Download Category: Cognitive Ability

Cognitive ability

Dilchert, S.
In D. S. Ones, N. Anderson, C. Viswesvaran, & H. Sinangil (Eds.)
The SAGE Handbook of Industrial, Work and Organizational Psychology: Vol. 1. Personnel psychology and employee performance (2nd ed., pp. 248–276).
SAGE
(2018)

This chapter summarizes important issues surrounding the use of cognitive ability tests in organizational settings, and highlights new developments that are becoming particularly pertinent given demographic changes in many societies and international economic trends (e.g., age differences, cross-cultural assessment, internet-based testing).

Cognitive ability: Measurement and validity for employee selection

Ones, D. S., Dilchert, S., Viswesvaran, C., & Salgado, J. F.
In J. L. Farr & N. T. Tippins (Eds.),
Handbook of employee selection (2nd ed., pp. 251-276).
Routledge
(2017)

In this chapter, we provide an overview of cognitive ability’s key role in staffing organizations and provide evidence-based practice recommendations. We first present a brief synopsis of the history, current usage, and acceptance of cognitive ability tests in employee selection. Second, we highlight the theoretical underpinnings and structure of cognitive ability as a construct. Third, we discuss developments in its measurement. Fourth, we present an overview of the criterion-related validity of cognitive ability tests in predicting valued work behaviors and outcomes, including non-task-performance criteria that have been increasingly investigated in recent years. Fifth, we discuss the issue of group differences in cognitive ability test scores both within the United States and internationally. We conclude by discussing future research and challenges facing organizations that intend to use cognitive ability tests in making employee selection decisions.

Cognitive predictors and age-based adverse impact among business executives

Klein, R. M., Dilchert, S. Ones, D. S., & Dages, K. D.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 100, 1497-1510.
(2015)

Age differences on measures of general mental ability and specific cognitive abilities were examined in 2 samples of job applicants to executive positions as well as a mix of executive/nonexecutive positions to determine which predictors might lead to age-based adverse impact in making selection and advancement decisions. Generalizability of the pattern of findings was also investigated in 2 samples from the general adult population. Age was negatively related to general mental ability, with older executives scoring lower than younger executives. For specific ability components, the direction and magnitude of age differences depended on the specific ability in question. Older executives scored higher on verbal ability, a measure most often associated with crystallized intelligence. This finding generalized across samples examined in this study. Also, consistent with findings that fluid abilities decline with age, older executives scored somewhat lower on figural reasoning than younger executives, and much lower on a letter series test of inductive reasoning. Other measures of inductive reasoning, such as Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices, also showed similar age group mean differences across settings. Implications for employee selection and adverse impact on older job candidates are discussed.

Review of Non-Verbal IQ Test

Dilchert, S.
In J. F. Carlson, K. F. Geisinger, & J. L. Johnson (Eds.),
Mental measurements yearbook (19th ed., pp. 491-494). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
(2014)

This review provides information about the development, reliability, and validity of the Non-Verbal IQ Test (NVIQT). The NVIQT is a nonverbal measure of cognitive ability, developed to assess spatial ability and pattern recognition. The stated purpose of the test is to serve as a measure of intelligence that minimizes irrelevant cultural or educational influences on test scores. The technical manual accompanying the test does not further delineate the nature of the construct that the test is intended to assess. Limited information is provided on the intended target population or intended uses of the test…

Cognitive abilities

Ones, D. S., Dilchert, S., & Viswesvaran, C.
In N. Schmitt (Ed.),
Oxford handbook of personnel assessment and selection (pp. 179-224). New York: Oxford University Press.
(2012)

This chapter describes measures of cognitive ability (general mental ability and specific abilities) and examines their usefulness for personnel selection. An overview of definitional and theoretical issues as they apply to use of such measures in personnel decision making is provided first. Then, issues of reliability of measures are discussed, again with particular emphasis on implications for personnel selection (e.g., impact on rank order of candidates when using different measures). Next, validities of cognitive ability tests are summarized for the following criteria: overall job performance, task performance, contextual performance, counterproductive work behaviors, leadership, creativity and innovation, voluntary turnover, job satisfaction, and career success. The authors address the nature of predictor-criterion relationships (e.g., usefulness of general versus specific abilities, criterion dynamicity, assumption of linearity) by discussing both recent large-scale evidence in normal samples and among the highly gifted. Finally, the extent to which cognitive ability is captured in tools other than standardized tests is summarized, enabling an evaluation of other selection assessments as substitutes and/or supplements to standardized cognitive ability tests.

