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Testing and Evaluation

The title of this entry has multiple interpretations, each carrying some truth. Indeed, using testing and humor in the same sentence sounds to many people like an oxymoron. Some might argue that the use of humor on a test can contaminate, or interfere with, what the test is intended to measure because some test takers won't understand the humor. Yet humor can reduce anxiety, thereby reducing another testing contaminant. Claims made for humor used in testing and evaluation include that humor encourages the participants to appreciate and extend the content on which they are being tested, and that it improves test performance by raising self-esteem and reducing anxiety, stress, depression, and loneliness. It also is said to improve the test takers' perception of the person giving the test.

This entry examines the impact of using humor in testing and evaluation, first looking at test-takers' self-report responses about such uses of humor and then briefly considering what the test scores do or don't say about the use of humor in the testing context. It then discusses types of humor and their appropriateness, concluding with guidelines for using humor with tests.

Research on Humor in Tests and Evaluations

Test-Takers' Judgments

Several researchers have investigated test-takers' opinions regarding humor in testing. Most of the test takers were undergraduate students, some were graduate students, and some were high school students. The results were positive and consistent; for example, students rated the humor as humorous and helpful to learning, the instructor and the lesson were rated highly, and anxiety was reduced. Some students found the humor confusing or distracting, but students more often found it amusing, comforting, supportive, and reassuring. In one study, students who had taken an exam that contained humor requested that subsequent exams include humor.

Effect on Test Scores

Despite extremely supportive data on test-taker preferences for and judgments about the use of humor in testing, the research does not provide strong evidence for test score gains as a result of humor. This is not surprising given the limitations of these studies. For example, the use of humor may be decidedly not funny to the participants, leaving the humor treatment impotent for this sample of people. Still, more generally, there is support for using humor in testing as long as guidelines, including those discussed below, are reviewed and carefully considered.

Types of Humor

If all the classifications used to conceptualize humor were joined end-to-end, the collection of conceptualizations would never end. In their 1979 study of humor in the college classroom, Jennings Bryant, Paul Comisky, and Dolf Zillmann identified the types of humor used in lectures as jokes, riddles, puns, funny stories, humorous comments, and other humorous items. Funny stories, funny comments, cartoons, and puns can all be used in a positive way in the classroom or on tests. Sarcasm, ethnic humor, aggressive or hostile humor, and sexual humor are negative forms of humor and are inappropriate for the classroom.

An illustration of an item and variations that use humor: A Speed Bump cartoon by Dave Coverly shows a speech writer advising a man seated at a desk to keep “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” in his speech but to remove “and clowns.” This lead could be supported as a test item with questions such as “Whose speech is being edited?” or “Who used this line about ‘fear itself’ and why?” or as a multiple-choice item with options such as (a) Winston Churchill, (b) Franklin Delano Roosevelt, (c) Herbert Hoover, (d) Bill Cosby, and (e) Big Bird.

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