Answer Changing on Objective Tests

Jackson, Peter

doi:10.1080/00220671.1978.10885097

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Reiling and Taylor (1972) attempted to relate items which involved "analytical reasoning" to answer-changing behavior but found no relationship to exist with either the amount of answer changing or the net gain enjoyed. Jackson (1978) did find some evidence (significant results for one of the three samples he tested) that items of low discriminating power tend to be changed more than answers to other items.…”

Section: Item Variablesmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Most of the studies indicate trends in that direction, however, only four (Lynch & Smith, 1975;Beck, 1978;Jackson, 1978;Vidler & Hansen, 1980) have reported results that reached statistical significance.…”

Section: Item Variablesmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Thus, on an intuitive basis, one could argue that items at the beginning of a test would be changed more frequently than items at the end. Only two studies have examined the effect of item position on answerchanging behavior and both found that fewer changes were made near the end of the test (Reile & Briggs, 1952: Jackson, 1978. Jackson also examined alternatives within an item subgroup using partial correlation.…”

Section: Item Variablesmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Jacobs (1972) and Beck (1978) used previously obtained p-values to establish item groups based on level of difficulty. Lynch and Smith (1975) and Jackson (1978) apparently based their correlational analysis of item difficulty on p-values, also. Best (1979) formed his easy-difficult item grouping based on whether items fell above or below the median percentage correct for all test items.…”

Section: Item Variablesmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Staying with Initial Answers on Objective Tests: Is it a Myth?

Benjamin

Cavell

Shallenberger

1984

Teaching of Psychology

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The common advice to not change answers appears to be a mistake, but before that is certain, additional information is needed.Since 1928, at least 33 studies have been published concerning a number of issues surrounding answer-changing behavior on objective tests. Although results in these studies have sometimes been at variance, the one consistent finding is that there is nothing inherently wrong with changing initial answers on objective tests. In fact, the evidence uniformly indicates that: (a) the majority of answer changes are from incorrect to correct and (b) most students who change their answers improve their test scores. None of the 33 studies contradicts either of those conclusions.Most of the research in this area has been aimed at testing the accuracy of "first impressions" in test-taking. This bit of academic folk wisdom is typically stated as the belief that one should not change answers on objective tests because initial reactions to test questions are intuitively more accurate than subsequent responses.Prevalence of the Belief and Potential Sources. That this belief is widespread among test-takers is supported by a number of studies. Surveys of students' attitudes toward the results of answer changing are fairly consistent in their outcomes revealing that most students (between 68% and 100%) do not expect changed answers to improve their score. Indeed, approximately three out of every four of these students felt answer changes would lower their score. The percentages of students reporting an expected improvement have ranged from 0%

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Section: Item Variablesmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Item Variablesmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Item Variablesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Item Variablesmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Staying with Initial Answers on Objective Tests: Is it a Myth?

Benjamin

Cavell

Shallenberger

1984

Teaching of Psychology

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“…More recent researchers have also consistently reported increments from changing initial responses (e.g., Archer & Pippert, 1962;Ballance, 1977;Beck, 1978; This article is revised from a paper presented at the meeting of the New England Educational Research Organization, Rockport, ME, April 1985. Crocker & Benson, 1980;Cromack, 1981;Jackson, 1978;Lynch & Smith, 1975;McMorris, 1981;Mehrens & Lehmann, 1978, 1984Payne, 1984;Penfield & Mercer, 1980;Reiling & Taylor, 1972;Smith & Moore, 1976;Stoffer, Davis, & Brown, 1977;Vaas & Nungester, 1982).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes, Behaviors, and Reasons for Changing Responses Following Answer‐Changing Instruction

McMorris

DeMers

Schwarz

1987

J Educational Measurement

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Contrary to the adage warning against changing test answers, mean gain from changing has been an invariant research finding. Consistency of this gain was tested for students instructed about the research results, and composition of the gain was analyzed by examining the students' reasons for changing. Students in six graduate measurement classes instructed about the answer-changing literature responded to three exams and a questionnaire. Mean gain remained positive and consistent with gain for previously studied uninstructed groups; amount of change was also stable. "Rethinking the item and conceptualizing a better answer'" was the most frequent reason given for changing. "Rereading the item and better understanding the question" was the second most cited reason, followed by "rereading/rethinking" combined, and "making a clerical error. "' For each frequently used reason, wrong-to-right (WR) changes were in the majority. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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Correlates of Net Gain From Changing Multiple-Choice Answers: Replication and Extension

Geiger¹

1990

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Answer Changing on Objective Tests

Cited by 3 publications

References 5 publications

Staying with Initial Answers on Objective Tests: Is it a Myth?

Staying with Initial Answers on Objective Tests: Is it a Myth?

Attitudes, Behaviors, and Reasons for Changing Responses Following Answer‐Changing Instruction

Correlates of Net Gain From Changing Multiple-Choice Answers: Replication and Extension

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