Premium
II—T he E ffect of P ractice on P erformance in S cholastic T ests
Author(s) -
CURR W.,
GOURLAY N.
Publication year - 1960
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8279.1960.tb01671.x
Subject(s) - reading comprehension , reading (process) , confidence interval , psychology , test (biology) , mathematics , mathematics education , statistics , linguistics , biology , botany , philosophy
S ummary .1.— The main object of the investigation was to obtain some measure of practice effect for tests in mechanical reading, reading comprehension and arithmetic. Standardised tests in these skills were given at varying intervals of time to groups of 9–10‐year‐old children in four primary schools. 2.— The statistical analysis employed provided estimates of the mean gains both at the average level of ability for the age group (9·5 years) and two years below average (7·5 years). Practice effect was greatest for reading comprehension. At the 9·5 level, a re‐test after one month produced a mean gain of 10·1 months and further re‐tests after 3 and 6 months gave gains of 18·2 and 26·9 months, respectively. The corresponding figures at the 7·5 level were 8·9, 10·4 and 12·2 months. For the mechanical reading test, the gains were 5·3, 8·0 and 14·1 months at the 9·5 level and 4·4, 6·2 and 11·8 at the 7·5 level. Practice effect was only slight for the arithmetic test. 3.— Practice effect was also estimated for other cases. In particular, pupils tested on both forms of the reading comprehension test at an interval of one month registered gains of 7·2 and 4·2 months at the 9·5 and 7·5 levels, respectively. 4.— Reference was made to our earlier investigation into the scholastic results of remedial education. It was pointed out that, in the light of the data here presented, the gains made by the controls in our experiment could be explained entirely in terms of maturation and practice effect. Data are also given to show the impermanence of the net gains made by the pupils receiving remedial education. Corroborative data from another investigation are also presented.