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Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 4:29 am
by Vigis
Hey all, Erin is doing some contract work for a company in CO and needs to get 300 people to complete the test linked below. There are 32 to 34 items, it really depends on how smart you are as to how long it will take. I finished in 3 minutes (Just kidding, I'm not allowed to take it because I know the answers and have watched/helped her meet their specifications).

It is actually kinda fun because it is like a brain-game or IQ test that you do online; you just don't get your results. I'd appreciate the help for her, because (as I think everybody is aware) I want her to finish school and support me! :p

Go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/CAT_UNO

BTW, Thank You to everybody who went through the survey she needed for her Master's Thesis!

Have I mentioned that I REALLY want her to get her PhD so she can actually get a job where the college doesn't take a cut?

Edit: If you have not taken the test yet, please try not to use the discussion below to study for it. It is a validation study so getting some of them wrong actually helps with the study. However, Erin does not have any problem with us discussing it. Keep the feedback coming and send it to your friends!

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:40 am
by Vigis
BTW, this is an open test, so feel free to email it or post it anywhere you want. Again, appreciate the help!

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:28 am
by Kifle
How many people do you still need and what's the deadline?

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:45 pm
by Ragorn
There's a lot of ambiguity in this test, especially in the "complete the pattern" problems. For example, #22. You're given four shapes and you have to pick the one that isn't like the others. Well, I can think of at least three different answers:

B is the only figure with a curved line.
C is the only figure with an interior (concave) angle.
D is the only figure with more than one arrow.

Which one is the right answer? Who knows? Could be any of them. Maybe it's A, because A is the only one that ISN'T unlike the other four :D

My professional background is in online skills/intelligence test development, so I might be a little more anal than most ;)

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:26 am
by Sarvis
I have to agree with Rags, there were several where I saw more than one answer. Although I wonder if that was intentional as a way to see how people approach problems?

Anyway, the number wheels just plain sucked. I spent half an hour on one before giving up...

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:53 am
by Vigis
Kifle,

No firm deadline on it, but I think they want the 300 completions before the end of summer. Then she needs to finish the item analysis. It just went up on Saturday and she has about 20 or 25 completes so far.

Ragorn,

You're comment is going to the company when she gets everything finished and sent back to them :) She didn't get to give them any feedback on their test items, she just gets to do the statistics.

Sarvis,

30 minutes on one question!? I think that is how long the entire test is supposed to take :P

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:09 am
by Adriorn Darkcloak
Ragorn, I think that's the exact same problem that stayed with me even after I finished. I could have sworn there was one in that section that had more than one option.

The rest were very cool and didn't think them hard. I would love to know how I scored though! :)

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:38 am
by shalath
Get her to give me my answers! PM them on here or something...

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:07 am
by Kifle
Ragorn wrote:There's a lot of ambiguity in this test, especially in the "complete the pattern" problems. For example, #22. You're given four shapes and you have to pick the one that isn't like the others. Well, I can think of at least three different answers:

B is the only figure with a curved line.
C is the only figure with an interior (concave) angle.
D is the only figure with more than one arrow.

Which one is the right answer? Who knows? Could be any of them. Maybe it's A, because A is the only one that ISN'T unlike the other four :D

My professional background is in online skills/intelligence test development, so I might be a little more anal than most ;)


Hrm, not sure I remember that question. I didn't have any problems with the shape-pattern questions. The only one that really bothered me was the number problem that had the numbers in the pies [10,20,40,80,?,40].

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:10 pm
by Ragorn
I had more of a problem with the triangles than the pies.

The problem I quoted above had four shapes.

A. A rectangle with an arrow coming out the bottom.
B. A curved arrow, like you'd see in a "no right turns" sign.
C. An arrow that looked like >======>
D. Two arrows at a 90 degree angles whose bases were connected, like an L.

Which one was "diffferent?"

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:14 pm
by Sarvis
The triangles were a little tough, but I was able to get most of them in a few minutes.

I had to guess on 3 of the pie questions just so I could finish the test. I even broke out excel for one of them and couldn't find anything in common that would work for all numbers in the sequence.

It was something like 1 2 8 48 ? 3480

(Not sure about the last number.)


EDIT: Sorry Kifle, I looked again and I thought you were having trouble with a different one before...

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:58 pm
by Vigis
Check your PM Sarvis.

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:19 pm
by Vigis
Kifle, check your PM too.

Rags,

I don't have an answer to yours yet, but I'll see if she can dig it up.

Shalath,

Yer hosed. I can't give you the answers to all of them; it would break the IRB protocol and get her in lots of trouble because the only way to find which test is yours is to break anonymity. If you can remember a specific question though I'll try to get the answer and PM it to you.

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:17 pm
by Klandal
I finished and felt sure about every answer I gave. I'm not positive if the test is the exact same, but I can answer the ones I had (like the 1 2 8 48 ? 3480 one). Just PM me if you want the answer. The wheel that took me a minute was 2 8 20 40 70. :P

Klandan

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:44 pm
by Kifle
Sarvis wrote:The triangles were a little tough, but I was able to get most of them in a few minutes.

I had to guess on 3 of the pie questions just so I could finish the test. I even broke out excel for one of them and couldn't find anything in common that would work for all numbers in the sequence.

It was something like 1 2 8 48 ? 3480

(Not sure about the last number.)


EDIT: Sorry Kifle, I looked again and I thought you were having trouble with a different one before...


Edit: Err, thought this was a PM. Not sure if answering questions would mess up results.

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:27 pm
by Vigis
Kifle wrote:
Sarvis wrote:The triangles were a little tough, but I was able to get most of them in a few minutes.

I had to guess on 3 of the pie questions just so I could finish the test. I even broke out excel for one of them and couldn't find anything in common that would work for all numbers in the sequence.

It was something like 1 2 8 48 ? 3480

(Not sure about the last number.)


EDIT: Sorry Kifle, I looked again and I thought you were having trouble with a different one before...


Edit: Err, thought this was a PM. Not sure if answering questions would mess up results.


Yeah, that would probably mess up the results Kifle. It is a validation study, so they are looking for questions that are ambiguous or impossible/too difficult to solve with what they gave you. If we all went around posting answers they wouldn't get any decent feedback on what the bad questions are. That's why I have been using PM's to answer the questions when I can.

Edit: I answered Sarvis' question without having to be given the answer first :P Yours on the other hand had me stumped until I was given the answer and could work backwards :)

You have to admit, it is pretty fun to talk about it though :)

Re: Got Cognitive Ability?

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:32 pm
by Kifle
Lol, yeah. I love these types of tests, but it's pretty annoying sometimes when you get that one question that just makes you say "wtf, am I just dumb or what?" I'll get my wife to take the test in a bit too.