Research

In technology-based performance assessment, a core area of our research group, we address - among others - the following questions:

• Can general knowledge be meaningfully assessed using a smartphone? Which areas of knowledge can be distinguished?
• Can reaction times and incidental data be used to predict which study participants cheat when answering performance tests?
• How does one develop and validate test procedures that allow reliable prediction of study success in psychological and medical study programmes?

In the field of psychometrics, we mainly deal with statistical-methodological questions to improve psychological measurements. This includes, for example, the following questions:

• Can optimization algorithms such as Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) be used to develop reliable, valid, and fair measurement instruments?
• Can machine learning algorithms be used to predict which participants are most likely to drop out of large-scale, longitudinal panel studies?
• How can the influence of continuous contextual variables such as age be reflected in latent modeling of personality change or competence development?

In the field of clinical assessment, we are concerned with the following example questions:

• What characterizes the dynamic interplay of cognition and depressive symptomatology in patients with Parkinson's disease compared to an age-matched control group?
• What dimensional structure underlies clinical measurement instruments when trying to meta-analytically summarize previous findings?

If you are interested in writing a thesis in our department of psychological assessment, please send us an email.