Date of Award:

5-1994

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Blaine R. Worthen

Committee

Blaine R. Worthen

Committee

Lani Van Dusen

Committee

Byron Burnham

Abstract

The study examined whether, under comparable testing conditions, second- and fourth-grade students who took a computer-administered (CA) achievement test in mathematics achieved the same mean score as comparable students who took the same test by paper and pencil (PP).

For number correct, the CA standardized mean difference effect size was - 0.28, which was larger than the expected effect size of zero, although not statistically significant at .05. It was noted that CA subjects completed the test more quickly, on the average, than PP subjects (CA effect size for time to completion = - 0.79). When time to completion was statistically controlled, the difference in mean scores between CA and PP modes vanished (CA effect size = - 0.02).

Possible explanations for the findings are discussed. It is concluded that, based on these results, one would not be justified in assuming CA and PP scores from elementary school students to be equivalent.

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Psychology Commons

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