Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Bamberg, Germany.
University of Würzburg, Germany.
Assessment. 2024 Mar;31(2):248-262. doi: 10.1177/10731911231159369. Epub 2023 Mar 8.
Proctored remote testing of cognitive abilities in the private homes of test-takers is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to standard psychological assessments in test centers or classrooms. Because these tests are administered under less standardized conditions, differences in computer devices or situational contexts might contribute to measurement biases that impede fair comparisons between test-takers. Because it is unclear whether cognitive remote testing might be a feasible assessment approach for young children, the present study ( = 1,590) evaluated a test of reading comprehension administered to children at the age of 8 years. To disentangle mode from setting effects, the children finished the test either in the classroom on paper or computer or remotely on tablets or laptops. Analyses of differential response functioning found notable differences between assessment conditions for selected items. However, biases in test scores were largely negligible. Only for children with below-average reading comprehension small setting effects between on-site and remote testing were observed. Moreover, response effort was higher in the three computerized test versions, among which, reading on tablets most strongly resembled the paper condition. Overall, these results suggest that, on average, even for young children remote testing introduces little measurement bias.
在应试者的私人住宅中进行有监督的远程认知能力测试，正成为在测试中心或教室里进行标准心理评估的一种越来越受欢迎的替代方法。由于这些测试是在不太标准化的条件下进行的，计算机设备或情境背景的差异可能会导致测量偏差，从而阻碍应试者之间的公平比较。由于目前尚不清楚认知远程测试是否适用于幼儿，本研究（n=1590）评估了对 8 岁儿童进行的阅读理解测试。为了区分模式和环境的影响，孩子们在课堂上用纸笔或电脑、远程在平板电脑或笔记本电脑上完成了测试。对差异反应功能的分析发现，在选定项目中，评估条件之间存在显著差异。然而，测试分数的偏差在很大程度上可以忽略不计。只有阅读理解能力低于平均水平的儿童在现场测试和远程测试之间观察到较小的环境效应。此外，在三种计算机化的测试版本中，反应努力更高，其中在平板电脑上阅读最接近纸质条件。总的来说，这些结果表明，即使是对年幼的孩子来说，远程测试平均来说引入的测量偏差很小。
