How Students Process Multiple-Choice Questions With Pictorial Information: Evidence From Eye Movement Recordings

• In Event: 52.059 - Cognition and Assessment in Practice

Abstract

The presented eye tracking study investigates attentional processes of N = 62 students while they were solving parallel item-sets of multiple-choice questions. All items were manipulated in an experimental 1x2 design by integrating a representational picture (illustrating text-stem information), or not. Building on our prior findings that pictures make items psychometrically easier, our high-resolution eye movement data reveal differences in students’ processing of text-only and text-picture items that may explain the influence of pictures on item-difficulty. Furthermore, fixations on correct answer options were predictive for student’s test-scores and reveal an information function of eye movements regarding students’ competence-levels. Implications for assessment research and practice are discussed.

Authors

• Marlit Annalena Lindner, IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education

• Olaf Koeller, Leibniz Institute for Science and Math Education