Faster ≠ Smarter : Children with Higher Levels of Ability Take Longer to Give Incorrect Answers, Especially When the Task Matches Their Ability

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F23%3A00130524" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/23:00130524 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/11/4/63" target="_blank" >https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/11/4/63</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11040063" target="_blank" >10.3390/jintelligence11040063</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Faster ≠ Smarter : Children with Higher Levels of Ability Take Longer to Give Incorrect Answers, Especially When the Task Matches Their Ability

Original language description

The stereotype that children who are more able solve tasks quicker than their less capable peers exists both in and outside education. The F &gt; C phenomenon and the distance–difficulty hypothesis offer alternative explanations of the time needed to complete a task; the former by the response correctness and the latter by the relative difference between the difficulty of the task and the ability of the examinee. To test these alternative explanations, we extracted IRT-based ability estimates and task difficulties from a sample of 514 children, 53% girls, M(age) = 10.3 years; who answered 29 Piagetian balance beam tasks. We used the answer correctness and task difficulty as predictors in multilevel regression models when controlling for children’s ability levels. Our results challenge the ‘faster equals smarter’ stereotype. We show that ability levels predict the time needed to solve a task when the task is solved incorrectly, though only with moderately and highly difficult items. Moreover, children with higher ability levels take longer to answer items incorrectly, and tasks equal to children’s ability levels take more time than very easy or difficult tasks. We conclude that the relationship between ability, task difficulty, and answer correctness is complex, and warn education professionals against basing their professional judgment on students’ quickness.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50100 - Psychology and cognitive sciences

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of Intelligence

ISSN

2079-3200

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

11

Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

CH - SWITZERLAND

Number of pages

19

Pages from-to

1-19

UT code for WoS article

000979379200001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85153719302