For questions about techniques for measuring psychological and neural properties. Includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits, as well as neural structure, organization, activity, and complexity.
15
votes
3answers
682 views
Is the Myer Briggs Type indicator (MBTI) a reasonable scientific theory?
Background:
MBTI stands for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It's a theory that suggests that people can be divided into 16 types, based on the way they percieve and analyse information (whether they make ...
15
votes
1answer
223 views
Do personality survey responses correlate to the success or failure of minimum wage employees?
I recently watched a friend fill out a personality survey for a minimum wage job. These surveys generally have a few dozen to as many as a couple hundred statements with which the applicant must ...
14
votes
1answer
387 views
What is an effective metric of complexity for an Artificial Neural Network?
After asking the question What is the most complex neural network... I realized I don't really have a good metric of "complexity" in a general sense. The simplest measure would likely be count of ...
13
votes
2answers
688 views
How to reliably measure working memory capacity?
The capacity of human working memory is subject to individual differences. The number of items or chunks a person can retain in their memory may, have profound effects on a variety of other cognitive ...
13
votes
2answers
332 views
What is the threshold where actions are perceived as “instant”?
In Human Computer Interaction and User Experience there's some oft repeated rules of performance:
0.1 second is about the limit for having the user feel that the system is reacting ...
12
votes
2answers
3k views
Free online intelligence test with norm table, high reliability, and must be printable?
I am looking for a general intelligence test which meets the following requirements:
available online for free
there is a table which translates "points" to IQ (I don't want a hidden online ...
12
votes
1answer
164 views
Is there a reasonably valid and reliable self-measure of computer literacy?
Measuring computer literacy or skill is important when grouping respondents for usability studies and other Human Computer Interaction studies. But for the life of me I can't find a good, simple but ...
11
votes
3answers
243 views
Is there a better way to describe brain activity than EEG “brain waves”
I've been reading about EEG brain waves, which are specific waveforms that are observed on the EEG output, and are usually scored by humans. This concept has been around for quite some time.
Is there ...
10
votes
1answer
120 views
How to measure dominance and submissiveness?
Introduction
Interpersonal dimensions of personality (Sullivan, 1953) have been described in a circular model, the interpersonal circumplex, since Leary (1957). The two dimensions that define this ...
10
votes
0answers
178 views
Longitudinal mobile mood tracking app with random reminders
The goal is to take simple measurements of mood using Likert scale over an extended period of time (e.g. two months).
I know there is a large number of mobile apps for tracking mood on every ...
9
votes
2answers
702 views
Public domain scientific intelligence test available for use in research
The IPIP is an example of a public domain scientific personality inventory that can be used for research.
Are there any good public domain scientific measures of intelligence?
Requirements
Do ...
9
votes
2answers
223 views
Is it possible to quantify cognitive bias?
We know that bias exists, and that it affects our judgment and perception. This effect has to do with user's experience in life. That experience is taken care of by the brain, and if you counter a ...
9
votes
1answer
174 views
Is there any Personality theory that uses scientific methodology instead of subjective interpretations?
Background
I have come across a number of Personality theories. There are even disciplines of personality theories, dividing these theories according to the assumptions they are based upon. The most ...
9
votes
2answers
130 views
Measuring the adoption of norms
I'm trying to make a survey and I'm having trouble to find a scale to measure the adoption of norms.
The people who fill in the survey have to think about a situation in which they were ashamed. For ...
8
votes
2answers
722 views
What transient factors affect performance on IQ tests?
While performance on intelligence tests aim to measure an underlying relatively stable trait, there are presumably a range of transient factors that could temporarily lower or possibly even raise ...
8
votes
1answer
143 views
Is there a database of emotional stimuli available?
For my research I need to use emotional stimuli to use for habituation to certain emotion.
Are there any databases available (preferably free or not expensive) of non-linguistic stimuli I could use? ...
8
votes
1answer
172 views
How to measure group differences incorporating reaction time / accuracy trade-off?
In a psychological experiment I am measuring subjects' reaction time as well as their error rate. Now I would like to compare two groups (males & females). There might be a bias in the sense that ...
