NEGATION IN STEMS OF SINGLE-RESPONSE MULTIPLE-CHOICE ITEMS - AN OVERESTIMATION OF STUDENT ABILITY

There is accumulating evidence that negation (eg., not, except) should be used sparingly or avoided in the stems of multiple-choice items. I n these items, examinees are required to select the one alternative th at is false from among those that are true. The same items can also be given as positively worded multiple-response items in which the stude nt is directed to identify those alternatives that are true. The prese nt study compared the responses of examinees on single-response, negat ively worded (SRNW) items and on multiple-response, positively worded (MRPW) items. The experimental design allowed students to respond to b oth SRNW and MRPW formats that employed identical item alternatives. T he findings of this study provide further evidence that the use of neg ation in stems should be limited and that the SRNW item should often b e converted to an MRPW item. This recommendation is based on the inher ent cuing (i.e., the artificial elevation of student scores) observed within SRNW items that significantly lowers item reliability and great ly distorts information about examinee performance.