DaveSuperPowers: Objective Attempts

"Huh! I like how you're thinking of this overall, but the problem with this is that it still relies on competence, or 'skill' ..no?

If we decide to define types by skills or competence, that's fine... but then we'd get something like a multiple intelligence test."

This is assuming that the test would rate the person's type on a "1-100%"-like spectrum only, requiring say a 75-100% score in visual/auditory recollection to be typed as an Si dom. As you say, this wouldn't work simply because competence, or one's overall cognitive aptitude, is analog and highly variable. Such a test therefore would need to have an analog style algorithm as well, adding a weighing system to the scoring system. So instead of scoring someone solely on the digital indicator of 1-100% and defining digital parameters, it would instead go a step further and rate those digital "scores" against each other to asses which are strongest and which are weakest. 

So in other words, a slower person receiving only 37% on the Si section could still be typed as an Si dom if his scores in all the other sections were lower than 37%.

A really dumb INFJ might have a really hard time understanding an Ni monologue, but chances are, his overall stupidity would equally affect his other functions.

It's basically the difference between changing the overall brightness of an image and changing the RGB values, the blacks, whites, midtones, highlights, and shadows. The brightness control (competence) effects all those other listed parameters equally; thus, not changing the outcome of the type indicator test, which would analyze how the midtones relate to the shadows, how the red channel relates to the blue channel, etc.

So an Si lead would very likely score very strongly in a memory test, while the INFJ would likely fail miserably. But the test would have that algorithm that says, "Ok, we have all these digital scores, now let's see which is highest. If the Si section is highest and the Ni section is really low, it's gotta be an ISFJ or ISTJ, but it could also be an ESFJ or ENTJ, so it would look at the other functions as well of course.

There is a test already out there that kind of does this, but instead of actually being a true test, it is an opinion survey, like all the others, asking things like, "Do you do this or that", instead of testing their ability to actually use the functions.