DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF THE NORTH CAROLINA PICTORIAL ORAL DRIVER LICENSE EXAMINATIONS

A need was identified for developing new driver license knowledge tests for use with applicants unable to read well enough to take the written version of the test. The new pictorial oral exams were based to a large extent on the efforts that had previously gone into the development of new written test for North Carolina. However, each item was presented pictorially with the driver license examiner explaining the question and the answer choices to the applicants. There was considerable input from driver license examiners as well as others in the development of the pictorial items. The new tests were introduced statewide in December of 1974, and speical data were collected from the field in January of 1975. Information on renewal applicants was linked to their prior driver records, and a variety of psychometric analyses were performed. Two final versions of the test are recommended, From Alpha and Form Beta. These two tests have been equated for predicted overall difficulty level and for predicted item- total test performance. In addition, they each cover the same number of situational, procedural, and administrative questions. The order of items is the same for the different types of questions except for minor variations that were allowed in order to place unusually easy items at strategic points. Thus, for each version of the test the first, third, and final items are particularly easy. The two recommended versions of the test should provide two parallel driver license examinations that have meaningful relationships to driver records of applicants who do not read well enough to take the written tests. Ideally, these two new test forms should be field tested to insure that they indeed perform as well as would be anticipated on the basis of the present analysis.

• Corporate Authors:

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  Highway Safety Research Center
  Chapel Hill, NC  United States  27599
• Authors:
  • Waller, P F
  • Hall, R G
  • Lowery, H A
  • NATHAN, LBG
• Publication Date: 1976-3

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 43 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Driver records; Drivers; Driving tests; Human characteristics; Illiterates; Reliability
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver characteristics; Driver license renewal
• Old TRIS Terms: Psychrometrics
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00134748
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 23 1976 12:00AM