Answering Reading Comprehension Items without Passages on the Sat when Items are Quasi-Randomized

Abstract

Recent research has demonstrated that many SAT Reading Comprehension items can be answered without the passages accompanying them. One reason may be that examinees use information from other items ("cognates") belonging to the same passage. In this study such information was made virtually inaccessible by dispersing cognates among other reading comprehension items. Overall examinee performance was well above chance and unaffected by this procedure, although performance was enhanced or diminished in about one of four items. The results suggest that, without the passage, examinees correctly answer items by employing outside knowledge and testing skills that are largely independent of information provided by cognates.