name,text,elaboration,answer_choices_innerHTML,answer_choices_text,answer_choices,answer_type,source
Q1concept_behav,"Does this task primarily require physical effort, as opposed to primarily requiring mental effort?","Even if tasks require a combination of physical and mental effort, one type will still be ""primary.""
For example, moving bricks from point A to point B requires almost entirely motor effort (even if you have to strategize about how to lift them), while calculating a tip in a restaurant is almost entirely mental effort (even if you have to use a pen).
Thus, think carefully about whether the ""core"" of the task is physical or mental. Similar activities --- for example, clicking a mouse --- can be involved in both physical and mental tasks, depending on their main purpose. For example, if you have to use a mouse to click on the correct answer for a multiple-choice math test, this is mostly a mental task. But if the goal of the task is just to click something as much as you can, then it's mostly a physical task.",Mental | Physical | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),Mental | Physical | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),Mental | Physical | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,McGrath
Q2intel_manip_1,What is the fraction of physical (as opposed to mental) effort required for the task?,"This question places Question 1 on a continuous scale, rather than having you pick one or the other.
Tasks at the high end of the dimension require only physical (motor) activities for completion, whereas those at the opposite extreme require only mental (reasoning, thinking) activities for the successful task completion.",,,Entirely Mental Effort – Entirely Physical Effort,unit_range,Shaw
Q3type_1_planning,"Is this a ""planning"" task? In other words, is one of the main purpose(s) of this task to produce a sequence of concrete steps or actions that an individual can follow to achieve some goal?","These are tasks ""having emphasis on action orientation.""
Answer 'yes' if this task involves writing down a series of concrete steps that someone will follow in order to achieve a goal. Examples include organizing an event, or figuring out a plan for buying things at the store. This plan may later be executed by the person making it, or could be given to someone else.
Answer 'no' if this task just involves doing an activity without writing the steps down. (For example, if you write a recipe and then cook, you are planning; if you cook without a recipe, that is NOT planning.) Also answer 'no' if there is no intention to actually use the plan in the ""real world,"" or if it's just a hypothetical math problem. Sometimes math problems involve a story or context (e.g., ""calculate how much time it takes for Jimmy to go to the store,"" or ""find the shortest path that a traveling salesman can take"". However, these are math problems rather than plans.","No, this is NOT a ""planning"" task. | Yes, this is a ""planning"" task. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, this is NOT a ""planning"" task. | Yes, this is a ""planning"" task. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,McGrath
Q4type_2_generate,"Is this a ""generation"" or ""brainstorming"" task? In other words, is one of the main purpose(s) of this task to produce a number of ideas or examples, without any particular action associated with them?","These are tasks based around generating ideas, examples, or concepts.
The examples being generated can be either abstract (generating words and colors) or concrete (generating ideas for how to spend $10,000 or ways to use a paperclip). If the ideas are concrete, they should NOT suggest a specific plan or course of action. This question is therefore different from the previous question; the participants are NOT generating a plan.
Note that you should only answer ""yes"" to this question if one of the main outcomes of this task is to generate such ideas. Many tasks require people to discuss ideas (for example, a jury task), or come up with creative ways to solve a problem (for example, a math problem), but the primary goal of such tasks is not just to generate the ideas.","No, this is NOT a ""generation"" or ""brainstorming"" task. | Yes, this is a ""generation"" or ""brainstorming"" task. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, this is NOT a ""generation"" or ""brainstorming"" task. | Yes, this is a ""generation"" or ""brainstorming"" task. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,McGrath
Q5creativity_input_1,"What fraction of the effort required for this task is creative thinking (as opposed to any other type of effort, whether physical, logical, etc.)?","You can think of this, in a way, as the continuous version of the previous question, but it is also intended to capture a wider range of ""creative"" activity than just purely generating ideas.
Descriptors that might suggest creativity include: ""new"", ""novel"", ""unique"", ""come up with as many ideas as possible"", ""invent"", ""create,"" etc. A purely creative task is solely based around such activities (for example, writing advertisements).
Descriptors that do not suggest creativity include: ""add these numbers together"", ""click your mouse as fast as possible"", ""find the optimal allocation."" Such tasks might involve simply following the rules or executing a task without thinking creatively.
Finally, some tasks are in between --- it may be possible to invent a unique way to solve a math problem. This is more creative than a problem that simply requires adding numbers.",,,No Creativity Required – Purely Creative Task,unit_range,New
Q6type_5_cc,"Is one of the main purpose(s) of this task to resolve people's differences in opinion, perspective, or viewpoint?","Within a group, a difference in viewpoint or opinion may arise either because members interpret the same information in different ways, assign different importance to that information, or both. Resolving those differences may take many forms, such as having a discussion, building consensus, holding a vote on the options, or simply thinking through ways to account for the viewpoints (e.g., making a judgment call that balances the perspectives).
