Editing Psychological testing (section)

=== Sample of behavior ===
The term ''sample of behavior'' refers to an individual's performance on tasks that have usually been prescribed beforehand. For example, a spelling test for middle school students cannot include all the words in the vocabularies of middle schoolers because there are thousands of words in their lexicon; a middle school spelling test must include only a sample of words in their vocabulary. The samples of behavior must be reasonably representative of the behavior in question. The samples of behavior that make up a paper-and-pencil test, the most common type of psychological test, are written into the test items. Total performance on the items produces a test score. A score on a well-constructed test is believed to reflect a [[psychological construct]] such as achievement in a school subject like vocabulary or mathematics knowledge, [[cognitive ability]], dimensions of [[personality]] such as introversion/extraversion, etc. Differences in test scores are thought to reflect individual differences in the construct the test is purported to measure.<ref Name = "Nunnally"/>