SPECTRAL ANALYSIS AND THE STUDY OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE PERFORMANCE OF ROUTINE, REPETITIVE TASKS
Abstract
The deviations made in jabbing a stylus at target lines were measured from a reference line in serial order, and a spectral analysis was made of the results. Spectral analysis decomposes the total oscillation of a time- series into oscillations of varying rates and specifies the relative contribution of each component of oscillation. Thirty-three subjects were tested on 5 task variations, and 15 were retested after a month. Reliable individual differences occurred in 3 measures: the proportion of low-frequency components in the spectrum, variance of the observations, and speed; only the first measure depended on spectral analysis. The 3 measures were related to general personality characteristics by the inductive association of factors.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1953
- Accession Number
- AD0006236
Entities
People
- Robert P. Abelson
Organizations
- Educational Testing Service