ABSTRACT

Test-taking motivation (TTM) has been associated with test performance in low-stakes testing contexts. However, there have been few studies about TTM in high-stakes testing contexts, and these have contradictory results. Our aim was to explore the relationship between test-taking effort and test performance in a real-life high-stakes testing context (n = 1,515). We collected time-based and self-reported data about test-taking effort and used a structural equation model (SEM) to predict test performance. We found that the motivational indicators added about 15% of predictive power to the SEM model, where gender and previous performance had been controlled for. Altogether, the SEM model predicted 69% of the variance in test results. We compared the findings to previous studies and concluded that the possible effect of TTM should be considered in various testing contexts, whether low-stakes or high-stakes.

摘要

应试动机 (TTM) 与低风险测试环境中的测试性能相关。然而，在高风险测试环境中关于 TTM 的研究很少，而且这些研究结果相互矛盾。我们的目标是在现实生活中的高风险测试环境中探索应试努力与测试表现之间的关系（n = 1,515）。我们收集了有关应试工作的基于时间的和自我报告的数据，并使用结构方程模型 (SEM) 来预测测试性能。我们发现，动机指标为 SEM 模型增加了约 15% 的预测能力，其中性别和以前的表现已被控制。总之，SEM 模型预测了 69% 的测试结果差异。我们将这些发现与之前的研究进行了比较，并得出结论，无论是低风险还是高风险，都应在各种测试环境中考虑 TTM 的可能影响。