PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES
Reliability
Variability distributions of scores made in a class will show a broad range of performances--from those who fill in almost every blank correctly, to those whose answer sheets are less than half full.
Research on the Tennessee WAT indicates that the procedure is acceptably reliable. Various coefficients of reliability range from +.592 to +.899. See appendix F.
Validity
The measurement of the validity of any examination of a student's achievement in a course is a matter of faith. The question of the criterion or criteria against which the validity of any one test is to be evaluated is very much open to debate, the question arising just as critically with essay, short answer, take-home, multiple choice exams as well as with the WAT. Appendix F presents validity coefficients of WAT scores with the essay, short answer, and GPA. "Validity" estimates range from .447 (WAT and overall GPA) to +.773 (WAT and Short Answer Test) depending on the criterion. Most coefficients are between +.45 and +.77 and are thus well within the acceptable range.
Those who developed the test have done so in many smallish (10-20) classes in both beginning and advanced Honors Psychology groups, in which it is possible to get to know the students and their performances reasonably well. One is very seldom surprised by scores on WAT, and then it is by the score of the shy, quiet student who performs very well indeed on the Associate Test.
References
Attkisson, C. C., & Snyder, C. R. (1975) Student evaluation of mulitple choice and word association exams. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 2, 9-15.
Boneau, C. A. (1990). Psychological literacy: A first approximation. American Psychologist, 45, 891-900.
Jennings, W. N. (1966). Originality as a function of uncommon associations to common stimulus words. Unpublished master's thesis. University of Tennessee.
Jennings, W. N. (1968). The assessment of instructor differences using the Word-association examination. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Tennessee.
Rosanoff, A. J., Martin, H. E. and Rosanoff, I. R. (1918). A higher scale of mental measurement and its application to cases of insanity. Psychological Monographs. Princeton, N.J.
Shelnutt, J. B. (1969). Some characteristics of the Word-Association Test used as a measure of academic knowledge with respect to individual differences in student's patterns of responding, difficulty of stimulus items, and heterogenity of the response distributions. Unpublished honors thesis. University of Tennessee.
Saeger, W. (1975) An associative evaluation of selected interdisciplinary courses. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Tennessee.
Skinner, B. F. (1957) Verbal behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Appendix A
List of 192 words of (approx.) 2500 on which students in a beginning General Psychology course have been examined using the Word Associate Test.
ablation aversive stimulus cell differentiation consciousnessabscissa axon hillock central limit theorem consistencyaccountants Babinski central tendency consolidation theoryAch balance theory centrality index consonance dissonanceacquired drive balloon cephalocaudal constancyacquisition Bartlett cerebrotonic constant methodactivation syndrome basic anxiety cerebrum constitutional typesactive vocabulary Beach chained schedule construct validityactuarial behavior therapy chance errors consummatory actadaptation behaviorism character consummatory behavioradaptation level Bekesy Charcot content analysisadipsia Bekhterev checking force content psychologyadrenal Bell Chomsky context theoryadrenalin Berger choroid contiguityaffectional drive Berkeley chromosome contractionaffective congruency beta weights chronograph controlall or none Binet classical convergent hierarchyalpha biosocial theory classical conditioning core and contextalpha rhythm bipolar cell clinical interaction corporal dataAmes bit closure correlationamnesia black headed gull clustering correlation aschampulla blast injection cognitive change correspondenceamygdala blockings cognitive dissonance cortexanalyzer Boring cognitive maps cortical steroidanimal consciousness Bradley cognitive theory corticospinalanticathexis brain cohesiveness counter conditioninganticipation error brain washing collective unconscious counterbalancinganxiety Brentano color blindness counterconformityanxiety reduction Breuer color solid cranial nervesaphagia brightness color vision Crespi-effectaphalic index brightness constancy common elements cretinismapproach gradient Broadbent's model common trait criterionapraxia Broca comparative judgement criterion analysisAquinas Broca's area compromise response critical periodarea sampling Brunswik computers cross validationarousal Bunsen-Roscoe law concept formation csrassociation test C. Lloyd Morgan conditional achievement cultural conflictasymptote canalization conditioned elements cumulative recordatomism Cannon conditioned inhibition cumulative recorderatropine case history conditioned response curareattensity castes cones curiosityattention castration complex conflict dark adaptationattenuation catatonic conformity datauthoritarian catharsis confounding ddd syndromeautism cathexis congruity incongruity De La Mettrieautokinetic Cattell conjunction decerebrate rigidityautomated teaching cell assembly connector neuron decibelautonomic cell body connotative meaning decision theoryAppendix B-1
Completed Test
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