1. Matt Drown
The Effects of Immediate Forewarning of Test Difficulty on Test Performance
Charles J. Weber
Eastern Illinois University
George Y. Bizer
Union College
The Journal of General Psychology
Volume 133, Issue 3, July 2006, Pages

2. Theory
Forewarning right before an exam has an effect on test performance

3. Hypothesis
There will be a difference in the performance of students with high trait anxiety and low trait anxiety
High anxiety will perform worse
Low anxiety will perform better

4. Theoretical Construct I
Trait Anxiety
Operational Definition
20-item trait-anxiety questionnaire from the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)
Measures level of dispositional anxiety

5. Theoretical Construct II
Performance
Operational Definition
10 multiple choice items from a prior administration of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)

6. DESIGN

7. Study and Subjects Subjects 62 students at Eastern Illinois University
psychology students
Partial fulfillment of course requirement

8. Independent Variable I
Perceived test difficulty
Scale of Measurement
Qualitative
Levels of Independent Variable
3 levels
Expected Easy (N=22)
Expected Difficult (N=18)
Neutral (N=22)

9. Independent Variable II
Anxiety
Scale of Measurement
Qualitative
Levels of Independent Variable
2 (low and high, based on median split)

10. Dependant Variable Performance Scales of Measurement
Quantitative
Levels of Dependant Variable
10 (number of correctly answered items)

11. RESULTS

12. Main Effect
There were no main effects of condition or trait anxiety on the number of correctly answered items

13. Interaction
Significant difference among both high trait anxiety (p<.05) and low trait anxiety (p<.05)
Participants of low test anxiety told that the exam would be hard scored significantly higher than those told it would be easy
Participants of high test anxiety told that the exam would be hard scored worse than all other participants
No significant difference among no-instruction control

14. Overall scores as a Function of Trait Anxiety and Condition
Difficult
No Instruction
Easy
Low
8.11
6.70
6.09
High
5.00
7.31
7.18

15. Discussion

16. I think it is a good idea for a study
Very few studies have tested forewarning immediately before a test
Suggests that forewarning of difficulty well in advance and immediately before an exam have distinct effects on performance

17. But…. Could have been done better
There were too many extraneous variables that were not controlled or taken into account
Maybe taking a larger, more diverse sample