Increasing Expended Effort on Low-Stakes Accountability Tests via Priming: Effectiveness with Graduating University Students

Sara J. Finney, Stuart A. Miller, & Kendall M. McGoey   |    Volume 20 Issue 1  |   

Priming incoming and second-year college students with questions about effort prior to completing low-stakes assessments has increased test-taking effort. We extended this research by randomly assigning college seniors to one of three priming conditions prior to completing low-stakes assessments: answering three questions about intended effort that infused positive self-identity, answering three questions about intended effort that incorporated the university’s creed, or answering no priming questions. The self-identity questions resulted in higher self-reported effort than the control condition, the university creed questions resulted in higher testing time than the control condition, and neither priming condition increased test performance. However, Pell Grant eligibility moderated the priming effect on effort. Priming resulted in self-reported effort for Pell eligible students being the same or higher than noneligible students. Likewise, ethnicity moderated the priming effect on test scores. White students scored higher than underrepresented students in the control condition, but this difference disappeared with priming.

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