Validación y propiedades psicométricas de la prueba de pensamiento crítico pencrisal

The purpose of our study was to validate the critical thinking test PENCRISAL in the Spanish population. This test is an appropriate tool to assess reasoning skills (of various kinds, such as argumentation, causal reasoning, analog...), problem solving and decision making. The psychometric study was conducted with a sample of 715 Spanish adults, with college cultural level, aged between 18 and 53, and of both sexes. Reliability in terms of internal consistency achieved an acceptable level, if we consider the complexity of the theoretical model of the construct is under critical thinking (Cronbach alpha: ,632). In turn, the reliability in terms of temporal stability, according to the testretest method, this has proven to be high (r = ,786). And finally, the reliability between judges has reached a high level of agreement between the correctors (Kappa values between ,600 - ,900). Factor analysis has shown a number of factors and subfactors that fit the theoretical model proposed and the results we obtained from the correlations with other tests support the divergent validity, but not convergent. The PENCRISAL is presented as a novel instrument, validated for a Spanish population, whose results show high accuracy and effectiveness as an instrument for measuring the factors that make up the construct of critical thinking.