Browsing by Author "Hoogstraten, Joh"

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    Pretesting as determinant of attitude change in evaluation research
    (1979) Hoogstraten, Joh
    Two experiments were done to study the biasing effects of a pretest on subsequent posttest results. The problem of the first experiment was the evaluation of a programmed textbook used by psychology freshmen. It used a separate-sample pretest-posttest design and showed that a pretest containing mostly negative statements on programmed instruction confounded posttest results. The second experiment, using a different treatment, studied the pretest effects of positive or negative statements. The positive version counteracted the development of negative feelings towards the treatment. The negative version did not show a similar sensitizing effect. This was considered a consequence of the rather controversial character of the treatment and the obligatory participation of subjects. The negative statements perhaps confirmed existing attitudes. Three suggestions to control for pretest sensitization effects were given: (1) use research designs with control conditions; (2) separate the pretest phase from the posttest phase; and (3) give more emphasis to designs without pretests.
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    The reactive effect of pretesting in attitude change research: General or specific?
    (1980) Hoogstraten, Joh
    In an earlier study it was found that a pretest containing positive statements counteracted the development of negative feelings toward a treatment. The present experiment sought both to replicate the earlier study and to answer an additional question: Is the biasing effect general or is it restricted to pretest content? Again, it appeared that a positive pretest acts as a device to counteract the development of negative sentiments. The effect size, small in the original experiment, was even smaller in the present experiment. Moreover, it was found that the sensitization effect operated only when the pretest and the posttest were identical. Using dissimilar pretest and posttest measures eliminated the biasing effect.
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    Response tendency in a questionnaire without questions
    (1979) Van Heerden, J.; Hoogstraten, Joh
    In a replication of an earlier study by Berg and Rapaport (1954), a questionnaire with items lacking content and containing merely answer possibilities was administered to 197 Dutch psychology freshmen. Students clearly did not react in accordance with the laws of statistical probability but showed, like Berg and Rapaport’s subjects, a preference for positive options such as yes, true, and satisfied over negative options such as no, false, and dissatisfied. No sex differences or differences due to position of the answer possibilities were found. This result is in contrast with the 1954 findings, because Berg and Rapaport found that option position and subjects’ sex did influence response bias.