Kausler, Donald H.

English

ScholarWorks@UARK

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of ScienceVolume 10 Article 71957Pre-Test and Post-Test Estimates of Level ofPerformance on an Achievement TestDonald H. KauslerUniversity of Arkansas, FayettevilleFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaasPart of the Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, and the HigherEducation CommonsThis article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able toread, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking priorpermission from the publisher or the author.This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academyof Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu, ccmiddle@uark.edu.Recommended CitationKausler, Donald H. (1957) "Pre-Test and Post-Test Estimates of Level of Performance on an Achievement Test," Journal of theArkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 10 , Article 7.Available at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/727PRE-TEST AND POST -TEST ESTIMATES OF LEVEL OFPERFORMANCE ONAN ACHIEVEMENT TESTDonald H. KauslerUniversityof ArkansasWhen students take a subject-matter test in acollege course, an experimenter is provided withan excellent opportunity for studying level of as-piration and its derivatives. A number of experi-menters have investigated goal-setting behavior andachievement judgment following the test in such aclassroom laboratory. The usual procedure is tohave the subjects (students) estimate their per-formance before beginning the test (level of aspi-ration) and again after completing the test (a-chievement judgment).In the present study, the subjects were requiredto estimate the class average both before and aftertaking the test, in addition to estimating theirown personal performance. Thus each subjeot's es-timate of his own performance could be investigatedin terms of the direction and magnitude of devia-tion from the average as estimated by him.A number of problems were investigated in thisstudy. This paper is concerned with two of theseproblems. They are:1. The nature of the deviation score be-tween estimates of class average and personalperformance in the pre-test situation as com-pared to the post-test situation.2. The correlation between pre-test esti-mates and post-test estimates for both theaverage score and personal score.PROCEDUREThe subjects were 42 students ,both male and fe-male, in the experimenter's Psychology of Adoles-oence class. The data for nine other students hadto be discarded for failure to follow instructions.The test used was the second regular course ex-amination during the semester. Before the tests27Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 7Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1957„ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE28were passed out, the experimenter read the follow-ing instructions:"There are 7° questions on this test. Thetest is similar in nature to your previoustest and should be approximately as difficultas your last test. Estimate what you thinkthe class average willbe on this test. Writethis figure on the back of your test paper.Now estimate what you think your own gradeon the test willbe. Write this figure onthe back of your test paper."Following the test, these instructions were read:"Having taken the test, estimate onoe morewhat you think the class average willbe andwhat you think your own grade willbe. Writethese figures on the back of your test paper."RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSProblem 1. The means and standard deviationswere determined for each of the four estimates,and their values are presented in the table below.The estimates are abbreviateda Xpre and Xpost forthe personal estimates and Apre and Apost for theclass average estimates.SUMMARY DATA FOR PERFORMANCE ESTIMATESApre Xpre Apost XpostM. 51.74 54.24 51.71 53.14S. D. 5.53 6.09 6.25 7.12The difference between Xpre and Apre and the dif-ference between Xpost and Apost were analyzed forsignificance by means of the _t test (using the dif-ference method since the scores are correlated).These differences are 2,50 and 1.43 and yield t ' 3.of 2.50 (significant at the .05 level) and l7o"H(not significant at the.05 level), respectively.The formula for t isMl-M2Standard error of the difference28Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 7http://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/7PRE-TE STAND POST -TEST ESTIMATES29The hypothesis is suggested for further study-that pre-test estimates of performance are moreoptimistio and more likelyto exceed the referencepoint of average performance than are post -testestimates of performance.Problem 2. The correlation coefficient betweenApre and Apost was found to be .91. The correlationcoefficient between Xpre and Xpost was found to be.76. Both coefficients are significant at the .01level. The high relationship between the pre-testand post— test estimates suggests the hypothesisthat a common expectancy set operates to influenceallof the estimates and that this set is relativelyunaffected by actual achievement en the test. Ad-ditional evidence for this hypothesis is found inthe low correlation (.31) between Xpost and actualgrade on the test.29Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 7Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1957

Pre-Test and Post-Test Estimates of Level of Performance on an Achievement Test

UARK (University of Arkansas )

