Reassurance seeking and spoiled answers on academic tests

Author ORCID Identifier

David Valentiner:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2016-5534

Alexia Kingzette:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2010-8065

Publication Title

Anxiety, Stress and Coping

ISSN

10615806

E-ISSN

14772205

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Background: The current study examined whether test-related reassurance seeking is associated with lower scores on a high stakes, standardized test (i.e., the ACT) after controlling for academic performance in high school, and with spoiled answers (i.e., changing correct answers to incorrect) on a subsequent academic exam. Method: Students (N = 59) completed measures of test-related reassurance seeking behavior, other test anxiety-related constructs, and social anxiety-related constructs prior to taking the last in-class exam in their introductory psychology courses. Erasure marks on the bubble answer sheets were inspected to identify the number of spoiled answers. Results: Replicating results from a prior study, reassurance seeking predicted underperformance on the ACT. In addition, reassurance seeking predicted the number of spoiled answers on the in-class exam. Reassurance seeking did not predict irrelevant changes or corrections. Conclusions: Overall, these results provide additional evidence that test-related reassurance seeking is associated with performance on academic tests, and novel evidence that test-related reassurance seeking is associated with spoiling answers.

First Page

560

Last Page

568

Publication Date

5-13-2020

DOI

10.1080/10615806.2020.1763140

PubMed ID

32401041

Keywords

reassurance seeking, safety behaviors, spoiled answers, Test anxiety

Department

Department of Psychology

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS