THE USE OF COGNITIVE TAXONOMIES IN LICENSURE AND CERTIFICATION TEST DEVELOPMENT - REASONABLE OR CUSTOMARY

This research addressed the functioning of a cognitive taxonomy within the test specifications of a health sciences certification examinatio n. The research investigated whether test items written purposefully t o assess the higher order cognitive processes provided evidence of ass essing differing levels of cognitive processing. Overall, the results yielded no support for the continuing use of a hierarchical cognitive classification dimension for the test specifications. Implications of the research for test specifications development, test construction, i tem writing, and score reporting are presented. Limitations and sugges tions for future research are provided.