Abstract
Zusammenfassung. In längeren psychometrischen Untersuchungen, die sich mit kognitiven Leistungen von Personen befassen, ist es denkbar, daß sowohl motivationale Aspekte als auch Ermüdungs- und Belastungseffekte einen Einfluß auf die Resultate der Studien ausüben. Gleichzeitig ist aber bei der Bearbeitung von ähnlichem Aufgabenmaterial auch von Übungseffekten auszugehen. Neben Auswirkungen auf die Mittelwerte von Aufgaben sind Veränderungen der Reliabilität und Validität möglich. In zwei Studien, bei denen die Versuchspersonen an jeweils zwei Tagen insgesamt 9 Stunden lang Intelligenztest- und Arbeitsgedächtnisaufgaben bearbeiteten, wurde versucht, mittels einer quasiexperimentellen Manipulation Übungs- und Ermüdungseffekte zu erfassen und voneinander zu trennen. In beiden Studien (N = 128 bzw. N = 133) bearbeiteten die Versuchspersonen den Berliner Intelligenzstrukturtest (BIS-Test) und am Computer verschiedene Batterien von Arbeitsgedächtnisaufgaben. Außerdem wurden in der ersten Studie Persönlichkeitsskalen und zu mehreren Zeitpunkten mit einem kurzen Belastungsfragebogen die situative Befindlichkeit der Vpn erfaßt. Die experimentelle Manipulation bestand in beiden Untersuchungen in der unterschiedlichen Reihenfolge der Vorgabe zweier Parallelversionen einer Arbeitsgedächtnisaufgabe. Zwei von drei Gruppen bearbeiteten die verschiedenen Versionen zu Anfang und Ende eines Termines in den Reihenfolgen A/B bzw. B/A, während Gruppe 3 beide Versionen am Ende vorgegeben bekam. Die Ergebnisse zeigen Hinweise auf schwache Übungseffekte, nicht aber auf bedeutsame Leistungseinbußen durch die mehrstündigen Anforderungen. Veränderungen der Reliabilitäten und der korrelativen Zusammenhänge einzelner Aufgaben sind nur in unbedeutendem Ausmaß vorhanden.
Abstract. In psychometric studies of cognitive performance that last several hours there are two major potential influences on performance. Fatigue and loss of motivation may lead to a drop in performance while effects of practice on similar tasks can possibly help to improve results. Besides the effects on mean scores there is also the possibility of a change in the reliability or in the relations between single tasks and the constructs intended to be measured, thus an effect on validity. In two studies with subjects working on intelligence and working memory tasks for a total of 9 hours distributed over 2 days in each study we tried to capture and separate effects of practice and fatigue using a quasi-experimental manipulation. In both studies (N = 128 and N = 133) the participants worked on the Berlin Structure of Intelligence Test (BIS-test) and on batteries of computerized working memory tasks. Groups of subjects were assigned to experimental conditions in which they worked on two parallel versions of a working memory task at the beginning and the end of one session in the order A/B (condition one), B/A (condition two) or on both versions at the end (condition three). In one of the studies subjects also completed a fatigue questionnnaire at the beginning and the end of the session and two personality scales. Results show that there are weak effects of practice but only a trivial loss of performance due to the cognitive strain of several hours. Changes of reliabilities and of correlations with criteria are not significant.
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