Table of Contents
Abstract
The purpose of this particular proposed research study is to investigate if composing tests with humorous questions aided in lowering student’s test anxiety and also improved their test performance. The participants of this study will be enrolled at University of West Florida and recruited from undergraduate and graduate courses, taken both during the day and evening. A total of 256 participants will be studied, and there will be a total of sixteen clusters. Each cluster will contain eight students in the control group and eight students in the experimental group.
The students will be administered a test with humor incorporated throughout in the form of three different types of item formats: constructed-response questions, matching, and multiple-choice questions. Their performance on this test will be compared to their performance on a previous test lacking humorous test items, reveling the ultimate impact of integrating the comical items. The result of this proposed study will be useful in uncovering the usefulness of using humor in test items to lessen student’s test anxiety while also improving their overall performance.
Keywords: test anxiety, questionnaire, constructed-response, test anxiety, validity, reliability
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A Research Proposal
There has been an abundant amount of research conducted on using humorous approaches to learning in the classroom. This is considered to be beneficial in the classroom because it increases social bonding between the instructor and students, escalates recall and retention, and also enhances the comprehension, knowledge, and the application of that knowledge. But, does using humor in test formats increase test performance and lower test anxiety? This particular proposed study seeks to understand something much less studied. This analysis will examine if transferring that usage into the form of test items will lower students’ testing anxiety and also progress their test performance.
Although several past studies, for example the research conducted by Berk and Nanda (2006) resulted in the conclusion that using humorous items and directions in test formats did not have any significant effect on test anxiety or test performance. The current proposed study pursues to examine the same ultimate question: is it worthwhile to try this humorous approach? One problem encountered is including the right amount, and type, of humor in test formats. If too much humor is involved, or if it is used in an inappropriate manner, it can be distracted to students.
The correct balance between serious questions and humorous questions must be at the perfect amount. Inserting humor into the test items does not aim to, and should not, distract the test-taker. The goal of incorporating numerous items is to relieve the students of anxiety, ultimately resulting in enhanced test performance. If a student is able to stay composed and collected with the benefit of humorous test items, then it is very crucial to further validate the theory that doing so does indeed have these results.
There are two research domains that exist in which evidence has been collected to determine the value of humor in testing. The first domain being the psychological and physiological effects on humor, and the second is the effects of humor in testing. There is probably no other time throughout the semester when those negative emotions and feelings are at their peak than in students; minds and bodies as in the first thirty to forty-five minutes of an exam.
The present proposed study seeks to unearth what can be done to make the testing experience more comfortable and impacting for students; considering and understanding the psychophysiological evidence behind humor in testing is imperative. The psychological function of humor is detachment noted by Kline (1907). In the testing situation, the form of detachment is being used as an adaptive coping mechanism.
Researches have indicated that the use of humor in test items produces a cognitive shift of perspective (Dixon et al. 1980; Kulman et al. 1984; O’Connell et al. 1976) that allows students to distance themselves from the immediate threat at hand – the test. The humor in the test promotes an objectivity that shields the negative responses, as reported Galloway & Cropley (1999), as well as provides a sense of empowerment over the testing situation that can increase students mental functioning and performance.
To further add to the discussion, when humor permits students to deal more effectively with an adverse experience, such as an exam, the physical response is usually laughter in some form. (e.g. giggling, smiling, chuckling) (Kuhn, 1994, p. 34). Laughter translates into physiological effects throughout the students’ body, in turn, decreasing the amount of stress hormones.
As mentioned previously, many studies have taken place examining the effects of teaching with humor, but there is scare evidence off the effects of humor in test items. Many preceding studies show restricted focus and conditions in the research. However, a study conducted by Ronald Berk (2000) added to the literature in more constructive and focused ways. He commissioned a study once every year for six years where he examined the effects of humor in test questions.
His results of this expansive study showed that implementing humor in test items decreased students test anxiety and also improved their overall test performance. A total of 256 students partook in the studies over the six years, all from John Hopkins University, being both undergraduate and graduate students. Unlike previous studies where most students participating were strictly undergraduate students enrolled in psychology courses, Berk expanded this pool and studied both day and evening statistics classes.
As aforementioned, implementing the appropriate amount of humor is a challenge. In Berk’s study he discussed ways to properly adopt the strategy of using humor in tests. For professors who want to adopt the strategy of using humor in their test items, there is no step-by-step guidelines on how to use it suitably. Inappropriate usage of humor can be distracting or offensive.
Berk suggests some steps that will help to generate a basic understanding of how to apply the approach most efficiently. He proposed that the first step is to construct a completely boring and serious test. After this is done, the next step is to insert humor as an “add-on,” doing this ensures the addition of humor in no way effects the structural integrity, reliability, or validity of any item on the total score. The easiest way to do this is by adding humorous distractors to several items.
