Adaptive Testing—Blessing or Curse? Physiological and Subjective Stress Responses to Adaptive Versus Fixed-Item Tests (Poster 1)

• In Event: Thursday Poster Session 2:30 pm
  In Poster Session: Cognitive and Emotional Processes in Learning Environments

Abstract

While adaptive tests are increasingly used in high-stakes assessments, they might elicit a perceived lack of control in test-takers which could increase their experience of anxiety and stress. This study is the first to include a psychophysiological measure, namely skin conductance, in addition to self-report measures to investigate whether participants experience higher levels of anxiety and stress during an adaptive versus a fixed-item test. Indeed, when statistically accounting for order effects, participants experienced higher physiological stress during the adaptive test, while for subjective arousal and subjective anxiety and stress, the results point in the expected direction without reaching significance. Thus, while it might not reflect strongly in their subjective experiences, test-takers experience higher levels of physiological stress in adaptive testing.

Authors

• Miriam Wünsch, University of Munich

• Luning Sun, University of Cambridge

• Anne C. Frenzel, University of Munich