title: Innovative testing of spatial ability: interactive responding and the use of complex stimuli material.
abstract: Despite initial expectations, which have emerged with the advancement of computer technology over the last decade of the twentieth century, scientific literature does not contain many relevant references regarding the development and use of innovative items in psychological testing. Our study presents and evaluates two novel item types. One item type is derived from a standard schematic test item used for the assessment of the spatial perception aspect of spatial ability, enhanced by an interactive response module. The performance on this item type is correlated with the performance on its paper and pencil counterpart. The other innovative item type used complex stimuli in the form of a short video of a ride through a city presented in an on-route perspective, which is intended to measure navigation skills and the ability to keep oneself oriented in space. In this case, the scores were related to the capacity of visuo-spatial working memory and also to the overall score in the paper/pencil test of spatial ability. The second relationship was moderated by gender.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, p.r.i., Veveří 97, 602 00, Brno, Czech Republic, jelinek@psu.cas.cz.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jelínek
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Květon
authors.forename: Dalibor
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vobořil
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D065854:Spatial Navigation / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult