Psychological Tests Battery for Cognitive Aptitudes
(BTPAC)Mihaela PORUMB
SC COGNITROM SRL, Cluj NapocaHistory
Psychological Tests Battery for Cognitive Aptitudes (in Romanian: Baterie de Teste
Psihologice de Aptitudini Cognitive – BTPAC ) consists of 23 tests and represents the
materialization of a new generation of psychological tests. In the past, the practical need
to have measurement instruments for mental aptitudes put pressure on psychologists who
created measurement instruments even before having sufficient theoretical and
experimental data on mental processes. For instance, the Binet-Simon intelligence test is
based on a rudimentary theory on intelligence, which was available at the time, in the
early years of the last century. When Binet was asked what intelligence was, he
answered: “intelligence is what my test measures”, by explaining the construct through
the test and the test through the construct. Similarly, the subsequent attention, memory,
intelligence and other tests were created on the basis of already outdated theories. In the
meantime, cognitive psychology, through the theoretical and experimental research
undertaken, has developed new models and theories of mental functioning, much more
valid than those underlying classical tests. Our own research and the analysis of literature
has led us to the belief that psychological evaluation instruments available on the market
are at least 20 years lagging behind the latest theoretical and experimental research.
Consequently, synchronizing / updating cognitive measurement instruments is a clear
necessity.
In this context, in 2003 the Ministry of Labour in Romania offered the opportunity to
elaborate a psychological tests battery for cognitive aptitudes for vocational guidance and
counselling. The financing of such a project rallied our research efforts. Each item bears