Race Differences on a Reading Comprehension Test With and Without Passages

Previous research has found that test takers can score above chance level on reading comprehension tests even when the passages are omitted. The present research investigated whether the effect would vary as a function of race. In Study 1, 386 participants completed a reading test with the passages omitted. General mental ability and race were significantly correlated with test performance. In Study 2, 827 job applicants completed the test as part of an entry-level selection battery. Eliminating items for which large race differences existed in Study 1 had no real effect on the size of the Black-White mean difference.     

Race and Cognitive-Ability Test Performance: The Mediating Effects of Test Preparation, Test-Taking Strategy Use and Self-Eff icacy

Test-taking strategy use, cognitive-ability test preparation, and test-taking self-efficacy were examined as possible mediators of the relationship between race and cognitiveability test performance. We hypothesized that African Americans would report using fewer test-taking strategies and less test preparation when compared to White Americans. In addition, we proposed that Afiican Americans would report lower levels of test-taking self-efficacy when faced with a cognitive-ability test. It was expected that these 3 variables would mediate the relationship between race and cognitive-ability test performance. Using a sample of 170 college students, results indicated that African Americans reported using more ineffective test-taking strategies, reported participating in more cognitiveability test preparation, and reported higher levels of test-taking self-efficacy when compared to White Americans. A portion of the difference in performance on a cognitiveability test between African Americans and White Americans could be attributed to the use of ineffective strategies and test preparation.     

APPLICANT WITHDRAWAL: THE ROLE OF TEST-TAKING ATTITUDES AND RACIAL DIFFERENCES

The role of test-taking attitudes in the decisions of applicants to withdraw from a selection process was examined. Measures of test-taking attitudes were administered to 3,290 police officer applicants. Interviews were conducted with 618 applicants who withdrew from the selection process. Comparative anxiety, motivation, and literacy scales were found to predict withdrawal, but the effects were quite small. African-Americans were more likely to withdraw. Small race differences were found on test attitude scales. The requirement of taking a test was not a major factor in applicant withdrawal; procedural fairness and several other factors appeared to play a greater role. A model of applicant withdrawal is proposed based on the qualitative data from applicants who withdrew.     

Explaining the Black-White Test Score Gap: The Role of Test Perceptions

The Black-White gap in test scores on cognitive ability tests has been the subject of much research effort. This article critically evaluates the literature regarding one potential contributor to the gap: test perceptions. A model of how these perceptions affect test performance is presented, and the literature linking them to test performance and race is evaluated. Directions for future research and intervention are discussed.     

Racial/ethnic differences in the criterion-related validity of cognitive ability tests: a qualitative and quantitative review

The correlation between cognitive ability test scores and performance was separately meta-analyzed for Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White racial/ethnic subgroups. Compared to the average White observed correlation ( = .33, N = 903,779), average correlations were lower for Black samples ( = .24, N = 112,194) and Hispanic samples ( = .30, N = 51,205) and approximately equal for Asian samples ( = .33, N = 80,705). Despite some moderating effects (e.g., type of performance criterion, decade of data collection, job complexity), validity favored White over Black and Hispanic test takers in almost all conditions that included a sizable number of studies. Black-White validity comparisons were possible both across and within the 3 broad domains that use cognitive ability tests for high-stakes selection and placement: civilian employment, educational admissions, and the military. The trend of lower Black validity was repeated in each domain; however, average Black-White validity differences were largest in military studies and smallest in educational and employment studies. Further investigation of the reasons for these validity differences is warranted.     

Stereotype threat and group differences in test performance: a question of measurement invariance

Studies into the effects of stereotype threat (ST) on test performance have shed new light on race and sex differences in achievement and intelligence test scores. In this article, the authors relate ST theory to the psychometric concept of measurement invariance and show that ST effects may be viewed as a source of measurement bias. As such, ST effects are detectable by means of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. This enables research into the generalizability of ST effects to real-life or high-stakes testing. The modeling approach is described in detail and applied to 3 experiments in which the amount of ST for minorities and women was manipulated. Results indicate that ST results in measurement bias of intelligence and mathematics tests.     

