Learning potential and anxious tendency: Test anxiety as a bias factor in educational testing

Abstract

Contrary to conventional educational testing, in so-called dynamic assessment subjects are allowed to consult help during testing or are offered prior training. The differential results of both testing procedures are sometimes ascribed to the idea that dynamic tests reflect the breadth of the zone of proximal development on top of independent achievement. Alternative explanations claim that conventional tests are more strongly biased towards various characteristics of persons, which have a negative influence on performance, when compared to dynamic tests. In this study, it was hypothesised that static as well as dynamic assessment is biased towards anxious tendencies of subjects, but the former more strongly than the latter. In order to investigate this supposition, the performance of subjects on dynamic and static tests was systematically compared and related to measures of test anxiety in a longitudinal experiment. In the experiment, repeated measures of independent mathematics achievement as well as mathematics learning potential were gathered among students of secondary education in the Netherlands. Prior to every mathematics test, subjects filled out a test anxiety questionnaire. After every mathematics test, subjects filled out a general state anxiety questionnaire. The participating subjects were students from secondary education, either preparing for higher vocational training or university, aged approximately 15 years on average.

The results of the experiment showed that lack of self-confidence is an important constituent factor of test anxiety, apart from worry and emotionality. The data supported the assumption that such testing procedures are less biased towards anxiety than conventional tests, but it was not established that dynamic testing procedures render results that are not biased by test anxious tendencies.     

Using the visual world paradigm to study language processing: a review and critical evaluation

We describe the key features of the visual world paradigm and review the main research areas where it has been used. In our discussion we highlight that the paradigm provides information about the way language users integrate linguistic information with information derived from the visual environment. Therefore the paradigm is well suited to study one of the key issues of current cognitive psychology, namely the interplay between linguistic and visual information processing. However, conclusions about linguistic processing (e.g., about activation, competition, and timing of access of linguistic representations) in the absence of relevant visual information must be drawn with caution.     

Prevalence and comorbidity of axis I and axis II disorders among treatment refractory adolescents admitted for specialized psychotherapy

Research shows that approximately half of the adolescents in a clinical setting suffer from a personality disorder (PD). This finding has not yet been replicated in Europe. To test whether this finding also applies to Europe, structured diagnostic interviews for both Axis I and Axis II disorders were used in 257 adolescents who were admitted to a highly specialized mental health setting in The Netherlands. In this study we found that 40.5% of the adolescents were diagnosed with at least one personality disorder. Most adolescents with a personality disorder (78.9%) also suffered from one or more Axis I disorders. These results are comparable to rates found in previous prevalence studies of personality disorders in both adolescents and adults. Our results provide further evidence to support the cross-national generalizability of the diagnosis of PD in adolescents.     

Alone at the playground

Starting pre-school is a major stepping stone for children’s peer relations. Yet, some children spend their recess time alone, albeit in the presence of playful peers. These solitary behaviours have been noted in the literature as an alarm signal for a maladaptive social development. In this study, we identified four kinds of non-social behaviours engaged at recess (reticent, solitary-pretend, -functional, and -passive); and we examined the extent to which these different behaviours were related to social solitude at the playground six months later. Therefore, 97 children (aged 4–6 years old) were observed at the playground and their social-emotional skills were tested. Solitude was assessed through an innovative measuring method, based on Radio Frequency Identification Devices. The results demonstrated that solitary-pretend play in girls was related to an increase in solitary behaviours later on. Nevertheless, children who engaged in non-social behaviours showed a general lack of emotional skills, which may explain their initial withdrawal.