The development and validation of the Auburn Psychology Term Test (APTT)

Abstract

The construction and investigation of the psychometric properties of the Auburn Psychology Term Test (APTT), a yes-no test designed to measure psychology knowledge, is described in this paper. The relationships between this instrument and more typical indicators of student performance, including students’ ability to identify and define psychology vocabulary items, and students’ introductory psychology course grade, was significant. Strong alternate form reliability with a second version of the test was found. A signal detection analysis of test scores showed that students who performed well on the test showed more conservative responding strategies, in that they made slightly more hits and substantially fewer false alarms. The internal properties of this test were also assessed through item analyses and an exploratory factor analysis, which demonstrated that some variance exists in the effectiveness of APTT items, and suggested that the dimensionality of the APTT may be difficult to determine.