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Firstly, this project illustrates nicely how the action steps logic is actually "translated"
into a concrete thematic action flow. The underlying plot — planning a trip and a family
reunion — constitutes a very typical everyday-type of action that presumably a large
majority of people in different countries will be able to relate to. The action steps
themselves and their sequence can deviate from the normative complete action model,
as is the case here. The normative model is used as a guideline that is adapted to each
specific context. In this case, for example, the task "Consider your relatives' suggestions
for the hike" corresponds approximately to the action step "analyze the situation", the
task "Plan what needs to be done before booking your flight" corresponds to the action
step "plan the solution", and "Book your flight" is a typical example for the action step
"execute the plan".
The example task gives a first indication of item structures and formats.
The tasks typically start off with a short introduction to the situation, followed
by varying
types and amounts of information that need to be worked through. In the example
task, in order to set the date for the family reunion, the respondent needs to
process, compare and integrate the information provided in the list of the
relatives' appointments,
including the addendum to this list, and their own appointment calendar. Here
the information is mostly textual and in form of tables. The answer format
is a multiple-choice
format with more than one correct response alternatives, although the number
of
correct response alternative is not specified.
4.3 General item description and response formats
This section gives an overview of some of the item formats and other item elements
found within all the projects. To recapitulate, the aim of the problem-solving
development team was to design a test that measures the cognitive processes essential to
analytical problem solving and has high acceptance and appeal for a large number of
adults in different cultures. The items need to tap the pertinent cognitive processes in
a rich variety of ways and with a well-balanced range of difficulties. In order to do this,
a broad range of task types with a large thematic variety and different task demands was
developed. These tasks involve for example identifying relevant information, interpreting
this information in terms of the task demands, using practical reasoning, relating different
elements and judging the correct correspondence of different elements. More difficult
variants could involve analytically analyzing the constraints and interconnections between
different relevant elements and for example ordering the information elements according
to the given constraints, generating combinational solutions to given problems, etc.
As previously mentioned, one criterion for the item construction was that item
formats in the resulting item set are well-balanced. In order to measure the different
relevant cognitive processes in a diversified manner, the items should ideally involve
different amounts and types of information (textual, graphical, numerical, etc.), and
different response formats. The response formats implemented may be summarized as
follows:
- Multiple-choice items
Different response alternatives are given, and the respondent is asked to
mark the correct response alternative(s). The simplest multiple-choice
items require the respondent to mark one response alternative. Some
multiple choice items have more than one correct response alternative, and
the number of correct responses may or may not be specified.
The response alternatives themselves also have varying formats: They may
appear as statements, numbers, drawings, sequences of steps, and so on.
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