Right-left orientation (RLO)

Measurement object / dimensions
Right-left weakness, or left-right weakness, is very common. There is no specific technical term for this "disease". Above all, those affected have difficulty pointing in the direction indicated. They also find it difficult to follow directions or the instructions of the driving instructor. The orientation disorder is particularly pronounced in hectic situations and under stress. In fact, false limbs have already been amputated in this way.
Many researchers see the origin of left-right weakness in human evolutionary history. With the help of an internal compass, Stone Age people were able to orient themselves very reliably. With the introduction of the terms left and right, however, the cardinal points were pushed into the background. However, lateral orientation is very imprecise and depends on our current position. As this contradicts our basic instincts, many people have problems with this.
Current study results show that spatial orientation grows more slowly and over a longer period of time than other spatial abilities (Wilhelm & Maresch, 2017). This means that the ability for spatial orientation is significantly less than 80% developed at around 14 years of age and this ability has only developed to around 80%-90% by the age of around 25 (Wilhelm, 2017).
It is reassuring that a lack of intelligence is certainly not the reason for a right-left weakness. Rather, the reason lies in incorrect or lack of training, because "right" and "left" are not innate orientation features.

  • 20 to 30 percent of people have problems with "right" and "left".
  • Many primitive peoples do not know this assignment, they mainly orient themselves by the cardinal points.
  • This is also the case with young children in industrialized countries - until they are drilled on "right" and "left".

2 variables are collected:
1. egocentric strategy (body-related, this is the "correct" right-left orientation ability) and
2. allocentric strategy (related to the direction of the compass; used by some primitive peoples and small children; easily lose orientation in cities/buildings, even if you have been there several times before, e.g. cannot follow instructions from a passenger such as "turn left" at all or only very slowly; wait for manual "direction indicators")

Brief description of the procedure

Authors
Jörg A. Prieler

Area(s) of application
Traffic psychology; personnel selection and recruiting, especially for medical personnel, blue light organizations, army, air traffic control, control tasks ...; clinical psychology

Execution
The RLO is available as a screening form (12 items) and as a standard form (40 items).

Execution time
In both versions, you have 30 seconds to think about each item before moving on to the next item. Screening form (12 items): 6 minutes; standard form (40 items): 20 minutes

Reliability
Reliability in the sense of internal consistency is given due to the validity of the Rasch model. Nevertheless, Cronbach's alpha and retest reliabilities were calculated:
In a study of 213 people, reliability coefficients of 0.85 (screening) and 0.96 (standard form) were determined (Cronbach's alpha).
To determine stability, 104 people were tested a second time at six-month intervals. The retest reliabilities were 0.70 (screening) and 0.76 (standard form).

Validity
The validity of the RLO is given because there is a high level of agreement with other test procedures: Right-left test for air traffic controllers (Eurocontrol), 3-dimensional dice test (3DW, Gittler), figure composition (IST2000R, Amthauer), which measure similar dimensions, and because there is little to no agreement with test procedures that measure something else: Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM, Raven) and d2 attention test (Brickenkamp). There is little to no correlation with general intelligence and concentration, as has been postulated in numerous studies (convergent and discriminant validity).
In a second validation study (air traffic controllers with at least 10 years of experience, N=59) with subsequent cross-validation (normal persons, N=63), the scale differences between these two groups were analyzed using inferential statistics (variance and discriminant analysis).
In a third validation study (special units, N=33), the RLO was specified during the admission procedure and correlated with success after a 3-month weapons and combat drill (assessment on a school grading scale by commanders).
Evaluation / Standards
Standard values (stanine scale) are issued for both versions, and work is ongoing to expand them. At present, norms are available for normal persons (N=218), air traffic controllers (N=111) and special units (N=54); breakdown by gender, age and level of education available. The presentation of norm tables is omitted for copyright reasons, as is customary internationally with many test publishers today; the norms are part of the evaluation software and are not published.

Evaluation / Standards
Standard values (stanine scale) are issued for both versions, and work is ongoing to expand them. At present, norms are available for normal persons (N=218), air traffic controllers (N=111) and special units (N=54); breakdown by gender, age and level of education available. The presentation of norm tables is omitted for copyright reasons, as is customary internationally with many test publishers today; the norms are part of the evaluation software and are not published.

Execution methods
Possible on PCs/laptops/touchpads without restriction. On mobile phones only to a limited extent, as input with a finger is somewhat cumbersome (but possible in principle).

Languages
German, English

Security and data protection
The IR&C system meets the latest IT requirements ("banking standard"). As an additional security measure, personal codes can also be assigned instead of the specific names of the persons tested. Customers only need to provide sufficient PCs/laptops/touchpads with or without an Internet connection (on/off-line capable, also intranet-capable).