A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Gauging Misclassification in Rapid Guessing Identification in a Fast-Paced Vocabulary Test




AuthorsHolopainen, Santeri; Metsämuuronen, Jari; Laakso, Mikko-Jussi; Kujala, Janne

PublisherTaylor & Francis

Publication year2025

JournalApplied Measurement in Education

Journal name in sourceApplied Measurement in Education

Volume38

Issue1

First page 25

Last page42

ISSN0895-7347

eISSN1532-4818

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1080/08957347.2025.2533124

Web address https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08957347.2025.2533124

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/499342798


Abstract

In low-stakes testing, rapid-guessing behavior (RG) presents a significant challenge to the validity of test scores. This study investigates the misclassification produced by nine different response time (RT) threshold methods in identifying RG, using large-scale assessment data from a fast-paced vocabulary test and introducing choice reaction time (CRT) as a ground truth variable. Although the methods varied mostly in their ability to estimate thresholds at all and not in the misclassification rates nor in their nature, the results show significant misclassification rates across methods, ranging from .080 to .096 (Finnish speakers) and from .087 to .164 (non-Finnish speakers). All methods were more conservative than liberal, with false negatives outnumbering false positives. The findings emphasize the problem of the binary mind-set in RG identification, and suggest that there is a need for approaches that identify RG at the participant-by-item level in order to improve the accuracy of RG identification.


Downloadable publication

This is an electronic reprint of the original article.
This reprint may differ from the original in pagination and typographic detail. Please cite the original version.




Funding information in the publication
The present study is part of the EDUCA Flagship funded by the Research Council of Finland [#358924, #358947] and the EDUCA-Doc Doctoral Education pilot funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture [Doctoral school pilot #VN/3137/2024-OKM-4].


Last updated on 2025-19-08 at 07:43