TEDS Data Dictionary

The 18 Year Kings Challenge Pattern Assembly Test

Contents of this page:

Introduction

This page describes the Pattern Assembly test, one of the web activities in the battery of the 18 Year Kings Challenge twin web study. The Pattern Assembly test was the third of the ten tests in the battery.

Description

In the web presentation, the Pattern Assembly test was introduced to twins as an activity called "A Keep fit for a King", with the following text: "Brave knights and eagle-eyed archers are keeping our stronghold safe for now. The time has come to build the Great Keep which will one day house the King himself. The best Keeps contain many secret rooms and hidden corners known only to the King and his inner court; meanwhile, visitors are impressed by the grand dining halls and magnificent ballrooms. Can you handle the challenge of planning such a Keep?" This text was accompanied by the image below:

Cross-Sections game intro image

The test itself consisted of a practice item followed by 15 scored test items. Each item consisted of a stimulus image and 5 response images labelled A, B, C, D and E. The stimulus image showed three or more simple 2-dimensional polygonal shapes, some of whose sides were labelled with letters (a, b, c, etc) to indicate where the different shapes should be joined together. Twins were asked to select the response image that best represented the more complex shape that would result from joining the stimulus shapes in the required way. Twins responded by clicking on one of the five response images. On clicking one of the images, the response was immediately submitted to the web server, and the next item was presented. A full table of test items, including stimulus and response images, can be found below under the heading Table of Test Items.

The test was preceded by an instructions page, which is reproduced here, and which illustrates the nature of the test items:
Pattern assembly test instructions

The instructions page was followed by a single practice item. The practice item was optional: a twin could skip the practice item, attempt it once, or attempt it many times if they wished. On each attempt of the practice item, the twin was presented with feedback to say whether they chose the correct response, and what the correct response should have been. No such feedback was given after the main test items. No data for the practice item is included in the dataset.

The 15 main test items (subject to a discontinue rule) followed immediately after the practice item. The items were presented in numerical item number order, without any branching. Each item had a 20 second time limit, and a count-down timer was shown at the top-left corner of the page for every item, as a reminder of this.

Twins were encouraged to complete the test in one session if possible. Hence, no "come back later" button was placed on screen at any stage. However, it was possible to halt a test, by closing the browser or turning off the computer. After halting the test, it was possible for a twin to resume at a later time or date by logging in again: they would be presented with the next item to be attempted.

An individual test item could be compromised by an interruption after the item had started and before it had ended. Interruptions might result from twin actions such as closing the browser, or clicking the browser's back or refresh buttons. Interruptions might also be caused by random events such as computer crash or loss of internet connection. Such events seem to have been rare. The effect of interruption was to forfeit the item with zero score. On logging in at a later time after an interrupted item, a twin would be presented with the following item of the test.

Web Test Rules

  • Scoring
    For each of the 15 items, the correct response is given a score of 1, and any of the four incorrect responses is given a score of 0. The practice item does not contribute to the scoring. The maximum total score for the test is 15.
  • Discontinue rule
    Discontinue the test after incorrect responses (scoring zero) in any four consecutive items. This rule applies from item 1 onwards; it is therefore possible to discontinue the test after item 4 at the earliest.
  • Timeout rule
    A timeout of 20 seconds applies to each item. After 20 seconds with no response, the item is forfeited with zero score, and a "next item" screen appears. It was possible to pause indefinitely on the "next item" screen before resuming at the next item in the test.

Dataset Item Variables

The item variables relating to this test, as listed in the table below, were generated automatically by programs on the web server. For the sake of completeness, the table also lists derived variables relating directly to this test (rckpadata1/2, rckpastat1/2, rckpatime1/2, rckpatmn1/2). Note that the dataset only includes data for completed tests. If a twin started the test but left it unfinished, then the data for that test were deleted from the dataset.

Note that the item response variables have been recoded where appropriate with values -1, -2 and -4 to denote item timeout, discontinued or interrupted respectively. See the web data cleaning page for further details. The start and end dates/times have not been retained in the dataset.

