Easy and Informative: Using Confidence-Weighted True–False Items for Knowledge Tests in Psychology Courses

Abstract

We introduce a specific type of item for knowledge tests, confidence-weighted true–false (CTF) items, and review experiences of its application in psychology courses. A CTF item is a statement about the learning content to which students respond whether the statement is true or false, and they rate their confidence level. Previous studies using CTF items were reviewed and data from 21 additional psychology courses ( N = 1879 teacher candidates) revealed that CTF items were successfully applied to measure learning performance at the cognitive and metacognitive level. Furthermore, examples are presented demonstrating that the indices of metacognitive monitoring that can be derived from these items provide useful additional information about the effects of teaching and testing methods.