Measures of everyday problem solving

The Basic Skills Assessment test developed at the Educational Testing Service (1977) contains 65 items that simulate real life tasks. Examples of such tasks included in the test involve reading a bus schedule, identifying locations on a road map, interpreting a medicine bottle label, finding information in the yellow pages of the telephone book, and so on. In addition to a total score, this test can also be scored for four factor scales identified in an item factor analysis (Willis, Schaie, Kennett, Zuo, Intrieri, & Persaud (under review). This test was administered during the 1984 and 1991 testing waves.
The Everyday Problems Test (Willis, 1990). Is a more structured test that was developed so as to map on the instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Twenty-one sets of stimuli, which involve printed materials, obtained from real life documents; charts and labels are presented without a time limit. Two multiple-choice questions are asked with respect to each stimulus. In addition to the total score, there are seven six-item sub-scales assessing everyday competence on the dimensions of medication use, shopping, telephone use, financial matters, household activities, meal preparation, and transportation. This test has been administered in the 1998 and 2005 testing waves.​