Review of A-4 Police Officer Video Test

Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S.
In R. A. Spies, J. F. Carlson, & K. F. Geisinger (Eds.),
Mental measurements yearbook (18th ed., pp. 1-4). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
(2010)

This review provides information about the development, reliability, and validity of the A-4 Police Officer Video Test. The A-4 Police Officer Video Test is a 90-item multiple-choice test designed to assess both cognitive and noncognitive competencies relevant for success in police office jobs. The test is administered using a video tape, which contains narrated instructions. Administration of the test takes a total time of 155 minutes…

Review of P-1SV and P-2SV Police Officer Tests

Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S.
In R. A. Spies, J. F. Carlson, & K. F. Geisinger (Eds.),
Mental measurements yearbook (18th ed., pp. 387-390). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
(2010)

This review provides information about the development, reliability, and validity of the P-1SV and P-2SV Police Officer Tests. The P-lSV and P-2SV Police Officer Tests are intended to assess some characteristics required to perform entry level police officer jobs successfully. Each test form contains 100 multiple-choice questions, which are dichotomously scored (correct/incorrect), and each test yields a single overall score. The knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics (KSAPs) that the tests assess are specified in the technical manual as: (a) Reasoning Ability, (b) Observation/Perceptiveness, (c) Ability to Learn Proper Police Procedures, (d) Speaking Ability, (e) Ability to Learn Laws to be Enforced, (f) Writing Ability, (g) Problem Solving, (h) Memory, (i) Learning, G) Reading, and (k) Planning/Organizing….

Cognitive abilities

Ones, D. S., Dilchert, S., Viswesvaran, C. & Salgado, J. F.
In J. L. Farr & N. T. Tippins (Eds.),
Handbook of employee selection (pp. 255-275).
New York: Routledge.
(2010)

Intelligence affects individuals’ lives in countless ways. As such, it is an exceedingly precious trait to include in employee selection systems. In this chapter, we provide an overview of cognitive ability’s key role in staffing organizations and provide evidence-based practice recommendations. We first present a brief synopsis of the history, current usage, and acceptance of cognitive ability tests in employee selection. Second, we highlight the theoretical underpinnings of cognitive ability as a construct. Third, we discuss developments in its measurement. Fourth, we present an overview of the criterion-related validity of cognitive ability tests in predicting valued work behaviors and outcomes. Fifth, we discuss the issue of group differences in cognitive ability test scores both within the United States and internationally. We conclude by discussing future research and practice challenges.

Assessment center dimensions: Individual differences correlates and meta-analytic incremental validity

Dilchert, S., & Ones, D. S.
International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 17, 254-270.
(2009)

This study provides an investigation of the nomological net for the seven primary assessment center (AC) dimensions identified by Arthur, Day, McNelly, and Eden (Personnel Psychology, 56, 125–154, 2003). In doing so, the authors provide the first robust estimates of the relationships between all primary AC dimensions with cognitive ability and the Big 5 factors of personality. Additionally, intercorrelations between AC dimensions based on sample sizes much larger than those previously available in the meta-analytic literature are presented. Data were obtained from two large managerial samples (total N = 4985). Primary data on AC dimensions, personality, and cognitive ability interrelationships were subsequently integrated with meta-analytic data to estimate incremental validity for optimally and unit-weighted AC dimension composites as well as overall AC ratings over psychometric tests of personality and cognitive ability. Results show that unit- and optimally weighted composites of construct-based AC dimensions add incremental validity over tests of personality and cognitive ability, while overall AC ratings (including those obtained using subjective methods of data combination) do not.

How special are executives? How special should executive selection be? Observations and recommendations

Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2, 163-170.
(2009)

Hollenbeck (2009) suggests that executive selection decisions are often wrong and believes that selection of executives should be differentiated from selection at lower levels. In addition, he asserts that by focusing on competencies, rather than characteristics, ‘‘we are doing it backwards.’’ We agree with Hollenbeck that sound personnel selection should start with and be based on personal characteristics rather than amorphous, often ill-defined competencies. Yet, this principle applies to all selection not just executive selection. In order to determine whether executive selection should truly be a special process, two key questions must be asked and answered.