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Prior Knowledge and Reading Comprehension Test Bias

1984; Wiley; Volume: 19; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/747364

1936-2722

Peter H. Johnston,

Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills

not refer back to the text. The biasing effects of prior knowledge were demonstrated both within subjects and between subpopulations (rural and urban). Bias was shown to operate at the level of the individual and therefore should be removed at that level, not at the population level. This was achieved by using a content-specific vocabulary test to estimate prior knowledge, and incidentally resulted in a decrease in the bias due to intelligence. A conventional approach to bias removal (collapsing across several text content areas) also removed the bias due to prior knowledge, but resulted in greater bias relating to intelligence. Results are interpreted to suggest modifications of current reading comprehension tests and methods of dealing with bias.