8
votes
1answer
97 views
How to measure well-being without using an extensive questionnaire?
I'm trying to create an iPhone app for music therapy (or other kinds of experimental therapy). Such app would help a music therapist keep track of sessions and evaluate progress. One of the issues ...
8
votes
2answers
242 views
Does Facebook activity predict job performance?
I've seen a little bit of discussion in the media about Facebook being used in selection and recruitment settings.
Assuming an employer can gain access to a person's Facebook profile, have any ...
8
votes
1answer
101 views
What is the support for a global personality factor?
The Big 5 is a popular framework for describing major factors of individual differences in personality. More recently, I've been hearing people talking about the utility of conceptualising personality ...
8
votes
1answer
199 views
What is the test-retest improvement in Block Design test?
Background:
My lab is conducting a research on perceptual training. We train participants on different tasks, and assess them pre- and post- training on a large battery of tests. Obviously, people ...
7
votes
3answers
342 views
How to estimate IQ for public figures?
Background: I read a question on Quora that asked how intelligent is Barack Obama. A wide range of arguments were presented. The tone of the answers was not neutral because of the political context of ...
7
votes
2answers
181 views
Best practice to handle double negatives when using the expectancy-value model?
My question is regarding the multiplicative combination rule in the Expectancy-value model developed by Fishbein and Ajzen, and the issues regarding the expectancy value-muddle, or the case of "double ...
7
votes
1answer
109 views
Method for evaluating how emotionally evocative a question is?
I would like to measure the change in emotional state in response to a question. For example, asking the question, "What is your favorite color?" would be fairly benign; I would not expect any change ...
7
votes
1answer
99 views
How to efficiently locate existing psychology and social science measures?
Whenever I start a new research project, I typically have to find questions and scales that have proven validity in measuring constructs of interest (e.g., psychological / political science / social ...
7
votes
1answer
88 views
Can processing effort for sub-tasks in neural networks be measured?
I often heard statements like:
80% of your brain processing is computing the effect of gravity
or, similarily:
You only use 20% of your brain power
My question isn't about the truth of ...
7
votes
1answer
452 views
Do the Jungian Cognitive Functions/ Processes really exist?
Background
Many of us must have come across personality theories like MBTI which use part of Carl Jung's concepts to make a theoretical system used to divide people into types. For example, MBTI ...
6
votes
1answer
99 views
Why aren't sleep measures consistently measured as mediators/moderators of cognitive performance?
Knowing that sleep quantity and quality affects cognitive performance across many domains, why aren't pre-test sleep measures or intra-test measures of arousal a standard part of all cognitive test ...
6
votes
1answer
185 views
How do responses to Likert type response scales vary across countries and cultures?
I gave an answer here on stats.stackexchange.com about how to analyse ordinal items, such as those on Likert type response scales (e.g., Strongly disagree to Strongly agree).
Someone asked whether ...
6
votes
1answer
70 views
Is there a metric of the overall excitation of the brain or nervous system?
I'm thinking of a way to describe what's happening to a single channel EEG/MEG sensor output. I've noticed that there is significant difference in the readings from a quiet observations, versus a ...
6
votes
1answer
69 views
Whether to ask satisfaction and importance questions for each item in a survey?
Job satisfaction and opinion surveys ask respondents to provide ratings on a set of items. One response scale might be a five point rating scale measuring satisfaction (e.g., 5-point strongly ...
6
votes
0answers
41 views
How to efficiently get a sense of the meaning of a score on a non-aptitude test that you encounter in a journal article?
Context: When reading research articles in psychology, you often encounter new non-aptitude self-report psychological tests (e.g., measures of personality, well-being, psychopathology, learning style, ...
5
votes
3answers
735 views
Are there any standard tests to measure psychopathy?
While looking into another question on how to measure the adoption of norms, I came to wonder whether there are any standard tests to measure psychopathy.
What are the accepted standard tests to ...
5
votes
2answers
108 views
Do humans mentally discretize numbers?
