Cognitive Ability in Everyday Life: The Utility of Open-Source Measures

Abstract

<jats:p> The measurement of individual differences in cognitive ability has a long and important history in psychology, but it has been impeded by the proprietary nature of most assessment measures. With the development of validated open-source measures of ability (collected in the International Cognitive Ability Resource, or ICAR, available at ICAR-project.com ), it is now possible for many researchers to assess ability in large surveys or small, lab-based studies without the expenses associated with proprietary measures. We review the history of ability measurement and discuss how the growing set of items included in ICAR allows ability assessments to be more generally available to all researchers. </jats:p>

Can you crowdsource expertise? Comparing expert and crowd‐based scoring keys for three situational judgment tests

“…For the present research, we are interested in investigating whether individual differences in general ability or disposition may be useful for identifying more accurate judges within the crowd. Ability or dispositional constructs are ideal for screening crowd members because these characteristics can be reliably measured quickly and efficiently (e.g., Revelle et al, 2020).…”

“…For the present research, we are interested in investigating whether individual differences in general ability or disposition may be useful for identifying more accurate judges within the crowd. Ability or dispositional constructs are ideal for screening crowd members because these characteristics can be reliably measured quickly and efficiently (e.g., Revelle et al, 2020). Although individual characteristics have been shown to be important for performance in forecasting tasks (e.g., GMA and motivation; Mellers et al, 2015), evaluations of other people (de Kock et al, 2020) or accuracy in judging another person's personality traits (Rogers & Biesanz, 2019), few studies have examined the role of individual differences in crowdsourcing tasks.…”

Creative achievement and individual differences: Associations across and within the domains of creativity.

“…Future research should also give greater consideration to the ways that individual differences domains may overlap or interact across the lifespan. This work should include both measurement initiatives focused on more holistic approaches to individual differences assessment (Condon, 2014;Condon, 2018;Condon et al, 2020) as well as studies of the extent to which integrated profiles of psychological individual differences can predict important life outcomes (Cronin et al, 2019). By focusing on more than a single domain of individual differences (be it the Big Five, cognitive ability, interests, or other topics), psychologists will form a more nuanced understanding of whole persons and the outcomes they experience.…”

Creative Achievement and Individual Differences: Associations Across and Within the Domains of Creativity

“…Future research should also give greater consideration to the ways that individual differences domains may overlap or interact across the lifespan. This work should include both measurement initiatives focused on more holistic approaches to individual differences assessment (Condon, 2014;Condon, 2018;Condon et al, 2020) as well as studies of the extent to which integrated profiles of psychological individual differences can predict important life outcomes (Cronin et al, 2019). By focusing on more than a single domain of individual differences (be it the Big Five, cognitive ability, interests, or other topics), psychologists will form a more nuanced understanding of whole persons and the outcomes they experience.…”