Researchers have become increasingly interested in response times to survey items as a measure of cognitive effort. We used machine learning to develop a prediction model of response times based on 41 attributes of survey items (e.g., question length, response format, linguistic features) collected in a large, general population sample. The…

Forced-choice (FC) measures have been widely used in many personality or attitude tests as an alternative to rating scales, which employ comparative rather than absolute judgments. Several response biases, such as social desirability, response styles, and acquiescence bias, can be reduced effectively. Another type of data linked with comparative…

In low-stakes assessment settings, students' performance is not only influenced by students' ability level but also their test-taking engagement. In computerized adaptive tests (CATs), disengaged responses (e.g., rapid guesses) that fail to reflect students' true ability levels may lead to the selection of less informative items and thereby…

Exploring the relationship between student ability and test-taking effort is an important area of study, offering insights into their approach to educational assessments. Previous research shows this relationship, yet there is a scarcity of research comparing the test-taking effort of students. In addition, researchers have frequently employed…

Eighteen college students solved addition problems using the Hutchings Low Fatigue Addition Algorithm, which requires a written record of running sums, and the standard algorithm, which does not. Students using the Hutchings algorithm had significantly higher reaction times to a tone, indicating that the Hutchings method requires less cognitive…

Two experiments studied nine-year-olds, l3-year-olds, and adults in their encoding of two kinds of stimuli taken from a psychometric measure of spatial aptitude. The first experiment used letter-like stimuli; the second employed multi-element flags. (CI)

Discusses the evaluation of search engines and uses neural networks in stochastic simulation of the number of rejected Web pages per search query. Topics include the iterative radial basis functions (RBF) neural network; precision; response time; coverage; Boolean logic; regression models; crawling algorithms; and implications for search engine…

To assess whether movement artifacts reported in visual inspection time (IT) tasks were under metacognitive control, 29 young adults in Edinburgh (Scotland) were tested on a dual-task paradigm in which IT was conducted along with a concurrent task. Reports of movement artifacts are not usually examples of metacognitive processing. (SLD)