Parametric complexity of tasks in intelligence tests

 
PIIS020595920012585-9-1
DOI10.31857/S020595920012585-9
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Occupation: Professor, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Psychology, RAS
Affiliation: Institute of Psychology, RAS
Address: Moscow, Yaroslavskaya St., 13
Occupation: Senior Researcher at the Institute of Psychology, RAS
Affiliation: Institute of Psychology, RAS
Address: Yaroslavskaya St., 13
Journal namePsikhologicheskii zhurnal
EditionVolume 41 Issue 6
Pages26-34
Abstract

The article is devoted to the poorly studied problem of the component composition of the complexity of individual test items. The ambiguity and lack of certainty of the concept of “complexity” of the task leads to a confusion of problems in the development and evaluation of psychodiagnostic tools. The article consistently reveals the content of the concept of “complexity” in the framework of various testing theories: The Classical Theory of Mental Tests and The Item Response Theory. The meaning of the concept “complexity” of a task is determined for different types of testing: linear, multistage and adaptive. The article discusses various connotations of the concept of “complexity”. The diversity of complexity characteristics in the framework of complexity science, in various linguistic and cognitive studies is shown. “Complexity” and “difficulty” of the task are close, but not coinciding concepts, and the article attempts to dilute and reformulate them. In this connection, the “complexity” of an individual test item is considered as a construct, the constituent parts of which represent individual parameters. The main parameters of the complexity of the tasks of intelligence tests are described: the number of homogeneous and / or heterogeneous elements of the task, the number of irrelevant elements, the number of rules performed with the elements of the task, the combination of different types of stimulus material, the change in several signs of the elements of the task, the use of different types of answers, time restrictions on task performance, dynamics of variability of conditions, violation of the principles of good shape, “convexity” of elements, number of distractors, non-transitivity of objects, game components in the structure of tasks, use of contexts of varying degrees of concreteness in tasks. Varying the described complexity parameters makes it possible to construct test items with a given probability of a correct answer.

KeywordsCognitive ability, intelligence, psychodiagnostics, the complexity of test items, the difficulty of the task
AcknowledgmentThe research is supported by a grant of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project № 20-013-00495 “Empirical verification of the structural-functional model of the cognitive resource”).
Received13.11.2020
Publication date27.11.2020
Number of characters23070
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