Investigating the impact of multiple priming questions on examinee effort during low-stakes testing

Abstract

Priming examinees with questions about intended effort prior to testing has been shown to significantly increase examinee expended effort via self-reported effort and response-time effort. However, this question-behavior effect seems to wear off later in a testing session. We examined whether administering a second “dose” of the question-behavior effect could combat the decrease in examinee effort later in a testing session. We randomly assigned examinees to one of three question conditions prior to completing two low-stakes tests: answering three questions about intended effort directly before the first test in a session, answering three questions about intended effort directly before each test in a session, and answering no priming questions (control). Administering a second dose of questions directly before the second test in a session significantly increased response-time effort and self-reported effort for the more difficult test. This simple administration of multiple sets of questions throughout a testing session appears to combat issues with low effort on difficult tests that are administered later in a testing session.