Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L. S. (1986). Test procedure bias: A meta-analysis of examiner familiarity effects . Review of Educational Research , 56 (2), 243–262. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543056002243

Also downloadable from JSTOR webpage: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1170377

The effects of examiner familiarity on test performance were examined in this meta-analysis.

Data from 1,489 students were drawn from 22 studies in this meta-analysis. Thirty-two percent of the participants were male and 30% were female. Participants included students with and without disabilities selected from a variety of grade levels.

Educational achievement, IQ, speech/language tests, as well as experimental tasks meant to simulate test items found on such measures were used to study the effect of the accommodation.

Across up to 22 studies, examinees scored higher when tested by familiar, rather than unfamiliar, examiners. The effect of examiner familiarity raised test performance by 0.28 standard deviations on average. Differential performance favoring the familiar examiner condition was greater for participants who were of low socioeconomic status (SES), were tested on relatively difficult tests, and were acquainted with the examiner for a comparatively long period of time.