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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 controlled
 include the incentive for the person to do his best,
as well as more obvious conditions such as standard equipment
 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 psychological
 measuring devices, including rating scales and questionnaires.
 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 performance
 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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