Psycometric Testing of Learner Drivers

[MGF]

What do people think of this?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6736587.stm

I am surprised it is possible to change behaviour as well as teach skills and always a bit sceptical of these tests as over time it is possible to learn the 'right' answers.

Having said that, anything that improves attitude has to be a good thing.

[ROG]

a lot of IQ test are pretty accurate so if a test is devised that WORKS for attitude then i am all for it

[jasonh]

a lot of IQ test are pretty accurate so if a test is devised that WORKS for attitude then i am all for it

IQ tests measure a concept called IQ and nothing else and they show wide inter-test variability and cultural specificity, so I wouldn't think of them as especially accurate.

Any attitude test is going to be more fallible because it is easier to predict the 'right' answer in an attitude test than an IQ test. I'm not one of those people who runs a mile at the mention of 'psychometrics' but I would need a great deal of convincing that there is any way in which a workable driving attitudes test can be introduced. At the moment driving is seen as a right and not a privilege (wrongly in my opinion but that's been the way things have been ever since car ownership started to spread) and I imagine the human rights lawyers would have a field day were anyone to be denied the 'right' to drive because they failed an 'attitude test'.

[martine]

Don't know how this would work in practice but on the general question of psychometric tests...I did one for work several years ago. After answering loads of question it was sent away for 'analysis' and the results made available to me.

I though it summed me up pretty well but when I showed it to colleagues they thought it described me EXACTLY and were flabergasted how accurate it was.

Perhaps I am the sort of personality that is easier to 'diagnose'

[Horse]

What do people think of this?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6736587.stm

I am surprised it is possible to change behaviour as well as teach skills and always a bit sceptical of these tests as over time it is possible to learn the 'right' answers.

Having said that, anything that improves attitude has to be a good thing.

I spy vested interest and hidden advertising

[b]Dr Lisa Dorn[/b] from Cranfield University has drawn up psychometric tests for drivers.

The tests are currently being used by Arriva buses to assess new drivers, who face a one in two chance of being involved in a collision in their first year.

In the last four years, while the tests have been in use, the company has reduced fatalities involving its buses by 31%, Dr Dorn said.

"The principle is that when you administer a psychometric assessment what you are doing is trying to highlight the extent to which people believe certain things, how they feel about certain things and how they will generally behave towards, obviously in this case, traffic," she said.

Gary Austin, former chief executive of the Driving Standards Agency, runs a driving school which uses psychometric tests to assess students.

He said they were useful in deciding how someone should be taught.

"For instance we may reveal that someone is actually quite an aggressive driver, or aggressive personality, or they find it very difficult to cope when someone perhaps cuts them up," he said.
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/news/pressre ... ge2299.jsp

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