The main challenge of ability tests relates to the difficulty of items, whereas speed tests demand that test takers complete very easy items quickly. This article proposes a conceptual framework to represent how performance depends on both between-person differences in speed and ability and the speed-ability compromise within persons. Related…

This study investigated evaluations and advice communicated to male and female technology interns experiencing work difficulties, using a 2 (workplace issue: ability or interpersonal) ×2 (intern gender: male vs. female) between-subjects experimental design. Technology professionals rated hypothetical interns on competence, qualifications,…

In this paper, we report on the design and implementation of a state of the art Student Information System (SIS) being developed in a moderate size Alberta, Canada school jurisdiction. The SIS design is premised upon transparency, balanced, comprehensive, and multi-method assessments that links qualitative and quantitative data in support of…

This study tested the specificity-generality hypothesis regarding moderation of aptitude test validity by job ability requirement differences using 24,482 Air Force enlistees in 37 jobs. Moderating effects due to job differences were not found, and job ability differences did not moderate the relationship between the amount of "g"…

Recently there appears to have been an increase in interest in the relative power of general ability and narrower cognitive aptitudes to predict real world performance in training programs and on the job. This area has important practical implications for personnel selection and classification, particularly for large organizations such as the…

Studied the constructs underlying the Ball Aptitude Battery (Ball Foundation; BAB) in 3 studies involving 329 and 365 adults and 175 ninth graders and in a reanalysis (study 4) of previous BAB data. Results show that "g" plays a significant but not dominant role in the BAB, which measures abilities needed for assessing person-job fit.…

Analyzed several data sets to compare the prediction possible from a uniform general factor score with that produced by a separately tailored set of regression weights when those weights are applied to a new cross-validation sample. Found that with smaller samples, the uniform general factor score was clearly superior. (Author/ABB)

Double cross-validation of a test battery against multiple criterion variables found the first general factor accounts for most criterion variance in cross-validated regression weights. Small contributions are made by mechanical/technical and psychomotor factors. It appears a common general factor plays the major role in validity for a range of…

A battery of 11 nonverbal tests were administered to a sample of 2,362 non-prior service enlistees who had been selected to one of seven technical schools. The usefulness of additional aptitudinal and educational data was also investigated. The number of significant relationships between certain nonverbal tests and final technical school grade…

Major tenets summarizing Jensen's two-level theory of mental abilities were examined in a static-group comparison, correlational study. Caucasian siblings in grades one through four from low- and middle-socioeconomic (SES) populations were administered five Level I (associative learning ability) tasks and Raven's Progressive Matrices. Consistent…

Job analyses were compared with employees' self-ratings of abilities across 54 occupations. Participants totaled 2,272 workers (1,119 women and 1,153 men) who took the Career Decision-Making System as part of an effort to expand its concurrent validity evidence. The results supported the validity of self-assessment of aptitudes in career…

The Ball Aptitude Battery (BAB) is a multiple ability test battery of specific work skills for use in career counseling. This study reports on ability changes by gender, race, and socioeconomic status in a BAB retest of 112 young adults four years after their initial testing. The sample consisted of 68 females and 44 males; 15 Blacks, 21…

Participation in school activities is hypothesized to be a determiner of the measured abilities and interests of high school students. The Ball Aptitude Battery (yielding 14 ability scores), Holland's (1970) self directed search interest inventory, and a biographical information blank (to obtain information about participation in 53…

The general intelligence factor (g) was investigated using 170 university students across three batteries of ability measures: (1) a short-term memory battery; (2) the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery; and (3) a reaction time battery. Results support the notion of g and suggest short-term memory as an essential aspect of intelligence. (SLD)

Empirical validation of the first-order and higher-order factor structures of the structure-of-intellect (SOI) model was provided by reanalysis of a database of 39 measures administered to 178 Coast Guard Cadets. Results suggest that SOI could be reconceptualized as a pyramid-like hierarchical theory of intelligence. (SLD)