HPE Reports: Affects of Being Misinformed

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EFFECTS OF BEING MISINFORMED

It is commonly accepted that people behave in accordance with their knowledge. If a person is extremely sure of the correctness of wrong answers, then decisions and behavior which rely on this misinformation will likewise be in error.

On common multiple choice tests, a wrong answer is taken to mean that the person is uninformed and simply does not know the correct answer. But sometimes the person is misinformed, and is extremely sure that the wrong answer they selected is correct. However, the distinction between being uninformed and being misinformed is not considered in the common multiple choice test which allows misinformation to remain hidden.

How would you feel if:

	wrong information lowered your grade in school
	wrong information caused an injury to a friend
	wrong information cost you money

SACAT - the new testing method,
detects wrong information!
It can help make your life better!

There is no reliable data available regarding the prevalence of misinformation or its destructive effects. In SACAT tests in introductory university classes 3-10% misinformation has been found. Others have reported that well-trained employees on average proved to be misinformed on one out of every five problems, and they indicate similar results are showing up for fourth- and fifth-grade pupils.

The computer analysis of SACAT answer sheets detects and identifies test items which indicate misinformation. This allows instructors to allocate attention to remedying otherwise hidden impediments to learning and performance.

The analysis also identifies misinformation for individual test takers. When assigning personnel to various tasks, SACAT results allow managers to consider the possibility that specific misinformation will produce errors in the performance of specific tasks by specific individuals. On the other hand, the test results allow the selection of people for critical jobs who are most accurate in their certainty about the knowledge necessary to make the correct decisions and perform correctly.

"Beware of false knowledge, it is more dangerous than ignorance."
- George Bernard Shaw