Number Of Response Choices Research Articles

Evaluation of the effect of items\u2019 format and type on psychometric properties of sixth year pharmacy students clinical clerkship assessment items

BackgroundExaminations are the traditional assessment tools. In addition to measurement of learning, exams are used to guide the improvement of academic programs. The current study attempted to evaluate the quality of assessment items of sixth year clinical clerkships examinations as a function of assessment items format and type/structure and to assess the effect of the number of response choices on the characteristics of MCQs as assessment items.MethodsA total of 173 assessment items used in the examinations of sixth year clinical clerkships of a PharmD program were included. Items were classified as case based or noncase based and as MCQs or open-ended. The psychometric characteristics of the items were studied as a function of the Bloom’s levels addressed, item format, and number of choices in MCQs.ResultsItems addressing analysis skills were more difficult. No differences were found between case based and noncase based items in terms of their difficulty, with a slightly better discrimination in the latter. Open-ended items were easier, yet more discriminative. MCQs with higher number of options were easier. Open-ended questions were significantly more discriminative in comparison to MCQs as case based items while they were more discriminative as noncase based items.ConclusionItem formats, structure, and number of options in MCQs significantly affected the psychometric properties of the studied items. Noncase based items and open-ended items were easier and more discriminative than case based items and MCQs, respectively. Examination items should be prepared considering the above characteristics to improve their psychometric properties and maximize their usefulness.

Effect of Training Rate on Recognition of Spectrally Shifted Speech

Previous studies have shown that the protocol used for auditory training may significantly affect the outcome of training. However, it is unclear how often training should be performed to maximize its benefit. The present study investigated how the frequency of training contributed to normal-hearing listeners' adaptation to spectrally shifted speech. Eighteen normal-hearing listeners were trained with spectrally shifted and compressed speech via an 8-channel acoustic simulation of cochlear implant speech processing. Five short training sessions (1 hr per session) were completed by each subject; subjects were trained at one of three training rates: five sessions per week, three sessions per week, or one session per week. Subjects were trained to identify medial vowels presented in a cVc format; depending on the level of difficulty, the number of response choices was increased and/or the acoustic differences between vowels were reduced. Vowel and consonant recognition was measured before and after training as well as at regular intervals during the training period. Sentence recognition was measured before and after training only. Results showed that pretraining vowel recognition scores were poor (14.0% correct, on average) for all subjects, due to the severe spectral shift. After five sessions of targeted vowel contrast training, there was a significant improvement of shifted vowel recognition for most subjects. The mean improvement was comparable (approximately 15 percentage points) across the three training rate conditions, despite significant intersubject variability in pre- and pretraining baseline performance. There was no significant difference in training outcomes among the three training rates. Spectrally shifted consonant and sentence recognition also improved by approximately 20 percentage points after training, even though consonants and sentences were not explicitly trained. Similar to vowel recognition, there was no significant difference in training outcomes among the three training rates for shifted consonant and sentence recognition. The results demonstrated that the training rate had little effect on normal-hearing listeners' adaptation to spectrally shifted speech, at least for the training periods (ranging from 1 to 5 wk) used in the present study. The outcome of auditory training may depend more strongly on the amount of training (i.e., total number of training sessions) rather than the frequency of training (i.e., daily or once per week). Although more frequent training may accelerate listeners' adaptation to spectrally shifted speech, there may be significant benefits from training as little as one session per week. The results of the present study suggest that appropriate training schedules can be developed to optimize the effectiveness, efficiency, and effort associated with hearing-impaired patients' auditory rehabilitation.

Effects of pre-training pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus lesions on delayed matching- and non-matching-to-position in a T-maze in rats

Lesions of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) can impair spatial learning tasks, but it is not clear whether those detrimental effects depend on the specific training conditions (for example, number of response choices available) or are secondary to enhanced anxiety. In the present work, rats with either bilateral excitotoxic (ibotenate) lesions of the PPTg (lesion group) or with vehicle infusions (control group) were tested in an elevated plus-maze, in order to measure anxiety-like behaviours and spontaneous locomotion. Subsequently, they were trained in a delayed matching-to-position (DMTP) task in a T-maze (a two-response choice task). After reaching a predefined learning criterion, or after a maximum of 30 training sessions, the animals were trained in a delayed non-matching-to-position (DNMTP) task. Lesioned animals made less grooming episodes, stretch-attend postures and closed arm entries than controls in the elevated plus-maze, suggesting slightly lower anxiety levels. None of the lesioned rats reached the learning criterion for the DMTP, and overall accuracy levels were significantly lower in those rats, compared to controls. In the DNMTP task, lesioned animals showed lower accuracy levels and higher side bias than controls in some of the sessions, but there were no significant differences between the two groups in the proportion of animals reaching the learning criterion. It is concluded that spatial learning deficits induced by damage to the PPTg are not secondary to enhanced anxiety. Instead, those deficits seem to be influenced by several conditions that modify task demands, the number of response choices being only one of such conditions.

Dissociating Visual Attention and Effector Selection in Spatial Precuing Tasks.

In this study the authors tested and rejected a recent proposal that response precuing effects depend on the spatial extent of the precues rather than on the number of response choices. Moreover, the authors tested and supported the hypothesis that the number of effectors in the response set is an important determinant of spatial precuing effects. Results of 4 experiments consistently showed that keypress responses generated a qualitatively different pattern of precuing effects than did pointing and detection responses. Together, the results establish a strong dissociation between planning pointing responses and planning keypress responses and suggest that precuing effects in 1-effector and multiple-effector visuomotor tasks are dominated by distinct and separate mechanisms, visual attention and effector selection, respectively.