For individuals, resolving opinions may involve adjudicating real or hypothetical disagreements for others. For example, a game in which you pretend to be a judge and decide court cases would primarily involve resolving differences in perspective or opinion.
Another example of a 'yes' is an activity where you run a funding organization and different projects have applied for access to your funds. A decision-making task for allocating these funds will involve making sense of the different opinions and perspectives that parties may have.","No, one of the main purpose(s) is NOT to resolve differences in opinion/perspective/viewpoint. | Yes, one of the main purposes is to resolve differences in opinion/perspective/viewpoint. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, one of the main purpose(s) is NOT to resolve differences in opinion/perspective/viewpoint. | Yes, one of the main purposes is to resolve differences in opinion/perspective/viewpoint. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,McGrath
Q7type_7_battle,Can the outcome of this task be described in win/lose terms?,"This question captures whether a task is a ""competition"" or ""battle,"" in which your outcome is relative to someone or something else (e.g., another player, team, or an AI agent).
A battle is ""where the focus is on conquest of an opponent and winner-take-all distribution of payoffs,"" and a competition is ""where there is a lot of emphasis on standards of performance excellence over and above the reckoning of winners and losers."" Competitions between sports teams fit this category (e.g., basketball, soccer, ice hockey), but so too do military and street gang battles (e.g., the spoils of war go to the victor no matter how honorably the vanquished may have fought).
Answer 'yes' ONLY if you ""win"" or ""lose"" relative to somebody else who is playing the game. If someone performs poorly in the task, but they are not being compared to another player, you should answer 'no.' For example, if you are being asked to come up with as many ideas as possible, you may think that you ""lose"" if you generate zero ideas or that you ""win"" because you generated many ideas. However, you should still answer 'no,' because this question is asking about ""winning"" and ""losing"" in relative terms. A task in which you need to come up with more ideas than another player, on the other hand, would be a 'yes,' since you would win or lose relative to that other person.","No, the task is NOT a ""competition"" or ""battle."" | Yes, the task is a ""competition"" or ""battle."" | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, the task is NOT a ""competition"" or ""battle."" | Yes, the task is a ""competition"" or ""battle."" | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,McGrath
Q8type_8_performance,"Does the task have an all-or-nothing outcome? In other words, is it sufficient to just meet a particular standard?","These tasks are about doing just enough work to meet some threshold or standard, but once you reach that standard, precision does not matter.
As an example, a pass-fail class (e.g., ""anything above 70% is a pass"") is all-or-nothing. On the other hand, a letter grade (A+ for 100%, A for 90, and so on) is not. Another example is a task in which people simply need to move objects from Point A to Point B: if they meet the outcome, they succeed. Even if they moved the object part of the way there, they don't get any credit for their effort. Moving it an extra 10 feet does not get them any brownie points.
Counter-examples include games in which you try to earn as many points as possible, and you end up with a numeric score instead of simply a success/fail. For example, trying to generate as many ideas as possible, or solve as many problems as possible, would NOT be all-or-nothing tasks. If participants moving an object get credit for every foot that they manage to move it, then it's NOT all-or-nothing.","No, this task does NOT have an all-or-nothing outcome. | Yes, this task has an all-or-nothing outcome. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, this task does NOT have an all-or-nothing outcome. | Yes, this task has an all-or-nothing outcome. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,McGrath
Q9divisible_unitary,Is it efficient and useful for members of the group to work on discrete parts (or subtasks) of this activity?,"Ask yourself: is it efficient or useful for a team of people to ""divide and conquer"" this task, or is this really something where one person should be doing most of the work?
A key heuristic is whether the different sub-parts of the task are interdependent or not. If the sub-parts are not dependent on each other, it often makes sense for different people to work on each part separately (so answer 'yes'). However, if the sub-parts are interdependent, one person can't start their part without waiting for another person to finish, so dividing and conquering doesn't make sense (and you should answer 'no').
For example, if you are solving 10 simple arithmetic problems, each of ten people may work on one of them. If there is only one problem to be solved, it's not efficient for one person to do the thinking and another to do the writing. Similarly, for a task where you want to generate as many ideas as possible, everyone can separately come up with ideas and combine them in the end. For a task where everyone needs to come up with a shared plan, the parts of the plan depend on each other, so it is difficult to divide and conquer.","No, you should NOT divide-and-conquer this task. | Yes, you should divide-and-conquer this task. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, you should NOT divide-and-conquer this task. | Yes, you should divide-and-conquer this task. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,Steiner
Q10maximizing,"Is the goal (or one of the goals) of this task to try to achieve doing something as much as possible, as many as possible, or as quickly as possible?","Sometimes the goal that is to be achieved entails doing as much as possible of something, or doing it as rapidly as possible. Thus, if an individual or group is asked to exert a maximum force on a rope, a strong pull is regarded as a more successful performance than a weak pull. If a team of mountain climbers is asked to ascend a cliff as rapidly as possible, maximum speed is the criterion against which performance is evaluated. Look for tasks asking participants to score the most number of points, get the most utility, for everyone to generate as many ideas as they can, and so on.","No, one of the goals is NOT about working as much/many/quickly as possible. | Yes, one of the goals is about working as much/many/quickly as possible. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, one of the goals is NOT about working as much/many/quickly as possible. | Yes, one of the goals is about working as much/many/quickly as possible. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,Steiner
Q11optimizing,Is the goal (or one of the goals) of this task to try to achieve a precise outcome?,"Here, there is a specific standard to meet, but precision matters. (This is unlike the previous question about all-or-nothing outcomes, for example, where precision did not matter.)
