The Consciousness Quotient: Construct Development and Content Validity Research

The aim of this study was to establish the content validity of a list of traits, skills and abilities that describe conscious experience, aggregated under the construct ‘consciousness quotient’ (CQ). The goal was to evaluate the comprehensiveness and representativeness of the content - whether the lists of the traits comprising the CQ adequately cover conscious experience, with no irrelevant content included. After developing the construct, the content validity was evaluated by a panel of 25 experts. As a result, 40 items were excluded and 27 items were re-worded. New terminological clarifications were developed in order to better operationalize the CQ construct.