The goal of this study was to identify the best indices for detecting inattentive respondents. This was accomplished by collecting data from... Show moreThe goal of this study was to identify the best indices for detecting inattentive respondents. This was accomplished by collecting data from respondents who were attentive and inattentive. Five different methods for detecting inattention were com- pared to determine which of these methods were the most effective. The indices used for detecting inattention were: instructional items, nonsensical items, Fleischer type items, total time, and psychometric consistency. These were classified into two types item based indices and non-item based indices. It was hypothesized and found that Fleischer items were viewed as less awed or out of place when compared to nonsen- sical and instructional item types. Additional hypotheses tested the effectiveness of each the indices and supported the hypothesis, in finding the Fleischer type and total time to be the best identifiers of inattentive respondents. The final hypothesis did not find support that removing inattentive respondents would yield only better relia- bilities. The results were mixed and the interpretation of this and the other findings results are discussed in detail in the following paper. Ph.D. in Psychology, May 2016 Show less
Instructions are an integral part of any exam. The present study examines the effects of instructions to avoid the middle answer on a... Show moreInstructions are an integral part of any exam. The present study examines the effects of instructions to avoid the middle answer on a personality questionnaire. We obtained IRT parameters from participants responding to the 16PF Questionnaire with and without this instruction and used a Monte Carlo simulation based on these parameters. Results indicated that when participants were instructed to avoid the middle response, we observed lower item-total correlations and increased difficulty in setting percentiles. Previous research, implications and limitations of this study are discussed as well. M.S. in Psychology, July 2011 Show less
