Introduction: Perseverance is an important component of human functioning. The main factors that allow people to achieve their goals are perseverance and the motivation for change. The concept of perseverance is not new, but most studies in this field do not define it precisely. Perseverance is a formal trait of behaviour determined by situational (external) and personality-related (internal) factors − a complexity which can cause problems when one tries to measure it.
Methods: In this project, we present the Maze Test, a novel tool for testing perseverance. We discuss the theoretical foundations of the test, including the definition of perseverance, as well as the indicators on which this tool is based. We present the basic methodological properties of the test and report two studies which illustrate how it can be applied in practice: Study 1 – measurement of personality-conditioned perseverance, and Study 2 – measurement of situation-conditioned perseverance.
Results: In Study 1, a significant weak correlation between the indicators of perseverance and the Big Five model personality traits was discovered. Neuroticism correlated negatively with the number of maze tasks solved and the Synthetic Indicator of Perseverance. Positive correlations were found for conscientiousness and agreeableness. In Study 2, mental simulations were observed to have a medium to high effect on the indicators of perseverance.
Conclusion: The tool presented in this study affords a new approach to perseverance. Based on an analysis of how the tasks were being solved by the subjects, we developed perseverance indicators which allow to view perseverance as a multidimensional construct. The tool has been designed for use in both laboratory tests and remote web tests. A major advantage of the tool is that it is available for general use free of charge.

Keywords: perseverance, persistence, short-term goals, maze test


中文翻译：

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迷宫测试：测试毅力的计算机工具

简介：毅力是人类功能的重要组成部分。让人们实现目标的主要因素是毅力和改变的动力。毅力的概念并不新鲜，但该领域的大多数研究都没有对其进行精确定义。毅力是一种行为的正式特征，由情境（外部）和个性相关（内部）因素决定——这种复杂性在试图衡量它时可能会导致问题。
方法：在这个项目中，我们提出了迷宫测试，这是一种测试毅力的新工具。我们讨论了该测试的理论基础，包括毅力的定义以及该工具所依据的指标。我们介绍了该测试的基本方法特性，并报告了两项研究，说明了如何将其应用于实践：研究 1 – 测量人格条件下的毅力，研究 2 – 测量情况条件下的毅力。
结果：在研究1中，发现毅力指标与大五人格特质之间存在显着的弱相关性。神经质与完成的迷宫任务数量和毅力综合指标呈负相关。责任心和随和性呈正相关。在研究 2 中，观察到心理模拟对毅力指标有中等到高的影响。
结论：本研究中提出的工具提供了一种坚持不懈的新方法。基于对受试者如何解决任务的分析，我们开发了毅力指标，可以将毅力视为多维结构。该工具设计用于实验室测试和远程网络测试。该工具的一个主要优点是它可以免费供一般使用。

关键词：毅力、坚持、短期目标、迷宫测试