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PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 
What is meant by a psychological test. Classification of tests according to 
purpose, ability measured, apparatus or material used, technique, restrictions 
on response. Verbal tests. 
A PSYCHOLOGICAL test is a means of gaging an ability by 
measuring performance in a standard task (or tasks of 
graded difficulty), performed under standard conditions. 
The conditions which should be definitely specified and con- 
trolled include the incentive for the person to do his best, 
as well as more obvious conditions such as standard equip- 
ment and materials, and uniform preliminary instruction 
and fore-exercise. A good test yields an accurate objective 
measure of typical behavior in a way to reveal the extent to 
which the person differs from other individuals with respect 
to the ability tested. 
An unfortunate tendency has appeared in some quarters 
to use the term “tests” broadly to cover all kinds of psycho- 
logical measuring devices, including rating scales and ques- 
tionnaires. But a rating scale is a very different sort of 
instrument, to meet a different need. It yields a record of 
the rater’s subjective estimate of the person’s ability or 
trait, whereas a test yields an objective measure of actual 
performance. One is a systematized record of opinion; the 
other a measurement of fact. 
A questionnaire calls for factual data about either per- 
formance or opinion. It does not undertake, however, to 
get a precise measure under standardized conditions of what 
the person can do now, but rather to find out what he has 
done, what his personal history has been, what his interests, 
tastes and ambitions are, and the like. 
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