A Uniform Test of Mental Performance

Abstract

This tset was developed in response to a long-standing need of instruments for intellectual work performed without the aid of special learnings and skills not presently possessed by literate persons in most modern cultures. It is therefore built of a very limited number of commonplace symbols by which objects of thought and ther reationships can be presented in numerous simple and varied problems of the same general form. Comparative freedom from the mechanics of reading enables the subject to devote his attention almost exclusively to simple items and the relationships by which they form well-knit unified wholes. Each item is an incomplete equation consisting of several digits whose interrelationships are to be indicated by the subject's inserting the proper signs of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division and, in some forms of the test, also a missing digit or the sign of equality. The level of difficulty of an item can be controlled roughly by changes in any or all of the following variables: (1) the total number of components (i.e., digits or symbols of relationship) in each problem, (2) the number of components omitted, (3) the sort of component missing, (4) the form of symbol by which numerical values are indicated (i.e. digits, coded letters, etc.). Equation Completion tests of the following varieties have been printed and administered to college freshmen and to some high school classes.* Each test consists of nearly 300 items of a uniform kind as shown below in Forms 1 to 6. Form of Test Typical Test Item 1. 3= --7+2 . 3=----8 7 2