IMPULSIVITY–REFLECTIVITY, GENDER AND PERFORMANCE ON MULTIPLE CHOICE ITEMS

This study was an attempt to carefully analyze the subject of test bias. Different sources of bias have been mentioned by different scholars, to be taken into consideration while constructing and administering a test. The most comprehensive account of these sources has been given by Bachman (1990:pp.271-278).He considers cultural background, background knowledge, cognitive characteristics, native language, ethnicity, sex, and age as different sources of bias. In this study , the researcher went through two of these sources of bias namely the impulsivity –reflectivity cognitive styles and sex , and by providing two null hypotheses attempted to find out the effect of these sources of bias on the test takersʹ performance on a multiple – choice test . After collecting data by the use of a TOEFL test and Eysenckʹs Personality Questionnaire, two t-tests were run to confirm whether the difference between the means of different groups (i.e. male, female, on the one hand, and impulsive / reflective, on the other hand) is statistically significant or not? The statistics and results showed the rejection of the first null hypothesis and the acceptance of the second one. The first null hypothesis being rejected indicates that the impulsivity -reflectivity cognitive styles of test takers influence on their performance on multiple – choice items test. The second null hypothesis, being accepted, indicates that test takersʹ sex does not affect their performance on multiple-choice items test.