| Abstract: | Estimated the transituational generalizability (or "transportability") of the validities of 4 types of cognitive tests (Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test, Richardson-Bellows-Henry Chemical Comprehension and RBH Arithmetic Reasoning Tests, and general intelligence) and a weighted biographical information blank for performance in 2 petroleum industry job groups. Generalizability was strongly supported for mechanical and chemical comprehension tests for both jobs. In the case of the chemical comprehension tests, virtually all variance of observed validity coefficients was accounted for by artifacts, and thus the hypothesis of situational specificity was rejected. Support for generalizability was substantial for general mental ability and arithmetic reasoning tests. It was found, however, that corrections for variance due to sampling error accounted for an average of 90% of all variance due to artifacts, indicating the relative unimportance of differences between sudies in criterion reliability and in range restriction in accounting for variation in observed validities. Generalizable multivariate validities were estimated for various test batteries using beta and unit weights. Finally, true score beta weights were used to estimate the causal role of the 4 cognitive abilities in job performance. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
