MICROPROCESSOR-BASED PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING DEVICE

ADVANCES IN MICROCOMPUTERS AND VIDEO STORAGE TECHNOLOGY HAVE MADE FEASIBLE MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS IN SYSTEMS FOR ADMINISTERING PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS. IN RESPONSE TO THE REQUEST FOR COMPUTERIZED PSYCHOMETRIC INSTRUMENTS BY THE NIMH IN THE SBIR OMNIBUS SOLICITATION, AMERICAN INNOVATION, INC. PROPOSES TO BUILD A MICROPROCESSOR-BASED TESTING INSTRUMENT WHICH STORES IMAGE AND TEXT DATA ON A VIDEO DISK.LOW COST MICROPROCESSORS ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE WITH SOPHISTICATED VIDEO GRAPHICS, SOUND SYNTHESIS, AND LIGHT PEN CAPABILITIES. VIDEO DISK PLAYERS PERMIT THE LOW COST STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL OF VIDEO AND TEXT DATA. THESE CAPABILITIES MAKE POSSIBLE A SYSTEM WHICH WOULD HAVE A VERY LARGE NUMBER OF PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS CODED ON A DISK IN THE FORM OF IMAGES, TEXT, AND/OR COMPUTER PROGRAMS. THE SYSTEMSCOULD PRESENT AS STIMULI STILL OR MOVING VIDEO IMAGES, COMPUTER GRAPHICS, TEXT AND SOUND, AND RECORD AS RESPONSES BUTTON PRESSINGS, LIGHT PEN TOUCHES, AND SPEECH. THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE TESTS WOULD BE CONTROLLED BY PROGRAMS STORED ON THE VIDEO DISK. ALGORITHMS AND DATA FOR SCORING THE TESTS WOULD BE STORED IN THE SAME WAY. THIS SYSTEM WOULD ALLOW A CLINICIAN TO INITIATE A SESSION OF SELECTED TESTS VIA A MENU AND HAVE THE SYSTEM ADMINISTER AND SCORE THE TESTS. IN ADDITION TO THE TIME SAVINGS, THE SYSTEM WOULD ACHIEVE MORE RELIABLE RESULTS ON SOME TYPES OF TESTS AND MAKE POSSIBLE NEW TESTS WHICH COULD NOT BE ADMINISTERED BY CURRENT METHODS.