<p>The state of the art in computer-scored Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT) as of 2015 appears to be that <strong>computer-scored TATs do not exist</strong>. </p>

<p>There does not appear to be any relevant results on Google Scholar, Web of Science or Scopus for any search I can think of including the term "thematic apperception" which yield any example or mention of computer-scored TATs, and all recent studies utilizing TATs have reported using standard versions (e.g., Turk et al., 2010). A 2013 book dedicated to the TAT, <em><a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=MkCw8sTjTj0C&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PP1&amp;dq=%22thematic%20apperception%22&amp;ots=IKQrMcHOxJ&amp;sig=vDziIJmDy9AU19lYqzNeYlYTj2A#v=onepage&amp;q=%22thematic%20apperception%22&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">A practical guide to the Thematic Apperception Test: The TAT in clinical practice</a></em> also fails to make any mention of computer-scored or otherwise computerized implementations of the TAT.</p>

<h1>References</h1>

<ul>
<li>Aronow, E., Weiss, K. A., &amp; Reznikoff, M. (2013). A practical guide to the Thematic Apperception Test: The TAT in clinical practice. Routledge.</li>
<li>Turk, A. A., Brown, W. S., Symington, M., &amp; Paul, L. K. (2010). Social narratives in agenesis of the corpus callosum: linguistic analysis of the Thematic Apperception Test. Neuropsychologia, 48(1), 43-50.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-23T09:01:48.850Z
2015-04-23T09:12:16.123Z
2015-04-23T09:12:16.123Z
Christian Hummeluhr
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_Apperception_Test" rel="nofollow">Thematic Apperception Tests</a> (TATs) involve showing test takers pictures and getting them to write stories based on the pictures. Coding such stories for themes and traits can be complex, time-consuming, and potentially suffer from issues of unreliability. Thus, it would be interesting to see whether automated computerised coding could make the process of scoring TATs more efficient, reliable, and valid.</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>What is the current state of computerised coding of TATs?</strong></li>
<li><strong>How does the reliability and validity of computerised coding compare to human coding?</strong></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-22T12:12:38.577Z
I've looked into this a number of times since first coming across this question, but I have difficulty imagining how a computerized TAT would work, and there doesn't seem to be any literature on computerized TATs at all. Do they exist? It would be helpful to have a starting point.
Christian Hummeluhr
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-22T23:55:32.557Z
@ChristianHummeluhr I haven't looked into it myself. Many years back, I helped out coding a whole pile of responses to TATs. It was quite resource intensive. You also have all sorts of challenges with inter-rater reliability, and so forth. So I was curious whether anyone has looked into computerised scoring.
Jeromy Anglim
<measurement><test><experimental-psychology><software>
What is the state of the art in computerised coding of Thematic Apperception Tests (TATs)?
Jeromy Anglim
# What is the state of the art in computerised coding of Thematic Apperception Tests (TATs)?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-05-07)

[Thematic Apperception Tests](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_Apperception_Test) (TATs) involve showing test takers pictures and getting them to write stories based on the pictures. Coding such stories for themes and traits can be complex, time-consuming, and potentially suffer from issues of unreliability. Thus, it would be interesting to see whether automated computerised coding could make the process of scoring TATs more efficient, reliable, and valid.

* **What is the current state of computerised coding of TATs?**
* **How does the reliability and validity of computerised coding compare to human coding?**

**Tags:** measurement, test, experimental-psychology, software

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I've looked into this a number of times since first coming across this question, but I have difficulty imagining how a computerized TAT would work, and there doesn't seem to be any literature on computerized TATs at all. Do they exist? It would be helpful to have a starting point.  
> **username_0**: @ChristianHummeluhr I haven't looked into it myself. Many years back, I helped out coding a whole pile of responses to TATs. It was quite resource intensive. You also have all sorts of challenges with inter-rater reliability, and so forth. So I was curious whether anyone has looked into computerised scoring.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-04-23. Score: 3

The state of the art in computer-scored Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT) as of 2015 appears to be that **computer-scored TATs do not exist**.

There does not appear to be any relevant results on Google Scholar, Web of Science or Scopus for any search I can think of including the term "thematic apperception" which yield any example or mention of computer-scored TATs, and all recent studies utilizing TATs have reported using standard versions (e.g., Turk et al., 2010). A 2013 book dedicated to the TAT, *[A practical guide to the Thematic Apperception Test: The TAT in clinical practice](https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=MkCw8sTjTj0C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=%22thematic%20apperception%22&ots=IKQrMcHOxJ&sig=vDziIJmDy9AU19lYqzNeYlYTj2A#v=onepage&q=%22thematic%20apperception%22&f=false)* also fails to make any mention of computer-scored or otherwise computerized implementations of the TAT.

# References

* Aronow, E., Weiss, K. A., & Reznikoff, M. (2013). A practical guide to the Thematic Apperception Test: The TAT in clinical practice. Routledge.
* Turk, A. A., Brown, W. S., Symington, M., & Paul, L. K. (2010). Social narratives in agenesis of the corpus callosum: linguistic analysis of the Thematic Apperception Test. Neuropsychologia, 48(1), 43-50.


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