Beyond Right or Wrong: Thinking Disposition, Item Difficulty, and Student Behavior During High-Stakes Testing

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Supporting Learning Through Fundamental Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Typically, decision making is thought to proceed in a dual-process manner: decisions that are generated quickly without much cognitive effort are thought to be “intuitive” while slower decisions that require thought are “analytic”. However, while these concepts of decision making are well developed through theoretical explorations, student decision making during exam taking has not been measured in relation to the dual-process decision making model. To that end, a multilevel model was constructed to describe the impacts of students’ tendency toward intuitive or analytical thinking, exam item difficulty, and student response on the amount of time spent considering an exam item.

Authors

• Kristina Lindquist, University of Washington

• Alice J. Corkill, University of Nevada - Las Vegas