Tower of Hanoi Test: what is it and what does it measure?

Psychological tests to measure all kinds of constructs are many and varied. Most of them use questionnaires or interviews that the evaluated person must complete or fill out following a series of guidelines; while others, of a much more practical nature, urge the person to carry out a series of practical exercises which reflect a whole range of skills and cognitive abilities.

One of these tests is the Tower of Hanoi test., an activity that in its origins was conceived as a mathematical problem but that with the passage of time introduced in the field of psychological evaluation to measure mental processes of the functions executives.

• Related article: "Types of psychological tests: their functions and characteristics"

What is the Tower of Hanoi Test?

There are a large number of tests designed to assess skills such as planning ability and executive functioning. One of them is the Tower of Hanoi Test. The test measures some aspects of executive functions since, to complete it, the person needs to foresee and solve the unknown cognitively, before making any movement.

This test was created in 1883 by the French-born mathematician Edouard Lucas. Lucas was inspired by a Hindu temple, as well as the story of its creation, to develop the characteristics of the test, as well as the three towers that make up the test. These characteristics have remained practically intact since the moment of its creation. However, it was not until 1975 when it began to be used with the aim of understanding the behavior of people and evaluate the different abilities and strategies during the resolution of a problem.

The characteristics of which we spoke previously, and which have given this test some fame, are both the speed as the ease of application, as well as the simplicity of the evaluation, the analysis of the results and the interpretation of these.

The person who takes the Towers of Hanoi test she must solve a transformation problem for which she will need some mental effort, which will serve to reach the answer through a series of movements. Solving the enigma requires the use of complex reasoning in problem solving and learning mechanisms.

What does the test consist of?

The end of the Towers of Hanoi Test is move the tower of discs along three rods that are in front of the person, from the initial configuration to a final configuration indicated by the evaluator. This tower is divided into blocks or discs, which the patient must move to restore the tower to its final position.

The second rod consists of a "support" tower that will allow the person to temporarily place the discs. However, one of the requirements of the test is that the person must perform the least number of movements possible and with the fewest number of mistakes.

In addition, the test was developed with three conditions that restrict the movements that the person can or cannot do. These restrictions are:

• The person is not allowed to place a large disk on top of another smaller disk.
• Person You can only make moves in the same order in which the discs are placed.. Always starting with the disk it finds first.
• The disks always have to be on one of the three axes. That is, the person cannot keep them in their hand or leave them on the table

Any movement or attempt that involves having to skip any of these two conditions will be counted as an error and communicated to the person. In the digital variant of the test, the program directly prevents any of these movements from being carried out and, in addition, it is notified by means of an auditory signal.

Technical characteristics of the test

Like all tests used in psychological evaluation, the Tower of Hanoi Test has a series of technical characteristics both at the level of test administration, population, material, etc

1. Target population

The Towers of Hanoi test It can be administered both in children, adolescents and adults, adapting in each case the difficulty levels of the test.

2. Material

The material consists of three small towers made up of one stake each and three tokens of different sizes.

3. Administration

The development of the test consists of the person having to change the arrangement of the discs from the initial configuration to the final one, carrying out the least amount of movements and with the least number of mistakes.

The difficulty of the test can vary and increase, using from 3 to 9 different disks.

4. Punctuation

The evaluator must collect the number of movements that the person performs until the final configuration is achieved. In the same way, You will need to account for the number of errors and the amount of time the person needs to To solve the problem.

The scores are commuted and transformed into a final total score that reflects the person's ability to solve the problem. Finally, it is interpreted that a low number of moves and errors is a reflection of a good execution.

In what contexts is it administered?

Although not particularly well known, the Tower of Hanoi test It is a basic and practical assessment instrument, so its administration can be useful in a large number of fields. However, the contexts in which it is most used are:

• psychological clinics.
• Career guidance and personnel selection centers.
• Teaching centers.
• Military and defense contexts.

What does the test measure?

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the objective of the Towers of Hanoi test is to carry out an evaluation of the person's executive functions. Specifically, the ability to plan and solve problems.

The executive functionsrefer to all the complex mental tasks that the person needs to perform to plan, organize, direct, verify and evaluate the behaviors or behaviors necessary for adaptation to the environment and problem solving.

The mental processes of executive functions are:

• Work memory.
• Planning.
• Reasoning.
• Flexibility.
• Inhibition.
• Decision making.
• Temporary estimate.
• Dual execution.
• Ability to multitask.

However, in the Towers of Hanoi test intends to emphasize the assessment of planning and problem-solving ability.