Construction and cross-validation of an MMPI Black-White scale

A robust set of MMPI items, sensitive to the effect of race (Blacks versus Whites), was constructed by compiling the results of six prior studies. Thirty-two items comprised the MMPI B-W scale. The scale was cross-validated on psychiatric patients and police cadets. Statistically significant mean differences were found between races in both groups, with 83% and 60% correct racial classification, respectively. These findings suggested that when used as a clinical instrument, the MMPI might pick up nonpathology-related racial variance contributing to scale devotion biased against the black respondent, but the degree of nonpathology-related racial scale score covariance has yet to be determined. For future research, the B-W scale was proposed as a set of standard queries in studies assessing connotative meaning for Black-White contrast groups, and to index "functional" as opposed to "objective" race membership.     

A moderate financial incentive can increase effort,but not intelligence test performance in adult volunteers

A positive correlation between self-reported test-taking motivation and intelligence test performance has been reported. Additionally, some financial incentive experimental evidence suggests that intelligence test performance can be improved, based on the provision of financial incentives. However, only a small percentage of the experimental research has been conducted with adults. Furthermore, virtually none of the intelligence experimental research has measured the impact of financial incentives on test-taking motivation. Consequently, we conducted an experiment with 99 adult volunteers who completed a battery of intelligence tests under two conditions: no financial incentive and financial incentive (counterbalanced). We also measured self-reported test-taking importance and effort at time 1 and time 2. The financial incentive was observed to impact test-taking effort statistically significantly. By contrast, no statistically significant effects were observed for the intelligence test performance scores. Finally, the intelligence test scores were found to correlate positively with both test-taking importance (r_c = .28) and effort (r_c = .37), although only effort correlated uniquely with intelligence (partial r_c = .26). In conjunction with other empirical research, it is concluded that a financial incentive can increase test-taking effort. However, the potential effects on intelligence test performance in adult volunteers seem limited.     

Gender Differences and Cognitive Correlates of Mathematical Skills in School-Aged Children

Published information concerning the influence of gender on mathematical ability tests has been controversial. The present study examines the performance of school-aged boys and girls from two age groups on several mathematical tasks and analyzes the predictive value of a verbal fluency test and a spatial test on those mathematical tasks. More specifically, our research attempts to answer the following two questions: (1) Are gender differences in mathematical test performance among children interrelated with age and (2) do verbal and spatial nonmathematical tests mediate gender effects on mathematical test performance? Two hundred and seventy-eight 7- to 10-year-old children and 248 13- to 16-year-olds were selected from schools in Colombia and Mexico (231 boys and 295 girls). The age effect was found to be significant for all measures, with scores improving with age. Results showed that boys and girls in both age groups scored similarly in most subtests, but that differences emerged in the performance of mental mathematical operations and in resolving arithmetical problems. In the latter – but not in mental math – older boys outperformed older girls, whereas no gender differences were observed in the younger groups. After controlling for age, it was found that the spatial test was, indeed, a significant mediator of gender effects, while the verbal task was not.     

Investigating How Test-Takers Change Their Strategies to Handle Difficulty in Taking a Reading Comprehension Test: Implications for Score Validation

This article investigates how test-takers change their strategies to handle increased test difficulty. An adult sample reported their test-taking strategies immediately after completing the tasks in a reading test. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling specifying a measurement-invariant, ability-moderated, latent transition analysis in Mplus (Muthén & Asparouhov, 2011). It was found that almost half of the test-takers (47%) changed their strategies when encountering increased task-difficulty. The changes were characterized by augmenting comprehending-meaning strategies with score-maximizing and test-wiseness strategies. Moreover, test-takers' ability was the driving influence that facilitated and/or buffered the changes. The test outcomes, when reviewed in light of adjusted test-taking strategies, demonstrated a form of process-based validity evidence.     

