Negation in Stems of Single-Response Multiple-Choice Items: An Overestimation of Student Ability

There is accumulating evidence that negation (e.g., not, except) should be used sparingly or avoided in the stems of multiple-choice items. In these items, examinees are required to select the one alternative that isfalse from among those that are true. The same items can also be given as positively worded multiple-response items in which the student is directed to identify those alternatives that are true. The present study compared the responses of examinees on single-response, negatively worded (SRNW) items and on multiple-response, positively worded (MRPW) items. The experimental design allowed students to respond to both SRNW and MRPW formats that employed identical item alternatives. The findings of this study provide further evidence that the use of negation in stems shouldbe limited and that the SRNW item should often be converted to an MRPW item. This recommendation is based on the inherent cuing (i.e., the artificial elevation of student scores) observed within SRNW items that significantly lowers item reliability and greatly distorts information about examinee performance.