Abstract. Due to their high item difficulties and excellent psychometric properties, construction-based figural matrices tasks are of particular interest when it comes to high-stakes testing. An important prerequisite is that test preparation – which is likely to occur in this context – does not impair test fairness or item properties. The goal of this study was to provide initial evidence concerning the influence of test preparation. We administered test items to a sample of N = 882 participants divided into two groups, but only one group was given information about the rules employed in the test items. The probability of solving the items was significantly higher in the test preparation group than in the control group ( M = 0.61, SD = 0.19 vs. M = 0.41, SD = 0.25; t(54) = 3.42, p = .001; d = .92). Nevertheless, a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, as well as a differential item functioning analysis, indicated no differences between the item properties in the two groups. The results suggest that construction-based figural matrices are suitable in the context of high-stakes testing when all participants are provided with test preparation material so that test fairness is ensured.

中文翻译：

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你可以在不知道规则的情况下玩游戏——但你最好了解它们

摘要。由于它们的高项目难度和出色的心理测量特性，基于构造的图形矩阵任务在涉及高风险测试时特别受关注。一个重要的先决条件是测试准备——很可能发生在这种情况下——不会损害测试的公平性或项目属性。本研究的目的是提供有关测试准备影响的初步证据。我们对 N = 882 名参与者的样本进行了测试项目，该样本分为两组，但只有一组获得了有关测试项目中采用的规则的信息。备考组解决题目的概率显着高于对照组（M = 0.61, SD = 0.19 vs. M = 0.41, SD = 0.25; t(54) = 3.42, p = .001; d = .92)。尽管如此，多组验证性因素分析以及差异项目功能分析表明，两组项目属性之间没有差异。结果表明，当向所有参与者提供测试准备材料时，基于构造的图形矩阵适用于高风险测试的环境，从而确保测试的公平性。