Does Rapid Guessing Prevent the Detection of the Effect of a Time Limit in Testing?

Abstract

Rapid guessing is a test taking strategy recommended for increasing the probability of achieving a high score if a time limit prevents an examinee from responding to all items of a scale. The strategy requires responding quickly and without cognitively processing item details. Although there may be no omitted responses after participants' rapid guessing, an open question remains: do the data show unidimensionality, as is expected for data collected by a scale, or bi-dimensionality characterizing data collected with a time limit in testing, speeded data. To answer this question, we simulated speeded and rapid guessing data and performed confirmatory factor analysis using one-factor and two-factor models. The results revealed that speededness was detectable despite the presence of rapid guessing. However, detection may depend on the number of response options for a given set of items.

Keywords

• rapid guessing
• test taking behavior
• speededness
• effect of a time limit in testing
• confirmatory factor analysis
• fixed-links model