VariablesExplanationValues
rckpadata1/2 Data flag: are test data present? [DERIVED VARIABLE] 0=no, 1=yes
rckpastat1/2 Test status: was the test completed? [DERIVED VARIABLE] 0=not started, 1=started but not finished, 2=finished successfully, 3=compromised by loss of data, 4=compromised by random responses
rckpasttm1/2 Start date and time of the test [not in dataset] Date-time values
rckpaentm1/2 End date and time of the test [not in dataset] Date-time values
rckpatime1/2 Time interval from start to end of the test [DERIVED VARIABLE] Minutes (decimal values)
rckpatmn1/2 Mean item response time [DERIVED VARIABLE] Seconds (decimal values)
rckpaXXan1/2 Test item response for item XX* 1=A, 2=B, 3=C, 4=D, 5=E (denoting the image selected),
-1=timed out, -2=discontinued, -4=item interrupted
rckpaXXsc1/2 Test item score for item XX* 0=incorrect, 1=correct
rckpaXXrt1/2 Test item response time for item XX* Milliseconds (integer values)
rckpatot1/2 Test total score: total score for all 15 items 0 to 15 (integer values)
rckpatotp1/2 Test total score expressed as a percentage 0 to 100 (decimal values)

* XX denotes the item number, 01 to 15

Table of Test Items

The test items are tabulated below, for the practice item and the 15 main test items. In each case, the item number, correct response (A-E), stimulus image and five response images (A-E) are shown.

practice item: correct response is A
stimulus image
practice item stimulus image
response A
practice item response A
response B
practice item response B
response C
practice item response C
response D
practice item response D
response E
practice item response E
item 1: correct response is E
stimulus image
item 1 stimulus image
response A
item 1 response A
response B
item 1 response B
response C
item 1 response C
response D
item 1 response D
response E
item 1 response E
item 2: correct response is A
stimulus image
item 2 stimulus image
response A
item 2 response A
response B
item 2 response B
response C
item 2 response C
response D
item 2 response D
response E
item 2 response E
item 3: correct response is B
stimulus image
item 3 stimulus image
response A
item 3 response A
response B
item 3 response B
response C
item 3 response C
response D
item 3 response D
response E
item 3 response E
item 4: correct response is C
stimulus image
item 4 stimulus image
response A
item 4 response A
response B
item 4 response B
response C
item 4 response C
response D
item 4 response D
response E
item 4 response E
item 5: correct response is C
stimulus image
item 5 stimulus image
response A
item 5 response A
response B
item 5 response B
response C
item 5 response C
response D
item 5 response D
response E
item 5 response E
item 6: correct response is C
stimulus image
item 6 stimulus image
response A
item 6 response A
response B
item 6 response B
response C
item 6 response C
response D
item 6 response D
response E
item 6 response E
item 7: correct response is C
stimulus image
item 7 stimulus image
response A
item 7 response A
response B
item 7 response B
response C
item 7 response C
response D
item 7 response D
response E
item 7 response E
item 8: correct response is A
stimulus image
item 8 stimulus image
response A
item 8 response A
response B
item 8 response B
response C
item 8 response C
response D
item 8 response D
response E
item 8 response E
item 9: correct response is D
stimulus image
item 9 stimulus image
response A
item 9 response A
response B
item 9 response B
response C
item 9 response C
response D
item 9 response D
response E
item 9 response E
item 10: correct response is B
stimulus image
item 10 stimulus image
response A
item 10 response A
response B
item 10 response B
response C
item 10 response C
response D
item 10 response D
response E
item 10 response E
item 11: correct response is E
stimulus image
item 11 stimulus image
response A
item 11 response A
response B
item 11 response B
response C
item 11 response C
response D
item 11 response D
response E
item 11 response E
item 12: correct response is C
stimulus image
item 12 stimulus image
response A
item 12 response A
response B
item 12 response B
response C
item 12 response C
response D
item 12 response D
response E
item 12 response E
item 13: correct response is A
stimulus image
item 13 stimulus image
response A
item 13 response A
response B
item 13 response B
response C
item 13 response C
response D
item 13 response D
response E
item 13 response E
item 14: correct response is D
stimulus image
item 14 stimulus image
response A
item 14 response A
response B
item 14 response B
response C
item 14 response C
response D
item 14 response D
response E
item 14 response E
item 15: correct response is E
stimulus image
item 15 stimulus image
response A
item 15 response A
response B
item 15 response B
response C
item 15 response C
response D
item 15 response D
response E
item 15 response E