The Misuse of the TUCE in Explaining Cognitive Achievement

Abstract

Because the TUCE is the most widely used instrument for research in college-level economic education, this article is of great importance to those who have used the test in the past and those who might be planning to use it in the future. The authors acknowledge that the TUCE is an extremely useful test, but they argue that it could be even more useful if researchers modified it to suit particular situations. Then they describe the results of a study in which the TUCE was altered somewhat to reflect the contents of a course at the University of Notre Dame. They assert that the modifications resulted in greater efficiency in measuring cognitive achievement. In an appendix to their report, the authors explain how they dealt with the multicollinearity problem through the use of the Farrar-Glauber transformation matrix.