Speed vs. accuracy

Speed or accuracy orientation is a Dimension of personality. It describes a person's tendency to focus more on speed or accuracy when doing a task. The fact that both is not always possible and that you can increase the speed of processing (almost) every task in favor of accuracy is referred to as the Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff (Wickelgren, 1977).

In doing so, you can determine the individual orientation of a person on a continuum between the two poles Focus on speed and Focus on accuracy Classify.

The value of each person can therefore be located at one point on the following scale:

Focus on speed

People who are more focused on speed also accept careless errors in order to complete a task quickly.

In return, they can do a lot of work in a shorter period of time.

Focus on accuracy

People who are more focused on accuracy do not allow themselves to be disturbed by time pressure and even take more time than expected to work on a task precisely.

In return, this results in fewer careless errors and the tasks are completed carefully.

Benefits in a professional context

As you can see, the right fit for a vacancy depends not only on the person's speed or accuracy orientation, but also on the characteristics of the vacancy.

Depending on the requirements of the work activities, both a focus on speed and a focus on accuracy can be beneficial. In some professional contexts, not enough time available to double-check everything and complete tasks perfectly. Here would a person with high focus on accuracy have a rather slowing effect on the process. In other jobs there is more time available and diligence is the top priority. Here would be the careless mistakes of a focused on speed The person weighs more heavily.

With a personality diagnosis, you can therefore reduce the risk of mis-hires and at the same time achieve greater diversity in the workplace!

How do you measure speed vs. accuracy?

Do you want to understand where the focus of your applicants is and find out whether they are a good fit for you? Aivy We would be happy to assist you with this!

You don't even need to complete an additional test for this! The preferences for speed or accuracy are defined in each of our Game-based assessments captured. This creates a comprehensive picture of the behavior of their applicants across various tasks and situations.

Sources

• Bromiley, P., & Curley, S.P. (1992). Individual differences in risk-taking. In J.F. Yates (Ed.), Wiley series in human performance and cognition. Risk-taking behavior (pp. 87—132). John Wiley & Sons.
• Gilley, K.M., Walters, B.A., & Olson, B.J. (2002). Top management team risk-taking propensities and firm performance: direct and moderating effects. Journal of Business Strategies, 19 (2), 95.
• García-Granero, A., Llopis, O., Fernandez-Mesa, A., & Alegre, J. (2015). Unraveling the link between managerial risk-taking and innovation: The mediating role of a risk-taking climate. Journal of Business Research, 68 (5), 1094-1104.
• Hadar, L., & Fischer, I. (2008). Giving advice under uncertainty: What you do, what you should do, and what others think you do. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29 (5), 667—683.
• Kalbers, L.P., & Cenker, W.J. (2008). The Impact of Exercised Responsibility, Experience, Autonomy, and Role Ambiguity on Job Performance in Public Accounting. Journal of Managerial Issues, 327-347.
• Wickelgren, W.A. (1977). Speed-accuracy tradeoff and information processing dynamics. Acta psychologica, 41 (1), 67-85.

Aivy captures this trade-off in working behaviour across its assessment procedures.