Accession Number:

AD0006236

Title:

SPECTRAL ANALYSIS AND THE STUDY OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE PERFORMANCE OF ROUTINE, REPETITIVE TASKS

Descriptive Note:

Doctoral thesis.

Corporate Author:

EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE PRINCETON NJ

Personal Author(s):

• ABELSON, ROBERT P.

Report Date:

1953-03-01

Pagination or Media Count:

147.0

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.

Descriptors:

• *MEASUREMENT
• VARIATIONS
• PERSONALITY
• SPECTRUM ANALYSIS
• LOW FREQUENCY
• RATES
• OSCILLATION

Subject Categories:

• Personnel Management and Labor Relations

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE