Effects of Examiner Familiarity on LD and MR Students' Language Performance

Abstract

Priar research demonstrates that examiner unfamiliarity negatively affects the test performance of language handicapped students. The present investigation sought to determine whether examiner unfamiliarity also depresses the performance of learning disabled (LD) and mentally retarded (MR) Pupils. Subjects (LD = 8, MR = 8) were tested twice during a period of 3 weeks, once by a familiar examiner and once by an unfamiliar examiner, within a cross-over design. A significant interaction was obtained for examiner familiarity and handicapping condition. Follow-up tests indicated that whereas LD subjects scored higher when tested in the familiar examiner condition, MR subjects scored similarly in the two examiner conditions. Implications for the assessment of handicapped children are discussed.