Creating a Computerized Assessment of Cognitive Flexibility with a User-Friendly Participant and Experimenter Interface

Abstract

Researchers are often faced with practical hurdles to data collection stemming from poorly designed research tools. In this set of studies, we utilized an iterative design process to develop a new assessment of individual differences in cognitive flexibility. The development cycle began with paper prototypes of the cognitive flexibility assessment and ended with a computerized prototype research tool. Here we outline our development process, report results from user testing, and demonstrate how human factors methodology, often used in product design, can also be successfully utilized to test and improve the user friendliness of psychology assessment tools.