It seems reasonable to me that humans discretize numbers: this number is bigger than than number, or when faced with a series of numbers that range from 0 - 100, 50 is "middling", 10 is "low" and 90 ...
5
votes
1answer
166 views
Measuring changes in hemispheric dominance over time
I've recently started using my trackball left-handed after being right-handed my whole life. The motivation is partly to balance out wrist strain, and partly to see how much my brain rejects the idea.
...
5
votes
2answers
82 views
Summary of meta-analytic correlations between self- and other-report measures
It is well known that the correlation between personality measures obtained from self-ratings and ratings by others are imperfect. There are many different traits that could be rated (e.g., ...
5
votes
2answers
111 views
What is the standard error of measurement for teacher made multiple choice tests?
Assume a teacher constructs a four-choice multiple choice test. Each item has only one correct response. The test is scored from 0 to 100 representing the percentage of items answered correctly.
I ...
5
votes
1answer
69 views
Are there any standard psychometric scales that are only applicable to within-subject designs?
A while ago, I asked the question whether Presence questionnaires are valid in between-subject designs (see the question for the background to this assumption).
While the question garnered some ...
5
votes
1answer
396 views
Which neurotransmitters can be measured in a living human brain?
I'm interested in learning more about the modern techniques that are used for scientific studies of neurotransmitters in the living human brain. As far as I know, there are 4 neuromodulator systems ...
5
votes
1answer
106 views
Measuring meta-intelligence
Does anyone know of any research in measuring metacognitive abilities (i.e. metacomprehension, metamemory, meta-emotions(?), etc) in people? In other words, I'm wondering if the same way we have IQ ...
5
votes
1answer
103 views
What computerized EEG analysis algorithms are there?
I got a commercial-grade EEG headband and am trying to look at the data it outputs. The headband quantifies raw EEG signal from a single forehead dry sensor into a range of EEG bands (alpha, beta, ...
5
votes
1answer
126 views
Can the Go/No-Go Association Task be faked?
Go/No-Go Association task:
The GNAT (pronounced like the bug) is a flexible technique designed to
measure implicit social cognition. Conceptually similar to other
implicit measures like the ...
5
votes
0answers
115 views
Are presence questionnaires valid in a between-subjects design?
Usoh et al. (PDF) applied presence questionnaires (which are usually designed to measure one's feeling of presence in a virtual environment) in both a virtual and a real world environment in a ...
5
votes
0answers
71 views
How to measure student activity, participation, tendency to ask questions, etc?
We would like to compare students from different education systems on the following variables:
tendency to actively participate on lessons
tendency to ask questions
tendency and experience in ...
5
votes
0answers
34 views
What is the state of the art in computerised coding of Thematic Apperception Tests (TATs)?
Thematic Apperception Tests (TATs) involve showing test takers pictures and getting them to write stories based on the pictures. Coding such stories for themes and traits can be complex, ...
4
votes
2answers
213 views
Cheapest way to measure arousal levels
I'm interested in performing a psychological experiment from my own home (the research is controversial; not that it's unethical, but rather I won't be able to aquire funding for it) and in it I would ...
4
votes
1answer
202 views
Reducing adverse impact, discrimination and unfairness when using psychological assessments for selection purposes
How can we reduce adverse impacts such as bias, discrimination, and unfairness when using cognitive ability tests and personality tests for selection purposes in an international context?
4
votes
1answer
29 views
Relationship between cognitive load and self-indulgent behavior in simple task completion
Background
A subject in an office-building setting is asked to memorize a list of numbers and to write them down on a whiteboard in another room on the opposite side of the building.
The subject ...
4
votes
1answer
47 views
Why different responses to target and distractor in three-stimulus oddball procedure?
In the three-stimulus oddball procedure, there is an infrequent target in a background of frequently occurring standard stimuli and infrequently occurring distracter stimuli. My question is, since the ...
3
votes
2answers
284 views
How to measure emotional intensity?
This is a follow-up question to: Do people feel emotions less strongly as they grow older?
Basically - I'm wondering - has anyone ever made an empirical measurement of how strongly someone felt ...
