Transparency · Navigation Assessment

How the assessment works.

The Navigation Assessment is a Regulation Navigator self-reflection tool designed to describe recent access to seven regulation-related resources and to collect optional within-person observations over time.

Important: This is a proprietary educational framework, not a validated diagnostic instrument, psychological test, or clinical screening measure. Its Point scores are descriptive summaries of the answers you provide.

What creates the Seven-Point Profile

The scored portion contains 28 reflections: four for each Navigation Point. Members answer based on the past two weeks using a 1–4 availability scale.

1–4 response scaleRarely true, Sometimes true, Often true, Almost always true. Each Point is the arithmetic mean of its four responses.

No overall scoreThe system does not calculate a global regulation score, diagnostic category, personality type, or “dominant” Navigation Point.

Descriptive bandsLabels such as “generally available” are communication aids created for Regulation Navigator. They are not empirically validated clinical cut scores or population norms.

Context mattersHealth, stress, environment, relationships, resources, sleep, recovery, and many other factors can affect what feels available during a given period.

What the optional checkpoints do

Each Point can add one optional momentary observation. Checkpoints are deliberately stored separately from the 28-reflection scores.

Point	Checkpoint	Interpretation boundary
Harbor	Desired refuge + perceived access to comfort/safety	A momentary self-report, not a measure of objective safety.
Tide	Activation rating before and after a 10-second reset	Shows an immediate self-reported change only; it does not establish treatment effect.
Spark	Three reaction beacons	Exploratory performance data affected by hardware, browser, motor speed, attention, fatigue, practice, and environment.
Lantern	Three visual pattern-recognition trials	Exploratory scanning data affected by vision, display size, familiarity, distraction, device, and practice.
Root	Usable-capacity rating + restorative preference	A subjective capacity snapshot, not an objective energy or functional-capacity test.
Bridge	Perceived safe-support accessibility + support preference	Describes perceived access and preference, not social functioning or relationship quality.
Compass	True North value	A current values cue, not a permanent ranking or personality trait.

Why repeated observations can still be useful

Repeated, in-context self-report can help reduce some long-recall problems and can reveal within-person changes that a one-time snapshot cannot show. Research on ecological momentary assessment also shows substantial variability in self-report accuracy and emphasizes that repeated measurement has its own reliability, missingness, interpretation, and reactivity issues.

Regulation Navigator therefore treats longitudinal patterns as hypotheses to notice, not conclusions to obey. Correlation is presented as association, never causation, and checkpoint performance is not used to infer whether someone is “regulated” or “dysregulated.”

Why reaction and pattern-recognition data stay exploratory

Web-based timing can be useful for broad repeated comparisons, but browsers, operating systems, devices, response hardware, practice, and testing conditions introduce measurement variation. Published web-testing studies show meaningful reliability in some tasks while also documenting setting and timing differences. Regulation Navigator therefore keeps these observations out of the Point scores and avoids clinical interpretation.

Longitudinal safeguards

Within-person firstThe Profile compares a member primarily with their own prior sessions rather than with population norms.

Minimum data before patternsPattern statements are withheld until repeated comparable sessions exist. Context comparisons require observations on both sides of the comparison.

Plain language before statisticsWhen a correlation is shown, the Profile explains the relationship in ordinary language and keeps the coefficient secondary.

Association ≠ causeSleep, stress, medication timing, environment, illness, practice, and other variables can move together. A detected relationship does not prove why it occurred.

Research informing these guardrails

Stinson L, Liu Y, Dallery J. Ecological Momentary Assessment: A Systematic Review of Validity Research. Perspectives on Behavior Science. 2022. Open article.
Smyth JM, et al. Evaluation of Pressing Issues in Ecological Momentary Assessment. Current Opinion in Psychology. 2023. Open article.
Bridges D, et al. Realistic precision and accuracy of online experiment platforms, web browsers, and devices. Behavior Research Methods. 2020/2021. Open article.
Backx R, et al. Comparing Web-Based and Lab-Based Cognitive Assessment Using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2020. Open article.
Repeated-measures methodology also cautions that observations from the same individual are not independent and that serial dependence and practice/reactivity can affect interpretation. Regulation Navigator does not present its personal correlations as inferential clinical statistics.

Take the Assessment →Open Your Profile