There are several parallels between the acquisition of expert performance and the learning by students in high school and college courses. High school and college course experience includes prolonged, intensive practice on learning skills and knowledge in math and verbal related subjects, with the opportunity to receive feedback on learning progress through learning assessments. Students who continue on to higher education typically complete standardized tests aimed at measuring their reasoning performance in math and verbal related skills. The current work aimed to measure the relationship between completed courses relevant to the content appearing on standardized tests and the performance on those tests. This study has adopted the expert performance approach to examine the association between particular completed courses and SAT and GRE performance while increasing the precision of those estimates. Knowledge from research on different types of practice and statistical techniques aimed at addressing measurement issues from previous studies were utilized to obtain optimal estimates. The previous research has indicated positive associations between taking additional relevant courses, and engaging in additional effort to master learning in completed courses, on SAT and GRE performance. Additionally, a notable gender gap has been identified on standardized tests, with males scoring higher than females on math section performance. However, there has been a large degree of variation in the adequacy of measures of previous performance and no existing study has attempted to address bias in estimates related to issues of self-selection. In the current work, two studies were performed to attempt to optimally measure the size of the effects for the association between course taking and standardized test performance. In Study 1, the statistical techniques of hierarchical regression, two-stage least squares regression, and mixed modeling were used on the HSLS:09 dataset to obtain estimates of course taking and grade performance on the SAT-Math and SAT-Verbal. In Study 2, the techniques of hierarchical regression, propensity score matching, and quantile regression analyses were performed on a novel college sample to estimate the role of course taking, effort, and previous performance on the association between completed college major and changes in GRE-Quant and GRE-Verbal performance. Additionally, a secondary focus of examining the potential causes of the large gender gap in GRE-Quant performance was undertaken in Study 2. The results of Study 1 and Study 2 indicated support for engaging in a challenging course curriculum and maximizing effort in completed courses to optimize the benefit of course experience on standardized assessments. Evidence emerged for a unique benefit for completing courses including learning skills at a level higher than the level of content being tested directly on the SAT and GRE. The gender gap in math performance was substantially smaller when controlling for previous performance and differences in course taking. Each of these results are discussed in terms of their implication for how students may utilize course experiences to maximize their score on standardized tests and benefit from insights from studies of purposeful and deliberate practice mediating the acquisition of expert performance. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 11, 2017. / Delliberate Practice, Educational Psychology, Higher Education, Psychology, Standardized Testing / Includes bibliographical references. / Karl A. Ericsson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Elizabeth M. Jakubowski, University Representative; Richard K. Wagner, Committee Member; Colleen M. Kelley, Committee Member; Colleen M. Ganley, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_552340 |
| Contributors | Tock, Jamie Lindal (authoraut), Ericsson, K. Anders (Karl Anders), 1947- (professor directing dissertation), Jakubowski, Elizabeth M. (university representative), Wagner, Richard K. (committee member), Kelley, Colleen M. (committee member), Ganley, Colleen M. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Psychology (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (142 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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