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When people used to have fax numbers, it was quite common to dial the wrong number – the fax number was a plausible distractor on their business card
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When people used to have fax numbers, it was quite common to dial the wrong number – the fax number was a plausible distractor on their business card
Most literacy tests involve a text, and some questions about it. Some of their test items include traps for the unwary, known as plausible distractors.
At the simplest level the questions just require people to locate some information. If the document was an insurance letter, for example, the test question might be “when does your policy start?”.
My own insurance company, Direct Line, included this statement on the letter they sent me last year:
This is great – there is a direct match between the literacy test question, and the document, and I should have no trouble.
But if the insurance letter looked like the (fictional) one below, that same question is not so straightforward.
Now there are five different dates in view, and none of them say ‘start date’ or even ‘commencement’ (inception = start in insurance-speak).
The four wrong dates are plausible distractors that could lead me in the wrong direction.
The tasks set by literacy testers are a great source of insight about what researchers have found out about what is challenging for readers.
Evetts, J., & Gauthier, M. (2005). Literacy Task Assessment Guide. National Literacy Secretariat, Canada.
Kirsch, I. (2001). The international adult literacy survey (IALS): Understanding what was measured (ETS Research Report RR-01-25). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.