Look for tasks with a specific, most preferred outcome. If the task is to estimate the temperature of a room, the goal is to agree with the value indicated by the thermometer. Another example is moving exactly 10 objects --- no more, no less --- or to exactly reproduce something (such as a task where people have to exactly copy a work of art).
Also look out for concepts like ""exactly,"" ""precisely,"" ""optimal,"" or ""best."" For example, if you are asked to generate exactly 10 ideas, generating both 9 ideas and 11 ideas would be considered a failure. Another clue might be terms like ""constraints,"" ""requirements,"" or ""rules"" that someone has to follow, as long as there is a specific best answer within the rule set. For example, if you want to buy the most number of items using a budget of $100, the ""constraint"" of $100 also serves as a precise goal. That is, the closer you get to $100 (the more precise you are), the better you do at the task.
","No, one of the goals is NOT to achieve a precise outcome. | Yes, one of the goals is to achieve a precise outcome. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, one of the goals is NOT to achieve a precise outcome. | Yes, one of the goals is to achieve a precise outcome. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,Steiner
Q13outcome_multip,"Is there only one ""best"" solution (or possible solution) to this task?","For example, an arithmetic problem, such as summing a bunch of numbers, will have only one correct answer. On the other hand, a creative writing task has many valid solutions.
In cases where there are many possibly correct answers, or answers with partial solutions, there could still be one ""best"" solution, or a specific ""best"" solution that the experimenter is looking for. For example, in a game in which one needs to win in as few moves as possible, there may be an optimal lowest number, even if there are less efficient solutions.","No, there is NOT a best solution. | Yes, there is a best solution. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, there is NOT a best solution. | Yes, there is a best solution. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,"Shaw, Zigurs"
Q14sol_scheme_mul,"Is there only one method for achieving the task, as opposed to many alternatives for task completion?","Is there only one right way of solving the problem?
Answer 'no' if there is more than one possible course of action or process to attain the group's goal.
Answer 'yes' if there is only ONE process or action that will lead to the correct answer or achieve the goal.
As an example, answer 'yes' if the instructions specify exact steps, e.g., ""first you write all the 3-letter words, then the 4-letter words, then the 5-letter words,"" or if there's really only one way to do the task (e.g., perform long division). Actions might also be limited by the environment: participants may be working on an electronic system that restricts their communication or the steps that they are allowed to take.
However, answer 'no' if the task is open-ended in terms of course of action: e.g., if participants are simply asked to ""come up with a solution"" or ""give as many ideas as possible"" without specifying how they should achieve the goal.","No, there are MANY ways to achieve this task. | Yes, there is only ONE way to achieve this task. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, there are MANY ways to achieve this task. | Yes, there is only ONE way to achieve this task. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,"Shaw, Zigurs"
Q15dec_verifiability,"Can acceptable solutions to this task be demonstrated or verified to be correct (e.g., by an expert or third-party)?","This item refers to the ""degree to which acceptable solutions can be demonstrated to be correct,"" via logic and rules as opposed to having a general consensus.
For example, the solution to a math problem can be verified via the rules of algebra. In a task where participants are asked to buy the items with the best value, one can also use logic to list out every possible combination of items and show that their solution is the best one. Another type of demonstration could involve showing facts: for example, if the task is to estimate how many people live in the United States, the ""ground truth"" is the statistic from the U.S. Census.
Examples of tasks where you should answer 'no' include answering the question, ""should we ban all guns?"" --- this cannot be verified via logic and rules. Evaluating whether something is ""creative,"" as well as other subjective judgements, is also not demonstrable.","No, you CANNOT verify a solution to be correct. | Yes, you CAN verify a solution to be correct. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)","No, you CANNOT verify a solution to be correct. | Yes, you CAN verify a solution to be correct. | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.)",No | Yes | Not applicable or not answerable based on the task description (Please Elaborate Below.),nominal,Laughlin
Q16shared_knowledge,"Can this task be written as a ""formal model"" that an algorithm could solve?","Some tasks can be written as a formal model or math problem, expressed with rules and syntax that the problem-solvers share.
One way to think about this question is to ask yourself, could a robot or algorithm do this task?
Here are examples of a 'yes' answer: