Concept comparisons, essay examinations, and conceptual knowledge.

Investigated the concept comparison task as a means of assessing knowledge of concept interrelationships. The task involves making a comparative judgment in the form of a rating on each pair of a set of concept labels. In the present study, the judgment involved the strength of relationship between members of pairs of concepts. The relationship between performance on the concept comparison task and essay test performance was examined. Exp I, with 64 undergraduates, considered the relationship between 3 types of essay questions (definition, application, and comparison) and measures derived from the concept comparison task. Materials used for the concept comparison task and essay tests were taken from the perception component of an introductory psychology course. A canonical correlation analysis indicated a fairly strong relationship between essay performance and performance on the concept comparison task. Regression analysis was used to investigate specific aspects of the relationship. Exp II used 67 different Ss and a different set of concepts (memory). It is concluded that the concept comparison task does assess conceptual knowledge in a nontrivial way. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)