Dover Testing
Basic Information
This Form of Psychometric Skill Testing was introduced to South Africa in Approximately 1982 to the mining community and since then South African norms have been developed.
The testing system is Culture fair – if administered properly, every step of each test gets explained by the administrator and the candidate need never have operated a computer before in order to do the test/s. Thus, prior computer experience is not required as the administrator ideally controls the process. Even illiterate candidates can do the tests as the administrator ideally explains the basic concepts of the tests, then assists candidates with the standard practice examples before allowing them to continue – administrators control the assessment process, with candidates being required only to listen and respond to instructions.
An objective evaluation / assessment of required skills and reaction abilities is based on the objective scoring of item response – the risk of tester bias is reduced as objective manual-based scoring is conducted
What it is used for
The Dover Explores a multitude of necessary fundamental practical skills, so it is comprehensive e.g.: eye-hand-foot co-ordination, auditory discrimination, visual perception, speed / direction estimation of moving objects, decision-making abilities and concentration levels under monotonous circumstances.
There is no available assessment tool that can completely eliminate ‘human error’, and many other factors can contribute to candidates having accidents – the Dover is very effective in accident reduction (as no industry will ever have accident-free candidate performance).
It is only a part of the selection / assessment / recruitment process and should NOT be used on its own for hiring / retrenching etc – it needs to be used in conjunction with other procedures such as interviews, practical tests etc.
Summary of Conducted Tests
a) Normal Conditions (e.g.: how the candidate responds to driving in normal traffic, such as having to respond to signals such as robot changes).
b) Crisis Conditions (e.g.: how the candidate responds to crisis, such as a sudden nearby accident or other stress-related incident).
c) Crisis-recovery Conditions (e.g.: how the candidate responds after the crisis is over and he/she has to return to normal levels of reactive functioning).




