Tova Stenlund

I have a PhD in Measurement in the behavioural science, and is Associate professor/docent of psychology. My research interest lie in the field of educational psychology and cognitive psychology, with a particular focus on validity in test and assessment results, test-taking behaviour, and effects of repeated testing on memory and learning.

I am currently involved in three different research projects. The most recent research project is called "Perspective taking ability in future police officers: effects of training and professional practice". This project has a longitudinal design, and aims at investigating whether perspective taking (as a part of empathy) and attitudes (towards the police profession) of future police officers change during their education and professional practice. The second aims at investigating test-taker perceptions of and test-taking behavior on large-scale educational tests, and how variables like perceived importance of the test, anxiety and other test-taking strategies, such as testwiseness and risk-taking, interacts with test characteristics and test performance. More precisely, the project aims at investigating the effect of construct-irrelevant variables on achievement test performance. The third research project, Learning to engage the brain, focus on examining the so called testing effect, which has been identified as a highly potent means of strengthening memory and learning. One specific aim of this project is to investigate the relations between repeated testing (i.e. the testing effect), personality and cognitive proficiency.