Psychological testing is the field of study which is concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement. Also known as psychometrics, it includes the measurement of knowledge abilities, attitudes, traits and educational measurements. The purpose of these ‘testings’ is to have a hypothesis on understanding the behaviour of an individual. Hence, while conducting such a test or assessment, the experimenter is required to be very careful. The norms have to be minutely looked into, else the test scores might get affected and may not reflect the appropriate outcome.
The students in DP Psychology performed their very first psychometric test on the memory learning process. It is regarding the conceptual knowledge which was drawn from Atkinson and Shiffrin’s memory processing model. The students conducted the test on each other where they prepared a few items before the test such as a list of 15 meaningful words and 15 non-meaningful words. Each participant was required to recall the list of meaningful words which were shown prior to the non-meaningful words list. This led to prove the hypothesis “forgetting occurs in long term memory when interference takes place” and also to understand the hypothesis on “different types of the learning process through memory model”. The entire process started with the students being given a demonstration of the test and were explained its aim, instructions and objectives. The geckos enthusiastically prepared their individual lists of words, followed the instructions and performed their tests. They kept in mind the ethical consideration of the process and consequently conducted the test one-on-one with a lot of zeal.
After the testing, the students were given the space to discuss and understand the limitations and also critically analyse their own performances. Positive feedback was shared amongst each other as well. The tester and the participant of every testing were also observed well by the remaining students and feedback was provided by them as well. Furthermore, possible limitations of the performance, areas on which they may need to work on were discussed too.
The whole experiment was a successful one as we could observe that the students’ efforts to understand their learning by performing and executing their concepts really gave them a better insight and knowledge about the approach to psychological testing.
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