Harker, J. K., & Feldt, L. S. (1993). A comparison of achievement test performance of nondisabled students under silent reading and reading plus listening modes of administration . Applied Measurement in Education , 6 (4), 307–320. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324818ame0604_4

Two conditions were compared: students silently read the test; students silently read the test while listening to an audio recording of the test being read to them. Each student participated in both conditions.

A total of 177 students were selected from five Iowa schools (grade 9, n=114; grade 10, n=63). Students with learning disabilities—and all other students receiving special education services—were excluded from the sample.

The Iowa Test of Educational Development was administered, with several subtests scored: social studies reading, interpretation of literary materials, vocabulary, and use of sources of information.

Performance with the taped administration was significantly higher than the 'read silently' group (0.7 standard score point). This effect was greater for the Interpret Literary Materials test while no difference was found with Vocabulary. For the Social Studies and Use of Sources of Information subtests, the effect of a taped administration interacted with student reading level (it improved performance for low and middle readers). Correlations were high among the subtests across the two types of administration.