Introduces Rene Thom's catastrophe theory, which is based upon complex theorems in multidimensional geometry. Catastrophe theory analysis begins by identifying the occurrence of major discontinuities, or catastrophes, in a system such as civil service exams, resulting in catastrophic change. (KS)

A survey asked newspaper editors how they assess job candidates, particularly whether they use skills testing. A stratified random sample of editors at 350 American daily newspapers was divided into four categories based on circulation. Completed questionnaires were obtained from 154 respondents (44% response rate). Results indicated that over 55%…

The accuracy was assessed of a method for estimating unrestricted univariate predictor means and variances from sample data for three populations in two personnel selection contexts. The first context was characterized by direct non-strict truncation and the second was characterized by direct strict truncation on the predictor. (TJH)

Candidates who had taken examinations for certification required by the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) were surveyed to acquire feedback about the effectiveness of score interpretive information given to test takers. Those sampled included 488 passers and 389 failers of the Inventory Management (IM) examination and 457…

This paper reviews 12 Title VII court cases litigated since 1978 to assess implications of recent professional and legal guidelines regarding criterion-related validity of paper and pencil tests used by employers to prove job relatedness. Major topics important to an understanding of predictor criterion, including procedural, and data analysis and…

The age decrement model has traditionally been a fairly popular model of the human life span. This model has the basic premise that with increasing age there is a corresponding decrease in a wide range of abilities. Not all research has agreed with the unqualified age decrement model. This study examined the relationship between an…

The Vocational Assessment Record (VAR), a management system designed to accompany a token economy based on work behaviors in handicapped and nonhandicapped high school and adult basic education students with a minimum of instructor time and effort, is described. Among ways in which the VAR is said to be different from other motivational and…

Interest in personality in work and organizational psychology has never been stronger. A substantial amount of work exploring the links between personality variables and work behavior and attitudes is now available. Much of this work has been conducted within a selection and assessment context, although relevant work has also been done in other…

Factor analysis is used frequently by researchers as a data reduction and summarization technique. Many analysts use exploratory factor analysis to search for underlying dimensions in attitudinal studies. Concern arises when novice researchers rely solely on information derived from computer printouts to factor analyze data, dismissing theoretical…

A written examination may discriminate against candidates if the reading difficulty level of the test is higher than the minimum educational level required for entry into the position for which the examination is used as a screening device. Tests used for examining applicants for positions in a large heterogeneous merit jurisdiction and in a city…

A United States Employment Service (USES) General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) plan was formulated to evaluate and develop additional job-related assessment methods. Eighteen alternative predictors were reviewed, from which biodata was selected for development. The literature indicates that biodata provides increased validity with little or no…

Rescoring of Center for Occupational and Professional Assessment objective-referenced tests is decided largely by content experts selected by client organizations. A few of the test items, statistically flagged for review, are not rescored. Some of this incongruence could be due to the use of the biserial correlation (r-biserial) as an…

This paper describes how work by the United States Office of Personnel Management on the generalizability of employment test validities led to the development of a widely applicable meta-analysis method. The method focuses strongly on estimating the true variance of study correlations and effect size. This validity generalization procedure has…

The specificity doctrine, holds that psychometric tests measure nothing other than the specific bits of knowledge and learned skills reflected in the item content of the tests. This prevailing doctrine has influenced the interpretation of test scores and the conceptualization of test validity, as well as the practical use of tests in educational…

This study was concerned specifically with the performance of soldiers on Skill Qualification Tests (SQT) in relation to the readability of the tests. The paper also touches upon the effects of soldiers' motivation and training on SQT performance. Regarding readability, the study was designed to address three questions: does the readability of SQT…