Gamification and game-based assessment are being increasingly adopted in organizations as a means to measure human characteristics, yet little research is available to understand the psychometric properties of such assessments, their legality, or reactions to them in high-stakes contexts. In this talk, I will first explain the difference between games and gamification in the assessment context. Second, I will provide examples of game-based assessments currently used in the employee selection marketplace. Third, I will describe one of my recent empirical studies exploring reactions, psychometric properties, and adverse impact in one of these, a game-based general cognitive ability assessment. Finally, I will briefly explore the potential of recent transformative advances in predictive modeling coming from the field of data science, commonly called machine learning or artificial intelligence, to improve construct measurement from games beyond what is currently available in either research or practice.
Presenter Bio
Dr. Richard Landers is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota and holds the John P. Campbell Distinguished Professorship of Industrial-Organizational Psychology. He is Principal Investigator for TNTLAB (Testing New Technologies in Learning, Assessment and Behavior), where his research concerns the use of innovative technologies in the domains of psychometric assessment, employee selection, adult learning, and research methods, and innovative technologies include game-based assessment, gamification, artificial intelligence, unproctored Internet-based testing, mobile devices, virtual reality, and online social media. He is also a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP).
His academic work focuses upon interdisciplinary contributions at various intersections of psychology and computer science. Much appears in prominent psychology journals, such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business and Psychology, Industrial and Organizational Psychology Perspectives, and Psychological Methods, but he has also published extensively in human-computer interaction outlets, including Computers in Human Behavior, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies and Simulation & Gaming.
Dr. Landers maintains a significant connection with industry, the media, and I-O practitioners. His work has been featured in numerous popular outlets including Forbes, Engadget, New Scientist, Business Insider, and Popular Science. He is a member of the scientific advisory board for human capital and management consulting firms AON Hewitt and Revelian, and he regularly consults with startups and other organizations seeking advice on the best ways to combine the rigorous assessment techniques of I-O psychology with cutting-edge technology.
Dr. Landers’ writing and editorial activities are varied. He currently serves as associate editor for both the International Journal of Selection and Assessment and Simulation & Gaming, and he serves on the editorial boards of five journals, including Journal of Applied Psychology and Journal of Business and Psychology. He is author of a statistics textbook, A Step-by-Step Introduction to Statistics for Business, now in its second edition, and he has developed two edited scholarly volumes: Social Media in Employee Selection and the Cambridge Handbook of Technology and Employee Behavior. Finally, he maintains a blog sharing updates on his laboratory’s work at http://neoacademic.com.
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