Wk 1 - Intro

Question 1

Can you give examples of how the various aspects of human endeavour discussed in the lecture could be potentially improved by the use of human measurement? (x5)

Answer 1

Love, relationships - ID ideal soul mate; solve family problems
Government - objective assessment of candidates
Military - success is training over hardwares, so need to evaluate it/monitor skill levels
Tech - ID design issues to make more usable
Careers - ID top careers for you

Question 2

Can you list five ways of measuring driving behaviour (with examples)?

Answer 2

Observational measures - counting/classifying/rating behavioural events (e.g. traffic conflicts); direct measurements (e.g. speed of cars, headway between cars etc)
In-car/instrumented vehicle measures - HR, electrodermal response, eye tracking, eye blinks; Vehicle movement (e.g. speed, steering movements); Counting/classifying/rating behavioural events (e.g. overtaking propensity)
Driving simulator measures - Everything from above; RT/judgements on standardized events (e.g. hazards)
Tests of additional attributes that may affect driving - Accuracy/RT on standardized tasks; Scoring response quality
Questionnaires/interviews -

Question 3

How could we go about interpreting the meaning of the raw score yielded by the speeding questionnaire used in the lecture? (x2)

Answer 3

Calculate mean and SD

Standardise them

Question 4

How could we use measures such as the speed questionnaire to predict behavioural outcomes, such as crash involvement? (x1)

Answer 4

Create a statistical model, e.g. regression, in SPSS to predict the DV in other outcomes

Question 5

Name the four fundamental principles of human measurement

Answer 5

Scales of measurement
Standardisation
Reliability
Validity

Question 6

What are the major five steps involved in creating a measure of human behaviour?

Answer 6

1. Decide what, what and how
2. Create the materials needed
3. Design/run studies to assess validity, reliability, standardisation, and item quality
4. If it all works, consider improving your measure using the data from your item analyses.
5. Release your new measure into the wild and watch it run free, improving the world forever.

Question 7

Provide six examples of how human behaviour measurement might be useful to know about in future careers.

Answer 7

Clinical or neuropsychs – measure behaviour and psych, see if treatment works; and for any research
Honours – for project
Research career – cant do any science without measurement
HR – evaluate candidates, measure performance to assess training effectivesness, for business/uni/government
Self-employed anything – assess different courses available, measure skills of potential employees
Teacher/trainer/coach – evaluate student performance, evaluation of you by student

Question 8

According to Lees et al (2010), what are the two key dimensions on which methods of evaluating driver performance vary, and why?

Answer 8

Fidelity and experimental control

Because fidelity translates to faithfulness of replicating normal situation in an experiment

Question 9

True or false, and why: In soccer, team with highest goals is categorised the winner, other as loser.
This exemplifies a nominal scale

Answer 9

False

Because it’s actually based on the number of goals scored - not two categories

Question 10

True or false, and why: in an art comp, there’s a winner, and three runners up, as voted by the public. The rest of the entries are designated ‘excrement’.
This exemplifies an ordinal scale

Answer 10

True

Because the entrants are ranked

Question 11

What are the advantages (x2) and disadvantages (x2) of using observational measures to measure driving behaviour?

Answer 11

Measures actual driver behaviour.
Drivers unaware they are being monitored.
Level of detail of information is limited.
Experimental control is difficult.

Question 12

What are the advantages (x2) and disadvantages (x2) of using In-car/instrumented vehicle measures to measure driving behaviour?

Answer 12

Detailed information can be collected.
Measures actual driver behaviour.
Drivers aware they are being monitored.
Experimental control is difficult.

Question 13

What are the advantages (x2) and disadvantages (x2) of using driving simulators to measure driving behaviour?

Answer 13

Experimental control can be excellent.
Detailed information can be collected.
Not real: must be validated.
Can be (though not necessarily) expensive.

Question 14

What are the advantages (x3) and disadvantages (x2) of using tests of related attributes to measure driving behaviour?

