Test Item Arrangement and Adaptation Level

Summary

On the basis of a rationale provided by Helson's adaptation level theory it was predicted that students would perceive items arranged in a hard-medium-easy (H-M-E) order as being easier than the same items arranged easy-medium-hard. Eighty-five men and women college students served as Ss for the study. The dependent variable consisted of two arrangements (H-M-E and E-M-H) of a midterm examination. A multivariate analysis of the data provided evidence that generally confirmed the preceding conjecture, but also found that Ss' perceptions did not significantly influence their scores. That is, using true-false or multiple-choice items. Ss received the same test scores regardless of the context in which they found the items.