the salient and common features of the research can be identified as a function of the practical psychometric concerns of the time. The studies are separated into three periods. The earliest studies investigated the simple main effect of item order on test performance; the late 1960s reflected a change in emphasis to a design that included interactions between item order and factors of examinees’ psychological and biological characteristics; current concern with test disclosure and development of individual adaptive testing instruments has shifted the emphasis to the effects of item order on the stability of item parameters. The literature has produced evidence of context effects, but has not demonstrated that the effects are so strong as to invalidate test theory or practice that is dependent on an assumption of item parameter invariance.

Context effects in recognition memory: Item order and unitization.

1973 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah L. Light ◽  
Sara C. Schurr
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Memory Item ◽  
Item Order

Items as Context: Effects of Item Order and Ambiguity on Factor Structure

2006 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea H. Weinberger ◽  
Jack Darkes ◽  
Frances K. Del Boca ◽  
Paul E. Greenbaum ◽  
Mark S. Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Factor Structure ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Item Order

scholarly journals Is Test Item Arrangement a Factor in the Academic Achievement of Undergraduate Pharmacy Students in Chemistry?

2021 ◽  
pp. 484-501
Author(s):  
Basil C. E. Oguguo ◽  
John J. Agah ◽  
Nwadiuto N. Ukeoma ◽  
Ijeoma Hope N. Nwoji ◽  
Priscilla O. Dave-Ugwu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Test Item ◽  
Item Difficulty ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
Pharmacy Students ◽  
Multiple Choice Tests ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Item Order ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Age Range

Aims: To determine the effect of test item arrangements in ascending, descending and no consistent order of difficulty in multiple choice tests on undergraduate pharmacy students’ academic achievement in a chemistry course. The present study served as an attempt to relate the effect of test item arrangement on undergraduate pharmacy students’ academic achievement in a chemistry course in Nigerian Universities. Study Design: Quasi-experimental research design of pre-test posttest non-equivalent group design was adopted in carrying out this research. Place and Duration of Study: This study was carried out in ten Nigerian Universities between August, 2020 to April, 2021. Methodology: We sampled 200 participants (111 male, 89 females; age range 16 – 27 years) undergraduate pharmacy students drawn from ten (10) Universities in Nigeria. Twenty undergraduate pharmacy students offering Basic Principle of Chemistry (Chem. 101) were randomly selected from each of the selected universities for the study. Results: The mean scores when test items were arranged in ascending, descending, and no consistent orders of item difficulty were 44.38, 37.85 and 40.13 respectively. Their differential mean scores were 6.53, 2.28 and 4.26 in the same order. This implies that pharmacy students obtained higher scores when test items were arranged in ascending order of difficulty, followed by no consistent order and least in descending order of difficulty. The findings further revealed no significant arrangement by gender interaction effect on undergraduate pharmacy students` performance in the three tests. Conclusion: This study will help pharmacy lecturers in determining the most appropriate test item order which will help the students obtain high scores in any pharmaceutical test. The researchers conducted a quasi-experimental study on the topic as part of their undergraduate curriculum to examine the best test item format that will enhance pharmacy students' academic achievement in a chemistry course.

scholarly journals Item Position Effects Are Moderated by Changes in Test-Taking Effort

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Weirich ◽  
Martin Hecht ◽  
Christiane Penk ◽  
Alexander Roppelt ◽  
Katrin Böhme
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Item Difficulty ◽  
Position Effect ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Position Effects ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Current Test ◽  
Item Position ◽  
Large Scale Assessments

This article examines the interdependency of two context effects that are known to occur regularly in large-scale assessments: item position effects and effects of test-taking effort on the probability of correctly answering an item. A microlongitudinal design was used to measure test-taking effort over the course of a large-scale assessment of 60 min. Two components of test-taking effort were investigated: initial effort and change in effort. Both components of test-taking effort significantly affected the probability to solve an item. In addition, it was found that participants’ current test-taking effort diminished considerably across the course of the test. Furthermore, a substantial linear position effect was found, which indicated that item difficulty increased during the test. This position effect varied considerably across persons. Concerning the interplay of position effects and test-taking effort, it was found that only the change in effort moderates the position effect and that persons differ with respect to this moderation effect. The consequences of these results concerning the reliability and validity of large-scale assessments are discussed.

Manipulate Me

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 554-562
Author(s):  
Alica Thissen ◽  
Frank M. Spinath ◽  
Nicolas Becker
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Spatial Ability ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Item Difficulty ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Response Elimination ◽  
School Students ◽  
Test Environment ◽  
Response Options ◽  
Construction Task

Abstract. The cube construction task represents a novel format in the assessment of spatial ability through mental cube rotation tasks. Instead of selecting the correct answer from several response options, respondents construct their own response in a computerized test environment, leading to a higher demand for spatial ability. In the present study with a sample of 146 German high-school students, we tested an approach to manipulate the item difficulties in order to create items with a greater difficulty range. Furthermore, we compared the cube task in a distractor-free and a distractor-based version while the item stems were held identical. The average item difficulty of the distractor-free format was significantly higher than in the distractor-based format ( M = 0.27 vs. M = 0.46) and the distractor-free format showed a broader range of item difficulties (.02 ≤  pi ≤ .95 vs. .37 ≤  pi ≤ .63). The analyses of the test results also showed that the distractor-free format had a significantly higher correlation with a broad intelligence test ( r = .57 vs. r = .17). Reasons for the higher convergent validity of the distractor-free format (prevention of response elimination strategies and the broader range of item difficulties) and further research possibilities are discussed.

Context effects in symbolic magnitude comparisons.

1985 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude G. Čech ◽  
Edward J. Shoben
Keyword(s):  
Context Effects
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