Speed ​​test and level test

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Psychological performance tests can be divided into speed tests (also speed tests or speeded tests ) and level tests (also power tests ) depending on the task at hand .

Speed ​​tests only contain tasks that can be solved by each subject. However, the processing time is set so short that no test person can complete all the tasks. Differences in performance result only from the different processing speeds of the test subjects. A typical example of such a test is test d2 , where the only task is to cross out any "d" that has two dashes above or below it.

Level tests contain tasks of increasing difficulty. This means that each subsequent task is more difficult than the previous one. The test person can work on the tasks until they are too difficult for him to solve. Basically, there is no need to set a time, as not all tasks can be solved even if the time limit is unlimited and the test person has to start guessing. In order to prevent this and not to unnecessarily prolong the test, a generous time limit is often specified, however, which must, however, be large enough for the test person to work on all the tasks that he is able to solve without guessing. A typical example of this is the Ravens Progressive Matrices .

It is not uncommon for both methods to be combined in one test, i.e. tasks with increasing task difficulty and with too little processing time. According to Wilhelm and Schulze (2002), however, these "speeded tests" should be more related to pure speed tests than to level tests.

Another strategy is to first set a short time and determine the number of tasks solved in this time - then let the remaining tasks continue to be processed without time pressure. Comparisons of the performances then allow the conclusion whether the time pressure has an influence on the performance.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Matthias Ziegler, Markus Buhner: Basics of Psychological Diagnostics . Springer VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-531-16710-7 , p. 70–71 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ a b Markus Bühner : Introduction to test and questionnaire construction . 3. Edition. Pearson Studium, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-86894-033-6 , pp.  21 ( limited preview in Google Book search).