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science Volume 10 Article 7 1957 Pre-Test and Post-Test Estimates of Level of Performance on an Achievement Test Donald H. Kausler University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas  Part of the Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, and the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Kausler, Donald H. (1957) "Pre-Test and Post-Test Estimates of Level of Performance on an Achievement Test," Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 10 , Article 7. Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/7 This article is available for use under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0). Users are able to read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full texts of these articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu. 27PRE-TEST AND POST -TEST ESTIMATES OF LEVEL OFPERFORMANCE ONAN ACHIEVEMENT TESTDonald H. KauslerUniversityof ArkansasWhen students take a subject-matter test in acollege course, an experimenter is provided withan excellent opportunity for studying level of as-piration and its derivatives. A number of experi-menters have investigated goal-setting behavior andachievement judgment following the test in such aclassroom laboratory. The usual procedure is tohave the subjects (students) estimate their per-formance before beginning the test (level of aspi-ration) and again after completing the test (a-chievement judgment).In the present study, the subjects were requiredto estimate the class average both before and aftertaking the test, in addition to estimating theirown personal performance. Thus each subjeot's es-timate of his own performance could be investigatedin terms of the direction and magnitude of devia-tion from the average as estimated by him.A number of problems were investigated in thisstudy. This paper is concerned with two of theseproblems. They are:1. The nature of the deviation score be-tween estimates of class average and personalperformance in the pre-test situation as com-pared to the post-test situation.2. The correlation between pre-test esti-mates and post-test estimates for both theaverage score and personal score.PROCEDUREThe subjects were 42 students ,both male and fe-male, in the experimenter's Psychology of Adoles-oence class. The data for nine other students hadto be discarded for failure to follow instructions.The test used was the second regular course ex-amination during the semester. Before the tests27Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 7Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1957„ARKANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE28were passed out, the experimenter read the follow-ing instructions:"There are 7° questions on this test. Thetest is similar in nature to your previoustest and should be approximately as difficultas your last test. Estimate what you thinkthe class average willbe on this test. Writethis figure on the back of your test paper.Now estimate what you think your own gradeon the test willbe. Write this figure onthe back of your test paper."Following the test, these instructions were read:"Having taken the test, estimate onoe morewhat you think the class average willbe andwhat you think your own grade willbe. Writethese figures on the back of your test paper."RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSProblem 1. The means and standard deviationswere determined for each of the four estimates,and their values are presented in the table below.The estimates are abbreviateda Xpre and Xpost forthe personal estimates and Apre and Apost for theclass average estimates.SUMMARY DATA FOR PERFORMANCE ESTIMATESApre Xpre Apost XpostM. 51.74 54.24 51.71 53.14S. D. 5.53 6.09 6.25 7.12The difference between Xpre and Apre and the dif-ference between Xpost and Apost were analyzed forsignificance by means of the _t test (using the dif-ference method since the scores are correlated).These differences are 2,50 and 1.43 and yield t'3.of 2.50 (significant at the .05 level) and l7o"H(not significant at the .05 level), respectively.The formula for t isMl-M2Standard error of the difference28Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 7https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol10/iss1/7PRE-TE STAND POST -TEST ESTIMATES29The hypothesis is suggested for further study-that pre-test estimates of performance are moreoptimistio and more likelyto exceed the referencepoint of average performance than are post -testestimates of performance.Problem 2. The correlation coefficient betweenApre and Apost was found to be .91. The correlationcoefficient between Xpre and Xpost was found to be.76. Both coefficients are significant at the .01level. The high relationship between the pre-testand post— test estimates suggests the hypothesisthat a common expectancy set operates to influenceallof the estimates and that this set is relativelyunaffected by actual achievement en the test. Ad-ditional evidence for this hypothesis is found inthe low correlation (.31) between Xpost and actualgrade on the test.29Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 10 [1957], Art. 7Published by Arkansas Academy of Science, 1957

https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3236&amp;context=jaas

Pre-Test and Post-Test Estimates of Level of Performance on an Achievement Test

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

ScholarWorks@UARK

UARK (University of Arkansas )