Analysis of accounting students' performance on multiple-choice examination questions: A cognitive style perspective

Judy S.L. Tsui, Thomas S.C. Lau, Steve C.C. Fong

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study provides further evidence on the influence of cognitive style on students’ problem-solving skills in the presence of ambiguous information. To do this, the performances of 47 accounting students on ten ambiguous multiple-choice questions were evaluated in terms of their field-dependence/independence dimension of cognitive style. Results showed that field-independent students significantly out-performed field-dependent students when their general abilities were controlled for. These results which corroborate previous findings have significant implications for educators in using multiple-choice questions as a form of formal evaluation of student performance. Care should be taken to avoid highly ambiguous wording in multiple-choice questions in order not to disadvantage field-dependent students.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)351-357
Number of pages7
JournalAccounting Education
Volume4
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 1995
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • accounting
  • ambiguity
  • cognitive style
  • field dependence
  • multiple regression
  • multiple-choice examination
  • performance

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