This is incredible. As others have said the most likely explanation is that people could see the system was intended to dis-incentivise guessing and that this design intent shaped the way they saw the test.
Now I want an exam on “logic and probability” which uses this system. The surprise being that the grading system indicated is in fact a lie. You fail if you put a single “don’t know”. Otherwise you pass with 100%.
(A teacher of mine at school once set us a reading test. It had a big line at the top saying “read this entire test before starting”. Then there were paragraphs of text interpresed with questions about it, “How many people were in the study?”. Right at the end it said “Now you have finished reading, please provide a blank sheet of paper. Do not answer any of the questions.” I was stung.)
This is incredible. As others have said the most likely explanation is that people could see the system was intended to dis-incentivise guessing and that this design intent shaped the way they saw the test.
Now I want an exam on “logic and probability” which uses this system. The surprise being that the grading system indicated is in fact a lie. You fail if you put a single “don’t know”. Otherwise you pass with 100%.
(A teacher of mine at school once set us a reading test. It had a big line at the top saying “read this entire test before starting”. Then there were paragraphs of text interpresed with questions about it, “How many people were in the study?”. Right at the end it said “Now you have finished reading, please provide a blank sheet of paper. Do not answer any of the questions.” I was stung.)