Studies of the Seriousness of Three Threats to Passage Dependence

The three studies presented are concerned with three kinds of multiple-choice reading comprehension questions that may be answered correctly at a higher-than-chance level when they are administered without the accompanying passage. An attempt was made to demonstrate that each of these kinds of high risk item does not necessarily lead to passage dependence invalidity. One study succeeded whereas two failed. The net results of these failures to show that the threats to validity are not necessarily damning was interpreted as evidence of the seriousness of the threats.