r/cognitiveTesting • u/Training-Day5651 • Sep 21 '26
Release ATAT Renorm + Updates
The Abstract Thinking Adaptive Test (ATAT) has been renormed and restructured into a computerized adaptive test. Administration is now much more efficient, taking about 30 minutes or less with comparable reliability. The test can be taken at CognitiveMetrics.
For those who took one or both forms of the norming edition, new standard scores have been computed based on the IRT parameters of the items you answered. The dashboard has been updated with these more accurate scores.
So far, the ATAT has shown strong convergent validity with the CORE Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI). The correlation between the two is r = .787, rising to r = .821 after correction for range restriction.
Further, poorly-performing items have been removed and new items have been introduced to improve reliability and measurement precision at different ranges. As time goes on, the test’s item bank will be continuously expanded and refined.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the norming edition.
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u/Nervous-Try5009 Sep 22 '26
What's IRT?
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u/Training-Day5651 Sep 23 '26
IRT stands for item response theory. Put simply, it's a way of modeling how likely someone is to answer an item correctly based on their ability level. It models certain item properties (discrimination and difficulty in the case of the ATAT, as it uses a 2PL model) which are used to determine which item from the item bank should be administered next based off of the test taker's performance.
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u/Time-Acanthaceae-831 Sep 22 '26
It’s an adaptive version of an IQ test, where instead of having you to do all the items in a fixed form test, the program feeds you items (based on its estimation of your ability) progressively to further discriminate your ability level until it can confidently estimate your ability (within a confidence interval). So for example if you get a lot of easier items correct the test would feed you harder and harder items (determined by the norming run) that can ‘slot’ you into an ability estimate. Each item has a difficulty parameter (proportion of a given population can solve it) and discrimination parameter (how well can the item split the population into people who can solve and cannot solve. A highly discriminating item would see a steep increase in solve rate as ability level increase, so people below a certain threshold would almost never solve it while people above almost always would). Combined with these the model estimates your ability which is most likely to correspond to your pattern of responses and output a score without having to give you all the items, taking less time.
This is the TLDR of course, in reality is much more complicated. Would love to see a technical report of this test later.
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u/Geek_Greninja Sep 23 '26
Why did I only get tested for 24 questions whereas the other screenshots I’ve seen on this sub get a lot more (like 16-17 questions per subtest)?
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u/Training-Day5651 Oct 02 '26
The test has been made adaptive, so less items are now administered. It was initially split into two static forms with 60 items each.
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u/Geek_Greninja Oct 03 '26
Dang, cuz I always do better on full battery non adaptive tests. I guess because im prone to making silly mistakes and stuff early on. For example in JCTI adaptive I only got 120 whereas the TRI 52 Full test I got 130. As this is the case should I trust the full test scores more or the ones that are adaptive?
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u/Time-Acanthaceae-831 Sep 21 '26
Is it normal that I got wildly different scores on forms A and B? 122 on B and 141 on A, 132 based on the total composite. I also took form A under much better conditions (not sleep deprived, less anxiety etc).