Rate-Accuracy Trade-Off as a Function of Test-Taking Response Styles, Perception of Time, and Test Anxiety: A Training Study
Plass, James Alan
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/69623
Description
Title
Rate-Accuracy Trade-Off as a Function of Test-Taking Response Styles, Perception of Time, and Test Anxiety: A Training Study
Author(s)
Plass, James Alan
Issue Date
1983
Department of Study
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Psychology, Developmental
Abstract
A training program was developed to help high test anxious high school students utilize optimal performance strategies when working on standardized tests. Thirty-three high and low anxious students completed a 3-week training program on "test-taking skills." Subjects were assigned to one of three training conditions: Rate-Accuracy Strategy Training (training helping students establish an optimal test-taking rate between fast, inaccurate and slow, overly cautious extremes), Cognitive Restructuring Training (training emphasizing strategies for reducing interfering thoughts during testing), or a Placebo-Control "Test Experience" Condition.
Results clearly revealed the debilitating cognitive and performance styles of high anxious high school students when working on standardized aptitude tests. In pre-training assessment, high anxious students performed significantly lower than their low anxious counterparts, while reporting significantly more interfering thoughts during testing.
The major finding of this study was a significant interaction of Training Condition by Level of Anxiety in the analysis of post-training test performance scores. High test anxious students made their greatest pre-post performance changes in the Rate-Accuracy and Cognitive Restructuring Training conditions. Low test anxious students made their greatest changes in the Rate-Accuracy and Test Experience Conditions. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for future studies clarifying determinants of test performance and for helping test anxious students to achieve optimal performance on standardized tests.
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