Measuring Woodcock-Johnson-5 Test-Taking Behavioral Differences Due to Tap Latency in Tablet Devices on Speed Tasks

Abstract

With the growing use of touchscreen devices in cognitive and academic testing, understanding the impact of tap latency is important for ensuring test fairness, particularly as related to speed tasks. The present study aims to understand how tap latency influences participant test-taking behaviors and performance. Using a counterbalanced within-subjects design, 203 participants aged 5–19 completed three WJ V speeded subtests on both low-latency normative administration devices (i.e., iPads) and Android tablets with an experimentally imposed, noticeable 340-ms tap latency. While the scores achieved across the two different devices were generally consistent, the actual Android scores were significantly higher than scores predicted based solely on latency-related time loss across all tasks, suggesting behavioral compensation from the tap delay. While an argument can be made that scores are comparable and thus acceptable, given tap latency’s behavioral effects and the absence of validated post-hoc score correction models, it is recommended that WJ V speeded tests be conducted on devices with minimal and consistent latency and devices with unknown, variable, or consistently higher than 340-ms tap latency should be used with caution for speeded testing.