Examining Test Speededness by Native Language

Validity & Testing, Research, Global, 2012, Psychometric Report

Talento Miller, E., Guo, F., & Han, K.

July 31, 2012

Overview

When power tests include a time limit, it is important to assess the possibility of speededness for examinees. Research on differential speededness in the past has included looking at gender and ethnic subgroups in the United States on paper and pencil tests. The needs of a global audience necessitated, and the availability of computer recorded response time data enabled, this investigation of differential speededness by native language. Data from a computerized adaptive test administered globally in English were used to compare different measures of time pressure and speed for 15 language groups compared with native-English-speaking examinees. Results indicated that examinees whose native language was Korean had issues with speededness when many of the metrics were considered, but when ability was controlled, there were no relevant differences for any of the languages compared with English.