Retrospective bias in test performance: Providing easy items at the beginning of a test makes students believe they did better on it.
We examined the effect of three variables (test list structure, report option, and framing) on retrospective bias in global evaluations of test performance (postdictions). Participants answered general knowledge questions and estimated correctness of their performance after each block. The ordering...
| Publicado en: | Memory & Cognition Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 366 - 377 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Science & Business Media B.V.
April 2010
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=511004190&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 511004190 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0090502X MEG jtl: Memory & Cognition issn: 0090502X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: April 2010 vid: 38 iid: 3 pid: 237 pub: Springer Science & Business Media B.V. artinfo: ui: 511004190 10.3758/MC.38.3.366 ppf: 366 ppct: 11 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: T tig: atl: Retrospective bias in test performance: Providing easy items at the beginning of a test makes students believe they did better on it. aug: au: Weinstein, Yana Roediger, Henry L. su: Psychology of college students Metacognition Examinations Test design sug: subj: Psychology of college students Metacognition Examinations Test design ab: We examined the effect of three variables (test list structure, report option, and framing) on retrospective bias in global evaluations of test performance (postdictions). Participants answered general knowledge questions and estimated correctness of their performance after each block. The ordering of the questions within a block affected bias: Participants believed they had answered more questions correctly when questions were sorted from the easiest to the hardest than when the same questions were randomized or sorted from the hardest to the easiest. This bias was obtained on global postdictions but was not apparent on item-by-item ratings, pointing to a memory-based phenomenon. In addition, forcing participants to produce a response to every question increased performance without affecting evaluations. Finally, framing the evaluation question in terms of the number of questions answered incorrectly (rather than the number correctly answered) did not affect how positively participants evaluated their performance, but did render postdictions less accurate. Our results provide evidence that students' evaluations of performance after a test are prone to retrospective memory biases. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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