The novel object-matching test (NOM Test): A psychometric measure of visual comparison ability.

This paper presents a new test of object-matching ability: the Novel Object-Matching Test (NOM Test). Object-matching (or visual comparison) is a complex cognitive and perceptual visual comparison task undertaken by forensic scientists - yet no openly available, standardised and psychometrically validated test of object-matching ability exists. This is in contrast to other visual comparison domains like face-matching where many tests are widely available. In this paper, we present the development and psychometric validation of the first openly available object-matching test where people view two complex artificial visual patterns side-by-side and decide if they are from the same source or different sources. We provide normative data and psychometric properties for two long-form and two short-form versions of the test, and two additional versions designed to identify high and low-performers. We also provide evidence of discriminant validity and convergent validity that demonstrates the NOM Test correlates strongly with other object-matching tasks like fingerprint-matching - but not other tasks requiring cognitive-perceptual skill (e.g., visual intelligence). The NOM Test is free for research use with acknowledgment and is available at https://osf.io/pv6ye/ .