The Role of Reading Comprehension in Responses to Positively and Negatively Worded Items on Rating Scales

Fuente: ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Weems, Gail H., Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J., Collins, Kathleen M. T.
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:en
Published: 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867181859326132225
author Weems, Gail H.
Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J.
Collins, Kathleen M. T.
author_facet Weems, Gail H.
Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J.
Collins, Kathleen M. T.
Weems, Gail H.
Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J.
Collins, Kathleen M. T.
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents The Role of Reading Comprehension in Responses to Positively and Negatively Worded Items on Rating Scales Weems, Gail H. Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. Collins, Kathleen M. T. Likert Scales Reading Comprehension Test Items Psychometrics Item Response Theory Reading Ability Graduate Students Correlation Responses Preadolescents Adults Should instruments, such as Likert-type scales, contain both positively worded and negatively worded items within the same scale (i.e. mixed format)? Recent evidence suggests that the use of scales with a mixed format can adversely affect the psychometric properties of scales. In particular, the mean item response to the positively worded items has been found to be statistically and practically significantly different than the corresponding mean item response to the negatively worded items with the same scale. Because positively and negatively worded items may evoke different responses for some individuals, it is likely that reading ability plays an important role in the quality of responses to scales with a mixed format. Indeed, Marsh (1984) found a relationship between inappropriate responses to negatively worded items and reading ability among pre-adolescents. Likewise, Williams and Swanson (2001) found a similar relationship for adults. Yet, no other studies have investigated this relationship. Thus, the present study extends this line of research by examining this association among 153 graduate students. A canonical correlation analysis revealed a moderate relationship between degree of differential responses between positively and negatively worded items on four dimensions of a measure of library anxiety and components of reading ability (i.e. reading comprehension and reading vocabulary).
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ742604
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2006
record_format eric
spellingShingle The Role of Reading Comprehension in Responses to Positively and Negatively Worded Items on Rating Scales
Weems, Gail H.
Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J.
Collins, Kathleen M. T.
Likert Scales
Reading Comprehension
Test Items
Psychometrics
Item Response Theory
Reading Ability
Graduate Students
Correlation
Responses
Preadolescents
Adults
The Role of Reading Comprehension in Responses to Positively and Negatively Worded Items on Rating Scales Weems, Gail H. Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. Collins, Kathleen M. T. Likert Scales Reading Comprehension Test Items Psychometrics Item Response Theory Reading Ability Graduate Students Correlation Responses Preadolescents Adults Should instruments, such as Likert-type scales, contain both positively worded and negatively worded items within the same scale (i.e. mixed format)? Recent evidence suggests that the use of scales with a mixed format can adversely affect the psychometric properties of scales. In particular, the mean item response to the positively worded items has been found to be statistically and practically significantly different than the corresponding mean item response to the negatively worded items with the same scale. Because positively and negatively worded items may evoke different responses for some individuals, it is likely that reading ability plays an important role in the quality of responses to scales with a mixed format. Indeed, Marsh (1984) found a relationship between inappropriate responses to negatively worded items and reading ability among pre-adolescents. Likewise, Williams and Swanson (2001) found a similar relationship for adults. Yet, no other studies have investigated this relationship. Thus, the present study extends this line of research by examining this association among 153 graduate students. A canonical correlation analysis revealed a moderate relationship between degree of differential responses between positively and negatively worded items on four dimensions of a measure of library anxiety and components of reading ability (i.e. reading comprehension and reading vocabulary).
title The Role of Reading Comprehension in Responses to Positively and Negatively Worded Items on Rating Scales
topic Likert Scales
Reading Comprehension
Test Items
Psychometrics
Item Response Theory
Reading Ability
Graduate Students
Correlation
Responses
Preadolescents
Adults
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ742604