An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Three Methods of Handling Guessing and Risk Taking on the Psychometric Indices of a Test

This study examines the effect of three scoring methods (number-correct, discouraging guessing, and the partial knowledge award) on the psychometric indices (reliability and validity) of a test, given examinees' risk-taking level. One hundred and twenty undergraduate students in a psychology research methodology class served as the sample. A 40-item multiplechoice test with 4 responses per item was used to assess the effect of different scoring methods on test reliability and validity, and a test of 10 nonsense items was used to classify the examinees into high risk-taking and low risk-taking groups. The results showed that the 3 methods produce different reliability and validity coefficients, with the partial knowledge method choice.