Test-taking behaviors in a neurocognitive assessment: associations with school-age outcomes in a Finnish longitudinal follow-up

Test-taking behaviors (i.e., task focus, maintenance of attention, and cooperation) affect children's cognitive test performance, and, thus, it is critical to take test-taking behavior into account when drawing conclusions and making recommendations. Prior studies have evaluated test-taking behaviors at the end of the assessment; the present study focused on the fluctuation of cooperation and attention during a neuropsychological assessment. We examined the attention and cooperation of 5-year-old children in a test-taking situation; the associations between these aspects of their test-taking behavior and the children's concurrent neurocognitive test performance, IQ, and parent-rated behavior; and the associations with their IQ, behavioral outcomes, and academic achievement at 8 years of age. The data (for 76 boys and 63 girls) were drawn from the Jyv?skyl? Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia (Lyytinen et al., 2001, 2004). All the children were Caucasian and spoke Finnish as their native language. As a whole, the 5-year-old children showed high cooperation and attention, but a slight decrement in test-taking behavior toward the end of the session was rather common. Three subgroups of children with different levels of cooperation and attention were identified. Children in the subgroup with nonoptimal attention and cooperation showed decreasing neurocognitive test performance toward the end of the assessment session. They also showed more inattentive behavior 3 years later. The findings imply that the examiner's observations of waning attention and cooperation during the assessment session are highly relevant, as these provide stable and clinically meaningful information about the child's behavioral tendencies.     

The effect of negative performance stereotypes on learning

Stereotype threat (ST) research has focused exclusively on how negative group stereotypes reduce performance. The present work examines if pejorative stereotypes about women in math inhibit their ability to learn the mathematical rules and operations necessary to solve math problems. In Experiment 1, women experiencing ST had difficulty encoding math-related information into memory and, therefore, learned fewer mathematical rules and showed poorer math performance than did controls. In Experiment 2, women experiencing ST while learning modular arithmetic (MA) performed more poorly than did controls on easy MA problems; this effect was due to reduced learning of the mathematical operations underlying MA. In Experiment 3, ST reduced women's, but not men's, ability to learn abstract mathematical rules and to transfer these rules to a second, isomorphic task. This work provides the first evidence that negative stereotypes about women in math reduce their level of mathematical learning and demonstrates that reduced learning due to stereotype threat can lead to poorer performance in negatively stereotyped domains.     

Introversion-Extraversion and Sun-Sign

A variable frequently overlooked in assessing alternative teaching methods is students' previous exposure to an instructor's testing methods. The present study tested the hypothesis that test performance would be significantly higher among students in a single instructor lecture approach, where all tests were prepared by the same instructor, as compared to the team-teaching approach, where each test was prepared by a different instructor. Results indicated that prior test exposure to a single instructor's tests does have the effect of improving students' test performance on objective type tests, perhaps due to reduced test-taking anxiety, because the students have an opportunity to become accustomed to the instructor's style of testing.     

Black-white personality differences: another look.

Investigated the meaning of Black-White differences typically discovered on personality instruments by administering a pool of items derived from both the MMPI and California Psychological Inventory, as well as a group form of the Embedded Figures Test, to a sample of 226 black and white junior college students. A cluster analysis of the unexpectedly large number of inventory items significantly differentiating the two races produced reliable and meaningful configurations. Interpretations of race differences on these clusters and the EFT provide a new perspective on the meaning of Black-White personality differences.     

EXPLORING BLACK-WHITE SUBGROUP DIFFERENCES OF MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES

This study investigates whether different job-relevant competencies vary in terms of Black-White subgroup differences exhibited. There were 633 participants (545 Whites, 88 Blacks) who completed a managerial assessment center that evaluated 13 competency dimensions across 8 assessment exercises. Participants also completed a cognitive ability test. The results suggest that subgroup differences vary by the content domain of the competency. As predicted, significant subgroup differences emerged for a majority of the more cognitively loaded competencies (e.g., judgment) while nonsignificant differences were associated with a majority of the less cognitively loaded competencies (e.g., human relations). Furthermore, when cognitive ability was controlled, 12 of 13 competency scores demonstrated incremental validity in predicting supervisory job performance ratings. In addition, competencies with greater cognitive load tended to more strongly predict cognitive aspects of job performance as compared to noncognitive aspects. However, competencies with less cognitive load did not differentially predict cognitive and noncognitive aspects of job performance.     