Answer 14

Experimental control excellent.
More likely to be well-established (i.e. have a greater body of data supporting validity etc).
Detailed information can be collected.
Not real: must be validated.
May lack specific context – need a theoretical link (e.g. peripherial vision is considered important for detecting hazards therefore a measure of this will predict driving performance).

Question 15

What are the advantages (x3) and disadvantages (x3) of using questionnaires/interviews to measure driving behaviour?

Answer 15

Experimental control excellent. 
Detailed information can be collected.
Easy and cheap to collect large samples.
Not real: must be validated.
Harder to use dynamic, complex stimuli.
Rely on participant insight and honesty

Question 16

Name/describe the nominal scales of measurement (scales being one of four fundamental principles of human measurement),
And give psychological (x1) and non-psychological examples (x3)

Answer 16

Nominal – arbitrary names/categories;
Eg gender
Male/female, planet/star, liver/lung

Question 17

Describe standardisation (one of four fundamental principles of human measurement),
And give psychological (x1) and non-psychological (x3) examples

Answer 17

Making measurement into equivalent units before comparison
Useful for interpretation
ie can’t measure window with marked piece of paper – need a standardised tape measure
Egs: IQ
light year in astronomy, distance in metres, heart rate in BPM,

Question 18

Describe reliability (one of four fundamental principles of human measurement),
And give psychological (x1) and non-psychological examples (x4)

Answer 18

Extent to which a tool gives you consistent measurements
ie the same window dimensions on different attempts
Egs: Same score on three attempts at speed questionnaire?
How consistent is measurement of star light fluctuations? Did ref make right/consistent calls? Is electric thermometer consistent? Were votes counted reliably?

Question 19

Describe validity (one of four fundamental principles of human measurement),
And give psychological (x2) and non-psychological (x4) examples

Answer 19

Extent to which a measure actually measures the target item
ie not measuring the right window
Egs: Does score on speed questionnaire reflect actual speeding behaviour? Does IQ score reflect actual intelligence?
Does star light fluctuation actually indicate a circling planet? Does a diagnostic test actually detect the disease? Does sporting score reflect ability? Does election represent the will of the electorate (rigged)?

Question 20

Name/describe the ordinal scales of measurement (scales being one of four fundamental principles of human measurement),
And give psychological (x1) and non-psychological examples (x3)

Answer 20

Ordinal – ranking, without meaningful intervals; 
Eg any ranking of preferences
Political parties (left to right wing), gold/silver/bronze, medical consciousness scale AVPU (alert, voice, pain, unresponsive)

Question 21

Name/describe the interval scales of measurement (scales being one of four fundamental principles of human measurement),
And give psychological and non-psychological examples

Answer 21

Interval – meaningful intervals, but arbitrary zero;
Eg IQ/aptitude/traits in psych (even though truly ordinal)
Time, temperature, date

Question 22

Name/describe the ratio scales of measurement (scales being one of four fundamental principles of human measurement),
And give psychological and non-psychological examples

Answer 22

Ratio – ratio between scores is meaningful ($10 is twice $5, whereas 30 degrees C is not twice as hot as 15), and zero is absolute;
Egs RT
Money, distance

Question 23

What are five potential abilities of the PSYCscan3020?

Answer 23

Automatic ethical consent obtained from target
Can measure any human attribute in seconds, including skill levels, intention, motivation, attitudes, personality, and intelligence
Can determine the truthfulness of statements with 100% reliability
Can predict behaviour across multiple scenarios
Bonus add-in: “Are you my soul-mate?” Find your ideal partner in seconds!

Question 24

What are Lees categories of driving measurement methods, from low to high experimental control (x5)

Answer 24

Naturalistic data
On-road evaluation
Interactive simulation
Complex computer-based tests
Paper/pencil neuropsych tests

Question 25

What are Lees categories of driving measurement methods, from low to high fidelity (x5)

Answer 25

Paper-pencil neuropsych tests
Complex computer-based tests
Interactive simulation
On-road evaluation
Naturalistic data