Cliffe reviews the literature associated with automated psychological testing and discusses the impact of microcomputers upon psychometry. He observes that most of the psychological tests converted for running on a microcomputer are of the normative, nomothetic kind. Such tests present the patient with a standard set of questions or problems and analyze the patient’s performance according to a set of norms.
An idiographic approach to testing is not based on normative groups and is interested in the measurement of psychological factors and clinically relevant variables unique to individual patients. Idiographic testing is frequently used as a means for measuring a change in a patient’s symptoms over time.
Cliffe reports the results he obtained from giving a computerized version of an idiographic test to a number of patients. He discusses the positive effects associated with this method. For example, many patients are more receptive to responding to a question on a keyboard than they are to traditional paper and pencil tests. Additional support for computerized testing includes easier scoring, simplified collection of information, and greater efficiency.
Cliffe does not give a detailed discussion of the disadvantages associated with computerized testing. For example, converting a test from a paper and pencil method to a microcomputer essentially creates a new version of the test. Also, many computerized tests do not give respondents the option of modifying their answers, while some paper and pencil tests permit this. Finally, no discussion is given regarding fatigue. Long tests that are administered by a microcomputer may be more fatiguing than their paper and pencil counterparts.
Overall, Cliffe’s paper provides an interesting example of how a discipline can change in response to using the computer as a tool.