Perceived Task Difficulty

What it measures

Three items measuring how difficult, complex, and time-consuming a particular task is perceived to be. Kaiser, Schreier, and Janiszewski (2017) developed the scale to assess participant perceptions of a product customisation task, distinguishing between choosing a pre-designed product versus designing one from scratch. The items are phrased as stem completions, allowing flexible adaptation to different task contexts.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• [Task] was: difficult.
• [Task] was: complex.
• [Task] was: time-consuming.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alpha was .82. The scale uses a sentence stem ('__________ was:') that should be completed with a phrase identifying the focal task. Kaiser et al. (2017) used 'Choosing a pen...' for one experimental condition and 'Designing a pen...' for the other. The source of the scale was not stated and validity was not formally assessed.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Kaiser, U., Schreier, M., & Janiszewski, C. (2017). The self-expressive customization of a product can improve performance. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(5), 816–831.

Keywords