I__. - International Military Testing Association

(a) The systems are complex: This means that they contain many variables that are interconnected
by a relational network rather than by single unidirectional relations. Given one input
change, the network between the variables causes not only a main effect but several side effects
that also have to be taken into consideration.
(b) The systems are nontransparent: This means that the relational network connecting the
variables one to another is not shown to the subjects. Therefore the subjects have to generate
hypotheses about the effects of their decisions, which they should then test against the feedback
data.
(c) The systems are dynamic: This means that the variables change their state over time,.even
if there is no input change. As a consequence, the effects of input changes differ depending on
the actual system states.
(d) The systems are meaningful: This means that the variables and their interrelations are
implemented in a system to correspond to a domain of reality. The subjects can use their
domain-related knowledge to generate hypotheses.
4.2 Control strategies and derived measures
Due to the differences between these demands and the demands of test items, it is to be expected,
and is substantiated by empirical data, that performance in system control is not predictable by
intelligence test scores (see Dijrner & Kreuzig, 1983; Darner, 1986; Funke, 1983; Putz-Osterloh,
1981).
As DSrner (1986) argues, strategies in system control are determined by a superordinate type
of intelligence, the so-called “operative intelligence”. This type of intelligence refers to the
construction and adaptive use of, and control over, subordinate processes such as information
gathering, hypothesis testing, planning, and decision making.
Different parameters of individual strategies are combined to evaluate the control over
subordinate processes, e.g. the frequency of correct verbalized hypotheses (correspondent to
system reality) and the rareness of false or irrelevant ones. These parameters are analyzed and
summed up over subsequent time intervals to evaluate control and adaptation over time.
In the following, two examples of complex abilities which can be diagnosed from decisionmaking
and from thinking-aloud data are defined and operationalized.
Ability to organize
High organizing ability is defined by the frequency of prospective decisions to prevent
undesirable system states, the rareness of false decisions, and the coordination of different
decisions to reach more than one goal.
In the economic system, the following parameters are combined: the rareness of isolated
decisions, the frequency of central decisions which directly influence one goal variable, and
the frequency of coordinated (in relation to the goal variables) decision patterns over time.
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