[RUME] "Blanking" on tests: any research on this phenomenon?

[Andy Bennett]

Actually, this discussion started out with what is known about "blanking"
on exams. While there has been some theorizing about math anxiety and
doing the homework with examples in hand, there has been little said about
actual work on blanking. I have a little different perspective because
while I was always very successful in math classes, didn't just work
problems by rote, and haven't suffered from math anxiety, many years ago
in Calculus 1 I "blanked" on an exam. I wrote down answers thinking I had
things correct, but I recall feeling funny afterward. I was shocked when I
saw I'd failed the exam. A friend saw my paper and asked how I could have
missed problem 2 which he thought was exceptionally easy. And suddenly the
fog lifted and I could do every problem correctly (if a little late).
Fortunately I had strong A's on all the other exams and ended up with an A
in the course (it didn't hurt that my score on that one exam was so low
the professor thought of it as an outlier). I've been teaching for over 20
years now and still remember the strange feeling of that exam. So while
I'm sure that poor studying is usually the cause of my students problems,
I think "blanking" is also probably a real phenomenon and should be
immediately dismissed as just a consequence of bad habits.

Andrew G. Bennett         Voice:  (785) 532-0562
Dept. of Mathematics      Fax:    (785) 532-0546
Kansas State University   Email:  bennett at math.ksu.edu
Manhattan, KS 66506       Web:    www.math.ksu.edu/~bennett