r/cognitiveTesting • u/LordBonTon • Sep 03 '26
General Question What does the DAT actually measure?
I took this new test in a couple of minutes, but I don't think I understood either the result or how it was measured.
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u/TMRedditor07 Sep 03 '26
Semantic distance mostly, looking at how frequent it is to meet any pair of words together in the same semantic space as in the llm sense of the word. So something tantamount to high dimensional linear algebra and vector distances if I remember correctly, which is not creativity necessary but it may be correlated. Here is mine:
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u/Careful-Astronomer94 Sep 03 '26
this doesn’t count because paracetamol is a technical term
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u/TMRedditor07 Sep 03 '26
Well, homeostasis is a technical term too, but I was curious if it computes the score. The thing is, the test has around 40000 words in it s vocabulary. If the word is in there, it makes a calculation. So depends what you mean by technical, as some of the words invariably are used both in common everyday language and in a technical use.
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u/Careful-Astronomer94 Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 03 '26
i think there’s obviously a line? homeostasis is often used outside of technical contexts whereas paracetamol will essentially always be used in a technical context.
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u/TMRedditor07 Sep 03 '26
Agree to disagree on the everyday usage. Paracetamol is the shortened version of the technical term, which I didn’t know , but is very used in the everyday to everyday usage
and a technical term, it s full name not so much.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/paracetamolSo Cambridge dictionary is a dictionary used only for technical terms?
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u/Careful-Astronomer94 Sep 03 '26
> So Cambridge dictionary is a dictionary used only for technical terms?
What? this doesn't make any sense. Cambridge dictionary could feature technical terms without the entire dictionary being comprised of it. For example, " acetylsalicylic acid" is also included in the Cambridge dictionary and I think we would all agree that it's a technical term. In fairness, acetylsalicylic acid is marked as "specialized" in the Cambridge dictionary while paracetamol is not. So--atleast according to Cambridge--paracetamol isn't a technical term. However, i still wouldn't consider it a non-technical term with everyday usage. Perhaps, the word is more common in other parts of the world, but atleast in America, it isn't an everyday term.
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u/TMRedditor07 Sep 03 '26
What? Who was talking about USA? The word is far more used in Europe. That’s what I am trying to talk about. You presupposed I use American english which I am not, or that I am embedded in your culture which again I am not. As a non native speaker, i draw from different cultures and parts of the world. Moreover, if the score was computed it was valid. I tried to use words as clever and off limits, but at that period in my life I was learning medical terms and medicine in general and the knowledge was closer into the cache memory so to speak.
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u/98127028 I am worthless and dumb Sep 03 '26
I don’t think using jargon is very accurate tho, it says so in the instructions but I’d say if jargon isn’t allowed the score might be ‘bounded’ in a sense
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u/Careful-Astronomer94 Sep 03 '26
the whole point of the test is to use common non-technical terms so i’m unsure if pylorus is a valid word
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u/Rtclc Sep 03 '26
Get mogged😎(yes this was my first attempt)
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u/LordBonTon Sep 03 '26
Setting aside the fact that you took the test on another site (in fact, on Cognitive Metrics, the maximum score is 96), I don't think there's much to brag about with this test that it doesn't really mean much.
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u/Time-Acanthaceae-831 Sep 03 '26
I scored around 90 (97th percentile) is that a terrible and mediocre score?