A Comparative Analysis of Psychometric Properties of Memory Tasks and Their Relationships with Higher-Order Thinking Skills: Recognition Versus Recall

Abstract

This study aims to compare the psychometric properties of recognition and recall task measurements and to examine their relationships with other higher-order thinking skills. Memory measurements made with recognition and recall tasks were based on the Visual Span Memory (VSM) subtest of the ASIS intelligence scale. The participants of the study consisted of 228 students attending first and second grade in a primary school in the city center of Eskişehir. The data were collected by administering the recognition and recall task forms to the students individually. The findings reveal a statistically significant difference between the average scores of recall and recognition tasks. The mean scores of the recognition task measurements are significantly higher than the mean scores of the recall task measurements (t(227) = 5.79, p <0.01; Cohen d = 0.435, Cohen dz = 0.38). In addition, there is a significant difference between the reliability coefficients of recognition and recall task score in favor of the recall task score (χ2(1) = 6.181, p <.02). It was also found that the mean item-total correlations of the recall task measurements (r=.41) were higher than the recognition task measurements (r=.27), and the item-total correlations of the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, and 14th items differed significantly in favor of the recall task measurements. The correlation of the recall task score with the other 5 subtests in the ASIS intelligence scale was higher than that of the recognition task score. The findings show that the psychometric properties of the measurement performed with the recall task are stronger.