About this study

• Why is the study being conducted? To investigate the consistency of scores between two versions of the same personality and cognitive ability tests.
• Am I eligible to participate? To participate:
  1. English must be your first language.
  2. You must be located in the USA or Canada and cannot use a VPN to mask your IP address.
  3. Each person can only complete the study once.
• What are we asking you to do? Complete similar items to the ones you completed before. They measure your personality, verbal skills, preceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. The study also includes a few basic demographics items (e.g., gender, age) so we can describe our sample and some questions about your views on race relations.
• How long will it take? 2 hours was the average time taken by people who completed the previous study. It's up to you whether you go faster or slower.
• Am I eligible to participate? The study is only visible on MTurk to people who completed a prior study administering a different version of the same materials. If you see this study on MTurk, then you have completed the previous materials and are eligible to participate.
• What’s in it for me?
  • $16 for completing the hit. Payment is made within 3 business days. For the average person, that works out to $8 per hour.
  • Good karma for contributing to research!
• How do we validate responses? To be eligible for payment, you must pass several validation checks:
  1. Some questions ask you to pick a certain answer. To show you are paying attention, you need to follow those instructions.
  2. We include questions with a known answer. For example, "I was born with green hair." Because no one is born with green hair, you need to disagree with such obviously wrong statements.
  3. We measure response consistency by looking at whether you are consistently higher on some traits than others. Most people receive a response consistency value around .88. The minimum cutoff for inclusion in the study is .65.
  4. On the cognitive ability assessments, we have included questions that everyone who is paying attention will get right (e.g., 3 + 4 = 7). You need to get those easy questions right to receive payment.
  5. If you get most items wrong while responding unusually quickly, results likely reflect rushing rather than your true ability level. You will be invited to try the section again without rushing.
• Who is conducting this study? The study is organized by Dr. Rhys Lewis, Ph.D. for SIGMA Assessment Systems Inc. SIGMA is a test publishing company that provides psychometric assessments to employers.
• Are answers anonymous and confidential? Yes. We do not collect any identifying information. We do not share or sell any information about you with 3rd parties. When reporting results, statistics are aggregated across the whole sample, protecting individual responses.
• How will the information be used? Your responses will be used to document the relationships between the assessments and to decide which ones to use with various clients. Findings will be published (we hope) in scientific journals and technical manuals.
• Will data be deleted? No. We hope to use the information to continue providing novel insights well into the future (e.g., on trends over time).
• Are there any risks? There are no known risks. Participation is completely voluntary. You can skip questions and stop at any time without explanation. If you choose to withdraw, the data collected up to that point will be retained.
• Can I stop and come back? If you get interrupted, simply enter your MTurk worker ID in the box above to pick up where you left off. We do ask that you finish all the materials within 48 hours of signing up.
• How do I get payment? At the end of the study, you will receive a code to paste into the box on the MTurk page describing the study in order to receive credit. To be eligible for payment, you must finish the materials and pass the validation checks.