Commentary:
Low-Confidence Responses on the Vocabulary Size Test
T. P. Hutchinson
Centre for Automotive Safety Research, University of Adelaide
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7820/vli.v04.2.hutchinson
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Abstract
McDonald and Asaba (Vocabulary Learning and Instruction, 2015)
reported an administration of the Vocabulary Size Test that was modified
to include ‘‘I don’t know’’ as a fifth response option on all items, and in
which participants later responded to the items originally marked as ‘‘I
don’t know’’. McDonald and Asaba were inclined to favour the score
calculated without the later (reluctant or low-confidence) responses. It is
argued here that this goes beyond the data. In many educational contexts,
strong encouragement is given to respond when unsure, as examinees to
have a better-than-chance probability of being correct, and will be
disadvantaged if they do not respond.

Citation
Hutchinson, T. (2015). Low-Confidence Responses on the Vocabulary Size Test. Vocabulary Learning and Instruction, 4 (2), 49-51. doi: 10.7820/vli.v04.2.hutchinson