Performance on Multiple Choice Tests and Penalty for Guessing
Two multiple-choice achievement tests were administered to 102 undergraduates, fifty-three males and forty-nine females, under conditions of penalty vs. no penalty for guessing as part of regular evaluation in a course. A three-way (intelligence, penalty for guessing, and sex) multivariate analysis of variance, involving rights, wrongs, and omissions, indicated only two main effects (intelligence and penalty for guessing) to have significant (p ^ .05) influence on performance. The penalty for guessing resulted in highly (p < .001) signif icant a. ) decrease in rights, b. ) increase in wrongs, and c. ) increase in omissions. Penalty for guessing effectively controlled risk-taking tendency only when the material was difficult.