The effect of the correction of self-assessment-based chance success on psychometric characteristics of the test

This study examines the effect of self-assessment-based chance success on psychometric characteristics of the test. First, the data was cleared of chance success by means of correction-for-guessing formula and self-assessment, and then statistical analyses were conducted. Item discriminations showed an increase when the correction-for-guessing formula was used; and when self-assessment was used, they showed variability. Test validity increased when correction formula was used; and when self-assessment was used, a slight decrease was observed. Besides, this study examined the effect of correction for chance success upon corrected self-assessment based on IRT guessing parameter. It was observed that the data that were not corrected in accordance with chance scores had higher guessing parameters than those corrected in accordance with self-assessment. In addition, it was evident that the difference between the guessing parameters of the uncorrected data and the data cleared of chance scores by means of self-assessment was significant. It was also revealed that the correction of self-assessment-based chance success have an advantage over classical correction for guessing formula on psychometric characteristics of the test.

Lexical choice can lead to problems: what false-belief tests tell us about Greek alternative verbs of agency

Verbs of agency denote relations between behavioural and mental states. Thus, ‘Jim is looking for X’ goes beyond a behavioural description, to take a mentalistic construal whereby Jim's desire for success, and his beliefs about how to search, explain his observed actions. Greek has two verbs of agency that can be used somewhat interchangeably by adults to mean ‘to look for’. The hypothesis is that young children will obey the principle of contrast to diagnose that one verb is mentalistic and the other verb is to be construed behaviourally. Following a study of mothers' verb-use, two studies with 238 children aged three to five years confirmed that the verb preferred in home use gave below-chance performance on a false-belief test whilst the less-established verb gave above-chance success, with children giving appropriate justifications. Thus, Greek preschoolers seem sometimes to have an adult-type understanding and sometimes fail to match the adult understanding. The proposal is that the children initially convert an adult verb-use pragmatic difference into a semantic contrast.

Element of Chance and Comparative Reliability of Matching Tests and Multiple-Choice Tests

Simple formulas for the reliability of matching tests and multiple-choice tests, based on the assumption that chance success by guessing is the only source of error variation, are derived. The reliabilities of the two types of tests are compared, and an explicit formula relating their reliability coefficients when relevant test parameters remain fixed is presented. It is found that, in the majority of cases which are likely in practice, matching tests are considerably less fallible than multiple-choice tests.