Students' Expectations and Their Answer-Changing Behavior

Ballance, Collin T.

doi:10.2466/pr0.1977.41.1.163

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Would positive expectations concerning answer-changing results alter answer-changing behavior? In the one study which grouped students by their expectancies, Ballance (1977) found no differences among the groups in terms of their answer-changing behavior.…”

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confidence: 85%

“…Indeed, approximately three out of every four of these students felt answer changes would lower their score. The percentages of students reporting an expected improvement have ranged from 0% to 32% (Mathews, 1929;Foote & Belinky, 1972;Lynch & Smith, 1975;Mueller & Shwedel, 1975;Ballance, 1977;Smith, White & Coop, 1979).…”

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confidence: 98%

“…One study (Ballance, 1977) was designed expressly to look at the effect of students' expectations on their answer-changing behavior. Having grouped subjects according to their stated belief, Ballance concluded there was no "evidence to support the conjecture that beliefs asserted by a student have an effective relationship with the number of answer changes ... [or] fluctuation in test score resulting from answer-changing" (p. 165).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Staying with Initial Answers on Objective Tests: Is it a Myth?

Benjamin

Cavell

Shallenberger

1984

Teaching of Psychology

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The common advice to not change answers appears to be a mistake, but before that is certain, additional information is needed.Since 1928, at least 33 studies have been published concerning a number of issues surrounding answer-changing behavior on objective tests. Although results in these studies have sometimes been at variance, the one consistent finding is that there is nothing inherently wrong with changing initial answers on objective tests. In fact, the evidence uniformly indicates that: (a) the majority of answer changes are from incorrect to correct and (b) most students who change their answers improve their test scores. None of the 33 studies contradicts either of those conclusions.Most of the research in this area has been aimed at testing the accuracy of "first impressions" in test-taking. This bit of academic folk wisdom is typically stated as the belief that one should not change answers on objective tests because initial reactions to test questions are intuitively more accurate than subsequent responses.Prevalence of the Belief and Potential Sources. That this belief is widespread among test-takers is supported by a number of studies. Surveys of students' attitudes toward the results of answer changing are fairly consistent in their outcomes revealing that most students (between 68% and 100%) do not expect changed answers to improve their score. Indeed, approximately three out of every four of these students felt answer changes would lower their score. The percentages of students reporting an expected improvement have ranged from 0%

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confidence: 85%

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confidence: 98%

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confidence: 99%

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Staying with Initial Answers on Objective Tests: Is it a Myth?

Benjamin

Cavell

Shallenberger

1984

Teaching of Psychology

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“…There is a strong belief that first instincts are somehow special, and should not be changed even if they are later doubted. Most believe changing an answer will not improve exam scores, and furthermore that any deviation from a first choice will lead to a lower score (Mathews 1929;Foote and Belinky 1972;Lynch and Smith 1975;Mueller and Shwedel 1975;Balance 1977;Smith et al 1979). This belief exists even for those who have benefited from changing an answer leading to a higher score.…”

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confidence: 96%

The instinct fallacy: the metacognition of answering and revising during college exams

Couchman

Miller

Zmuda

et al. 2015

Metacognition Learning

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Students often gauge their performance before and after an exam, usually in the form of rough grade estimates or general feelings. Are these estimates accurate? Should they form the basis for decisions about study time, test-taking strategies, revisions, subject mastery, or even general competence? In two studies, undergraduates took a real multiple-choice exam, described their general beliefs and feelings, tracked their performance for each question, and noted any revisions or possible revisions. Beliefs formed after the exams were poor predictors of performance. In contrast, real-time metacognitive monitoring -measured by confidence ratings for each individual question -accurately predicted performance and were a much better decisional guide. Measuring metacognitive monitoring also allowed us to examine the process of revising an answer. Should a test-taker rely on their first choice or revise in the face of uncertainty? Experience seems to show that first instincts are correct. The decision-making literature calls this the first-instinct fallacy, based on extensive analysis of revisions, and recommends revising more. However, whereas revisions have been analyzed in great detail, previous studies did not analyze the efficacy of sticking with an original choice. We found that both revising and sticking resulted in significantly more correct than incorrect outcomes, with real-time metacognition predicting when each was most appropriate.Keywords Metacognition . Metamemory . Decision making . Exam revising . First-instinct fallacy When college students encounter an exam question that causes uncertainty, they recognize their uncertainty and use this metacognitive monitoring to control their behaviors. They might try to think about the question in a new way, decide to move on to another question, or seek out Metacognition Learning

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“…Such anti-change beliefs persist in spite of contradictory research results dating back at least to 1928 (Berrien, 1939;Crawford, 1928;Jarrett, 1948;Lehman, 1928;Lowe & Crawford, 1929;Mathews, 1929;Reile & Briggs, 1952). More recent researchers have also consistently reported increments from changing initial responses (e.g., Archer & Pippert, 1962;Ballance, 1977;Beck, 1978; This article is revised from a paper presented at the meeting of the New England Educational Research Organization, Rockport, ME, April 1985. Crocker & Benson, 1980;Cromack, 1981;Jackson, 1978;Lynch & Smith, 1975;McMorris, 1981;Mehrens & Lehmann, 1978, 1984Payne, 1984;Penfield & Mercer, 1980;Reiling & Taylor, 1972;Smith & Moore, 1976;Stoffer, Davis, & Brown, 1977;Vaas & Nungester, 1982).…”

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confidence: 99%

Attitudes, Behaviors, and Reasons for Changing Responses Following Answer‐Changing Instruction

McMorris

DeMers

Schwarz

1987

J Educational Measurement

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Contrary to the adage warning against changing test answers, mean gain from changing has been an invariant research finding. Consistency of this gain was tested for students instructed about the research results, and composition of the gain was analyzed by examining the students' reasons for changing. Students in six graduate measurement classes instructed about the answer-changing literature responded to three exams and a questionnaire. Mean gain remained positive and consistent with gain for previously studied uninstructed groups; amount of change was also stable. "Rethinking the item and conceptualizing a better answer'" was the most frequent reason given for changing. "Rereading the item and better understanding the question" was the second most cited reason, followed by "rereading/rethinking" combined, and "making a clerical error. "' For each frequently used reason, wrong-to-right (WR) changes were in the majority. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

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Students' Expectations and Their Answer-Changing Behavior

Cited by 22 publications

References 11 publications

Staying with Initial Answers on Objective Tests: Is it a Myth?

Staying with Initial Answers on Objective Tests: Is it a Myth?

The instinct fallacy: the metacognition of answering and revising during college exams

Attitudes, Behaviors, and Reasons for Changing Responses Following Answer‐Changing Instruction

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