The Impact of Time Pressure on the Results of Psychotechnical Tests Based on the Findings of Pilot Studies Conducted on a Group of Students of the Silesian University of Technology-A Case Study

Abstract

The performance of job tasks is increasingly being viewed through the prism of time constraints. Stress, as a consequence of these constraints, can play a dual role: motivating or destructive. This paper addresses the role of time pressure during the implementation of psychotechnical tests. Based on the example of a pilot group, which consisted of students of the Faculty of Mining, Safety Engineering, and Industrial Automation of the Silesian University of Technology, the authors presented the results of the study of the impact of time regime on the assessment of visuomotor coordination, psychomotor reaction time, the ability to focus attention, perceptual speed and accuracy, attention divisibility, and set-shifting. With the use of a survey conducted among the subjects and multivariate analysis (the Analytic Hierarchy Process method), an assessment was made in terms of difficulty levels during the implementation of exercises, including four evaluation criteria: complexity, repetition and timing of emitted signals, and the required accuracy of response to the signals in question. In the process of verifying the consistency of the evaluations carried out, the consistency ratio (CR) was adopted.

Keywords: psychotechnical tests; stress; the analytic hierarchy process method; time pressure.

Figure 1

Psychotechnical tests—results: (a) Poppelreuter tables; (b) Piórkowski apparatus; (c) cross apparatus; (d) reaction time meter [own elaboration].