Contrary to previous research on sequential ratings of student performance, this study found that professional essay raters of a large-scale standardized testing program produced ratings that were drawn toward previous ratings, creating an assimilation effect. Longer intervals between the two adjacent ratings and higher degree of agreement with other raters were associated with smaller assimilation effects. The effect was also found to create a small bias in favor of low-achieving groups of examinees.
Ariely, D., Loewenstein, G., & Prelec, D. ( 2003). Coherent arbitrariness: Stable demand curves without stable preferences. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118, 73-105.
2.
Braun, H.I. ( 1988). Understanding scoring reliability: Experiments in calibrating essay readers. Journal of Educational Statistics, 13, 1-18.
3.
Brown, D.R. ( 1953). Stimulus-similarity and the anchoring of subjective scales . American Journal of Psychology, 66, 199-214.
4.
Cohen, J. ( 1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
5.
Daly, J.A., & Dickson-Markman, F. (1982). Contrast effects in evaluating essays. Journal of Educational Measurement, 19, 309-316.
6.
Damisch, L., Mussweiler, T., & Plessner, H. ( 2006). Olympic medals as fruits of comparison? Assimilation and contrast in sequential performance judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 12, 166-178.
7.
Festinger, L. ( 1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117-140.
8.
Geiselman, R.E., Haight, N.A., & Kimata, L.G. ( 1984). Context effects on the perceived attractiveness of faces . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 20, 409-424.
9.
Hales, L.W., & Tokar, E. ( 1975). The effect of the quality of preceding responses on the grades assigned to subsequent responses to an essay question. Journal of Educational Measurement, 12, 115-117.
10.
Hughes, D.C., & Keeling, B. ( 1984). The use of model essays to reduce context effects in essay scoring. Journal of Educational Measurement, 21, 277-281.
11.
Hughes, D.C., Keeling, B., & Tuck, B.F. ( 1980a). Essay marking and the context problem. Educational Research, 22, 147-148.
12.
Hughes, D.C., Keeling, B., & Tuck, B.F. ( 1980b). The influence of context position and scoring method on essay scoring. Journal of Educational Measurement, 17, 131-135.
13.
Hughes, D.C., Keeling, B., & Tuck, B.F. ( 1983). The effects of instructions to scorers intended to reduce context effects in essay scoring. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 43, 1047-1050.
14.
King, M.C., & Lockhead, G.R. (1981). Response scales and sequential effects in judgment. Perception & Psychophysics, 30, 599-603.
15.
Krantz, D.L., & Campbell, D.T. (1961). Separating perceptual and linguistic effects upon absolute judgment. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, 35-42.
16.
Lunz, M.E., Wright, B.D., & Linacre, J.M. ( 1990). Measuring the impact of judge severity on examination scores. Applied Measurement in Education, 3, 331-345.
17.
Martin, L.L., Seta, J.J., & Crelia, R.A. ( 1990). Assimilation and contrast as a function of people’s willingness and ability to expend effort in forming an impression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 27-37.
18.
Mellers, B.A. ( 1986). "Fair" allocations of salaries and taxes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 12, 80-91.
19.
Mussweiler, T. ( 2003). Comparison processes in social judgment: Mechanisms and consequences. Psychological Review, 110, 472-489.
20.
Parducci, A., & Marshall, L. ( 1962). Assimilation versus contrast effects of anchoring stimuli on judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 426-437.
21.
Parducci, A., Perrett, D.S., & March, H.W. ( 1969). Assimilation and contrast as range-frequency effects of anchors. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 81, 281-288.
22.
Pelham, B.W., & Wachsmuth, J.O. (1995). The waxing and waning of the social self: Assimilation and contrast in social comparison. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 825-838.
23.
Sherif, M., & Hovland, C.I. ( 1961). Social judgment: Assimilation and contrast effects in communication and attitude change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
24.
Sherif, M., Taub, D., & Hovland, C.I. ( 1958). Assimilation and contrast effects of anchoring stimuli on judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55, 150-155.
25.
Spear, M. ( 1997). The influence of contrast effects upon teachers’ marks. Educational Research, 39, 229-233.
26.
Stalnaker, J.M. ( 1936). The problem of the English examination. Educational Record, 17, 41.
27.
Wedell, D.H., & Parducci, A. ( 1988). The category effect in social judgment: Experimental ratings of happiness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 55, 341-356.
28.
Wedell, D.H., Parducci, A., & Geiselman, R.E. (1987). A formal analysis of ratings of physical attractiveness: Successive contrast and simultaneous assimilation . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 23, 230-249.
