Glossary
Plain-language definitions for terms used in MyTestAtlas tests and guides.
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- A1–C2
The six CEFR levels, from A1 and A2 through B1 and B2 to C1 and C2, have skill-specific descriptors.
- Abstract reasoning
Finding a rule or relationship in unfamiliar patterns, often using shapes or figures.
- Accuracy
The number or share of questions answered correctly in a test.
- Ad hominem
An argument that answers a claim by attacking the person who made it instead of addressing the claim or its evidence.
- Agreeableness
A Big Five trait describing patterns in cooperation, trust and consideration for others.
- Analogy
A comparison that asks which relation between one pair of things also holds between another pair.
- Anchoring bias
An initial number or detail can influence a later judgement, even when it is not a sound guide to the answer.
- Aptitude test
A test of skills or reasoning used to estimate how someone may handle a type of task.
- ASRS
The Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale version 1.1 (ASRS v1.1) is an 18-item self-report scale developed with the WHO World Mental Health Survey Initiative; its six-question screener is a subset and is not a standalone diagnostic tool.
Source: Harvard Medical School ASRS background memo · NYU Langone ASRS screener source
- Availability heuristic
A judgement shortcut where examples that come readily to mind seem more common or likely.
- Base rate
The frequency of an outcome in a relevant group before considering additional evidence about a particular case.
- Big Five
A framework for describing personality through five broad traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability.
- Causation
A relationship in which a change in one factor helps bring about a change in another.
- CEFR
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages describes language ability across six levels, from A1 to C2, with separate descriptors for different skills.
- Cognitive bias
A systematic pattern in thinking that can skew judgement.
- Collocation
A combination of words that commonly appears together in a language, such as a verb with a particular noun or preposition.
- Confidence interval
A range around an estimated score that expresses uncertainty under a stated testing method.
- Confirmation bias
A tendency to seek, notice or give more weight to information that supports an existing belief than to information that challenges it.
- Conscientiousness
A Big Five trait describing patterns such as organization, persistence and follow-through.
- Correlation
A statistical relationship in which two measures vary together.
- Delayed recall
Remembering information after a period in which attention has moved to something else.
- Diagnosis
A clinical conclusion reached through assessment by a qualified clinician.
- Digit span
A memory task in which a person repeats a sequence of digits in the same or reverse order.
- Emotional stability
A Big Five trait describing patterns in emotional reactivity and steadiness.
- Extraversion
A Big Five trait covering patterns such as sociability, activity and positive engagement.
- Fallacy
An error in reasoning that weakens an argument.
- False cause
A reasoning error that treats a relationship or sequence as proof that one event caused another.
- GAD-7
A seven-item self-report scale developed to identify probable cases of generalized anxiety disorder and assess symptom severity.
- Grammar
The patterns that govern how words and phrases combine in a language.
- Immediate recall
Remembering information just presented, with little or no delay.
- Inference
A conclusion drawn from information or premises. Reasoning questions often ask whether the conclusion follows from only the facts given.
- Intellect/Imagination
A label used by some IPIP measures for the Big Five trait often called openness.
- IPIP
The International Personality Item Pool is a public-domain collection of personality items and scales. MyTestAtlas identifies the IPIP material used on the relevant test pages.
- IQ
A score derived from an intelligence test and interpreted using that test's scale and reference information.
- Likert scale
A response format that offers ordered choices, often from disagreement to agreement or from never to very often. The labels and number of choices depend on the questionnaire.
- Matrix reasoning
A visual reasoning task that asks a person to infer a pattern across rows or columns and choose the missing part.
- Memory span
The amount of information held and repeated immediately in a span task.
- Neuroticism
A Big Five trait describing patterns of emotional reactivity and negative emotion.
- Norm-referenced score
A score interpreted by comparing it with results from a specified reference group.
- Numerical reasoning
Reasoning with quantities, tables, charts or numerical relationships.
- Openness
A Big Five trait associated with curiosity, imagination and interest in ideas; some IPIP measures call it Intellect/Imagination.
- Operation span
A working-memory task that alternates a short processing problem with an item to remember.
- Percentile rank
A position in a comparison distribution; a rank of 70 places a score above about 70 percent of scores in the reference group.
- PHQ-9
A nine-item depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire used to measure symptom severity.
- Processing speed
How quickly a person carries out a particular mental operation under timed conditions.
- Raw score
A direct count or total before conversion to another scale or interpretation.
- Reading comprehension
Understanding information in a written passage, including its main point, details and implications.
- Recognition
Identifying information encountered earlier when it is shown again, often among alternatives. It differs from recalling information without seeing it.
- Reverse-keyed item
A questionnaire statement whose response direction is reversed when calculating a scale, so agreement contributes in the opposite direction from positively keyed statements.
- Screening
An initial check that identifies people who may benefit from a closer assessment.
- Self-check
A structured set of questions for reflecting on experiences or patterns.
- Spatial reasoning
Working with visual forms and their positions, including mentally turning or comparing shapes.
- Syllogism
A short argument with premises from which a conclusion is evaluated; a valid conclusion follows from the premises.
- Verbal reasoning
Reasoning from words, statements or passages, including evaluating whether a conclusion follows from given information.
- Working memory
Holding information in mind while using or updating it.