the relationship between eq, iq and test format: a study on test fairness

the major aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between iq, eq and test format in the light of test fairness considerations. this study took this relationship into account to see if people with different eq and iq performed differently on different test formats. to this end, 90 advanced learners of english form college of ferdowsi university of mashhad were chosen. they were asked to complete bar-on’s eq test, the verbal scale of wechsler’s iq test and a reading test which included four test formats (multiple-choice, cloze test, c-test, summary writing) prepared by the researcher. the results of the correlational study indicated that eq correlated positively with performance on c-test. out of its 5 subscales adaptability scales had a positive correlation with performance on multiple-choice, intrapersonal skills correlated positively with performance on c-test and interpersonal skills correlated negatively with performance on summary writing. iq correlated positively with all test formats except multiple-choice. arithmetic subscale of iq also correlated with all test formats. comprehension is related to performance on cloze test and c-test. information correlated with cloze test and vocabulary knowledge (vi) correlated with summary writing. the result of the t-test also demonstrated that the differences of the mean between high and low iq group were statistically significant. the results of the regression equations also revealed that eq scores only predict performance on c-test. out of its subscales, interpersonal skills and adaptability can predict performance on multiple-choice questions, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills predict performance on cloze test, intrapersonal skills predict performance on c-test, and interpersonal skills predict performance on summary writing negatively. on the other hand, iq scores are good predictors of performance on all test formats. arithmetic iq is the only subscale that predicts performance on multiple-choice test format. comprehension and arithmetic sections of iq also predict performance on cloze test, comprehension, arithmetic iq and digit span predict performance on c-test, and arithmetic section of iq and vi predict performance on summary writing test format.