The Psychometrics Centre
The Psychometrics Centre researches human behaviour to improve global standards in psychometrics for better business outcomes and user experiences.
Exploring the world of human behaviour
How can you choose the best candidate for your organisation? What does your online behaviour reveal about you? How can you design better user experiences for your product? The Psychometrics Centre researches the latest developments in psychometric assessment to benefit human resource (HR) professionals and the wider business community. Our work spans commercial sectors such as banking, education and publishing, as well as government and third sector groups.
With more than 30 years of experience in psychometric test development, we bring together psychometricians, psychologists, data and computer scientists, statisticians and health and education professionals from across the university to apply the latest techniques in assessment to meet the needs of our clients.
Who we are
We are experienced developers of psychometric tests, and pioneers in adaptive testing and personality targeting technology. Our team of academic staff, psychometricians, software engineers and postgraduate students have expertise covering a broad range of fields – from psychology, philosophy, medicine and education to computer science, mathematics, and statistics. We all share a passion for psychological assessment and cutting-edge research into online behaviour. Through our role as a Strategic Research Network, our research also benefits from our Associates from other University of Cambridge Schools and Departments and our extensive network of Distinguished Associates and Alumni.
What we do
The Psychometrics Centre works to harness the power of research methods from social and computational sciences in understanding and predicting human behaviour in offline and online environments. Our aim is to advance psychological and behavioural measurement, deliver outstanding user experiences, and nurture the next generation of psychometricians. We do this by developing and testing innovative assessment tools, particularly for the occupational, educational and clinical sectors. We publish our scientific research and provide training and mentorship in psychometrics for the academic community worldwide. We also collaborate with business, industry, professional organisations and the public sector to provide consultancy, training and to implement psychometric technologies to enhance their insight into human behaviour and benefit their operations.
Explore research, publications and programmes on the Psychometrics Centre website
Standout projects
Our Concerto platform makes computer-adaptive testing easy and allows anyone to create online assessments, from simple surveys to sophisticated IRT-based computer-adaptive tests (CATs) with textual and graphical feedback. Concerto uses R statistical programming language, which can be used for a range of test calculations. Concerto is open-source and free for academic and commercial use – with no set-up costs or licence fees.
Discover My Profile lets you take over 30 validated psychometric tests to find out about your unique personality and cognitive ability.
Our research has many applications in academia, but also in business and industry. We create bespoke tests and research and development for a wide range of organisations and areas of educational, clinical and occupational assessment. We also provide analytical and advisory consultancy services to individuals, the private and public sector, on assessment issues, data science, statistical analysis and other issues of best research practice.
Explore projects and more on the Psychometrics Centre website
News and insights from The Psychometrics Centre
Read the latest news and insights from The Psychometrics Centre.
Research centre news
New study challenges belief that AI can’t handle creative tasks
The collective creativity of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, is equivalent to 8-10 humans when generative AI models are questioned 10 times, says new study co-authored at Cambridge Judge Business School that challenges the idea that AI can’t handle creative tasks.
Facebook and X users are far more likely to share articles from external news sources when the content is negative, and this could incentivise journalists to produce more negative content, according to research co-authored at the Psychometrics Centre.
Research centre news
Creative writing prize breaks new ground with AI
The Cambridge Creative Writing Competition organised by the Psychometrics Centre at Cambridge Judge allowed AI (artificial intelligence) to be used for the first time.