Our interest in educational psychology focuses on three issues: academic cheating, effects of prior learning, and alternative testing methods.

1. Academic Cheating
   
   We have examined individual difference predictors of cheating on multiple choice exams and, more recently, on essays (i.e., plagiarism). Among other things, we showed that cheating was more likely in individuals with poor academic preparedness and high subclinical psychopathy (Nathanson, Paulhus, & Williams, 2006; Williams, Nathanson, & Paulhus, 2010).
   
   We have also written a review chapter highlighting the consistent finding that deficits in cognitive ability are predictive of increased academic dishonesty (Paulhus, Nathanson, & Williams, 2004).


2. Paradoxes of Prior Learning
   
   A paradoxical effect in the literature intrigued us: Specifically, students who have taken introductory psychology fare no better and in some samples fare worse than students who have take no prior psychology courses. We showed how that paradox derived from self-selection effects. In fact, introductory courses do benefit students. But students who choose to take introductory psychology tend to be anti-scientific and, therefore, perform poorly in more advance courses (Nathanson, Paulhus, & Williams, Teaching of Psychology, 2004).


3. Alternative Testing Methods
   
   We compared the over-claiming method to evaluating course knowledge is just as valid and less stressful than traditional multiple-choice tests (Williams, Paulhus, & Nathanson, 2004). This research was presented at the 2004 Conry Conference on Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology.
   
   We have applied IRT methods to evaluate items from signal detection data (Williams & Zumbo, 2003).