For example, adding “E” as a choice to a standard multiple-choice question with normal choices being “A-D” that is obviously outrageous helps the students to plow through. An advantage of this strategy is that added distractors demand no major upsurge in reading time. Berk also recommends to provide a disclaimer in the directions of the humor-infused test, clarifying to students the items are meant to aid in stress reduction and are not to be chosen as answers.
The second strategy used to integrate humor is for professors to compose a 50-iten test, inserting an added five humorous items, one after each ten serious items. These five additional humorous items would not be counted in the total score in order to retain the validity and reliability of the test. These added humorous items can be irrelevant or even have no correct “real” answer. Berk mentions as well to include a disclaimer in the directions of the humorous test. In my current proposed study, the strategies Berk suggested would be applied.
Method
Participants
I will recruit a total of 16 different samples of students. Each cluster sampled will consist of a total of eight students in the experimental group, and eight students in the control group (N=256). Every student participating in the study will be enrolled both full-time and part-time at the University level. Participants will be both undergraduate and graduate students, including those enrolled in evening classes. These participants will be collected through the Psychology Research Pool and the University of West Florida. The participants will all complete a 55-item, humor-infused, test along with an effectiveness evaluation of the strategy which will be done anonymously.
Test Construction
Humor will be put into the content of three different item formats: context-dependent multiple-choice, matching, and constructed-response problem solving. The test will contain 55-tems total. 50 of the items will be serious questions with no humor infused. Out of the remaining five humorous questions, one will be inserted after every ten serious questions. The five humorous items will be variations of multiple choice, matching, or problem-solving questions.
I will also administer the Humor Effectiveness Evaluation developed for a previous study of humor strategies (Berk et al., 1996; Berk and Nanda, 1998), to students in the experimental group after they have completed their final exam. Participants will complete this evaluation anonymously and I will gather and seal the finished evaluations to preserve confidentiality pending final grade submissions.
In order to have their ratings reflect the overall impact of the humor on their anxiety and performance, they will rate the effectiveness of the strategy by choosing between two outcomes: “reduced your anxiety on the exam.” and “helped you perform your best on the exam.” The students’ views of value will be determined by their rate on a scale of ineffective, somewhat effective, moderately effective, very effective, and extremely effective. The participating students will not be required to rate the effectiveness of the humor in the varied item formats.
Statistical Analysis
The humorous test that the students take will be used to determine the effectiveness of the humorous items by comparing them to the previous test scores of non-humorous exams, as well as a comparison of the overall scores to the overall scores of the control group that received no humorous items on their test. The total average for the non-humorous test will also be compared to the total average of past non-humorous tests taken by the experimental group previous to the conduction of this study. The Humor Effectiveness Evaluation will be analyzed by computing median rating for the anxiety and performance outcomes or criteria.
Anticipated Results
Upon dissection of previous studies, I confidently conclude that the results of this proposed research will yield a positive correlation between humorous test items and the reduction of test anxiety, as well as the increase in overall test performance. I anticipate this study to be exceptionally reliable and valid because of the diverse pool of students, in addition to the number of students being studied.
The empirical research on the effects of humor in testing has been critically reviewed by McMorris, Boothroyd, and Pietrangelo (1997). They found only nine investigations of humor in college testing. All were conducted with students enrolled in undergraduate psychology classes. Seven used humor in multiple-choice items (one study included short-answer items); one used anagrams with cartoons, and one integrated humor in written dialogue between therapist and client.
McMorris et al. determined that these studies did not provide sufficient evidence for using humor in exams as a method for reducing anxiety and stress and improving performance. Merely the research by Smith et al. (1971) and Hedl, Hedl, and Weaver (1981) reported positive effects of humor on anxiety and stress reduction, respectively. Bearing in mind the confines of many of the investigations and the intricacy of measuring interactions between humor in tests and other variables. The evident lack of supportive literature proves just how necessary it is to conduct more research on using humor in test formats.
Conclusion
After evaluating the existing research and approaches to incorporating humor into test items, how can the question whether or not humor is effective in test items be answered? One way is to simply say, “yes, humor reduces anxiety and improve performance.” The research based on student perceptions pungently suggests that humor is effective. But when proper measures of anxiety, stress, and achievement are used as dependent variables, the effects are not so definitive. (Berk 2000.)
There is a blatant need for well-designed studies of the effectiveness of humor in a variation of items and test formats. Maybe one restriction to previous efforts has been the deficiency of sources that explain how to use the humor in tests fittingly. I hope that the proposed research I’m suggesting will aid in correcting the current insufficiency and enable both upcoming applications of humor and the investigation on their effectiveness