Racial differences in stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity and hypertension: current status and substantive issues

Essential hypertension is perhaps the number-one health problem of Black Americans. Research has indicated that stress-induced cardiovascular hyperreactivity may be a significant contributor to essential hypertension. The high prevalence of hypertension among Blacks suggests that this group, in comparison with Whites, may be particularly susceptible to cardiovascular hyperreactivity. The first portion of this article reviews research to date that has examined racial differences in resting and stressor-induced cardiovascular activity. The second half of this article overviews some critical methodological and conceptual issues involved in the study of racial differences in reactivity. These issues include the effects of Black-White differences in plasma renin levels and sodium excretion, the effects of experimenter race, and differences in perceptions of the laboratory environment. Additionally, the issue of racial group classification and the implications this has for interpreting Black-White differences in reactivity is discussed. Two perspectives on racial group classification, the genetic and the sociocultural, are addressed in some detail, and the relevance of each to research on racial differences in stress reactivity is presented.     

Performance factors and gender-related differences in spatial ability: Another assessment

To explore whether test-taking styles (performance factors)cancontribute to explaining gender. related differences on tests of spatial ability, 15 spatial tests were administered to three samples of subjects. On each test, number-correct scores and ratio scores (number of items solved divided by the number of items attempted) were computed. In accordance with previous research findings, the use ofratio scores significantly reduced the magnitude ofthe gender-related differences on the Mental Rotations Test. For most of the remaining tests, however, the reduction of the gender-related score difference was small. It was concluded that the difference reduction for the Mental Rotations Test was specific to the format of this test. In common spatial tests, performance factors may account for a small portion of gender-related variance, but the bulk of this variance must be attributed to other factors.     

Stereotype Threat Effects on Learning From a Cognitively Demanding Mathematics Lesson

Stereotype threat—a situational context in which individuals are concerned about confirming a negative stereotype—is often shown to impact test performance, with one hypothesized mechanism being that cognitive resources are temporarily co‐opted by intrusive thoughts and worries, leading individuals to underperform despite high content knowledge and ability (see Schmader & Beilock, 2012 ). We test here whether stereotype threat may also impact initial student learning and knowledge formation when experienced prior to instruction. Predominantly African American fifth‐grade students provided either their race or the date before a videotaped, conceptually demanding mathematics lesson. Students who gave their race retained less learning over time, enjoyed the lesson less, reported a diminished desire to learn more, and were less likely to choose to engage in an optional math activity. The detrimental impact was greatest among students with high baseline cognitive resources. While stereotype threat has been well documented to harm test performance, the finding that effects extend to initial learning suggests that stereotype threat's contribution to achievement gaps may be greatly underestimated.     

The need for self-control in achievement tests: Changes in students’ state self-control capacity and effort investment

In the present research, we investigated the relation between changes in students’ state self-control capacity and their motivational test-taking effort over the course of an achievement test. Thereby, we considered trait self-control as a major predictor of achievement-related behavior as a covariate. N?=?1840 apprentices repeatedly rated their state self-control capacity and the test-taking effort they invested while working on a 140-min achievement test in mathematics and science. Using growth curve analyses, our results revealed correlated decreases in state self-control capacity and the test-taking effort invested over the course of the test. Furthermore, we found that trait self-control helped to keep state self-control capacity and test-taking effort at a higher level over the course of the test. Our results support the assumption of the process model of self-control that waning self-control capacity is reflected in reduced motivational effort. Furthermore, our findings provide evidence that self-control might play a crucial role in students’ test-taking behavior in large-scale assessment studies. By modeling changes in state self-control capacity and effort investment while considering trait self-control, we provide an alternative approach for investigating self-control-dependent processes and the underlying mechanisms of self-control in achievement situations.     

Assessment and Intervention with Black-White Multiracial Couples

SUMMARY

Effective therapy with Black-White multiracial couples begins with therapist work on self attitudes and with sensitive assessment of the ways racism and race may or may not be connected to a couple's problems. We suggest ways to begin to explore self attitudes and suggest basic assessment questions for work with Black-White couples. In addition, we point out important clinical issues that may come up for Black-White couples in the areas of social support/social network, parenting, and grief.