Technical Report - International Military Testing Association

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EvaluatFoll o f zotor s:cs11s
A hOmc;y Little anecdote help6 to clarify my objectives in this pc-per.
My father was born in Lrelantl, ad I recall a story he told me n~ny years
ago about n fellow “greenhorn” whose working hours required him to retu:n
home in the darkness of late evening. his cour6e led h1.m through a p a r -
ticularly dark and deserted district in uhlch anyone with a lively Irj.021
imaginntion could envision the direst of misfortune6 taking plscc. Every
night as he passed through thie area, he constantly repeated aloud,
“Praise the Lord and the Civil ain’t tl bnd man either.” In like vein I
would like to pay due rcspcce to -the written test for its past contributions
to the field of achievement testing and if.8 prospects of even greater
utility in the future, but at the 6ame time, to recognize that the t.eRtfng
of mOtor skills does offer Q great potential to be explored in our
constant effort6 t0 create incree?ingly more effective measurement
instruments.
The rvaluatfon of motor skills will be treated in R q*~itc brosd
COntCXt. The covernge includes all activities pertelnfrq co or involving
muscular movement, not to exclude those requiring previous, concurrent,
and subsequent cogniti*ve procesecrr.
In effect, performance testing in
ita mo6t conprchcncive appllcntion ~111 be considered. All test eituatfono
in b-hich the examine& is rcqulred to do something Other than take a
paper-and-pencil test: will be included. The use of driving tears as a
prcrequisftr forobtaining a driving license in many titetea ir B good in-
dication of the w!de public acceptance of performance test6. Although one
might question the validity of these test6 BS typically administered,
there con be no doubt that n driving test ie a pnrticularly good exqle
oE a test Uf motor 6kille.
The purpose cf subject-netter or achievement tcstfng normslly fr to
provide an evaluation of the level of fob nascery attained by the examtnee
in a given Job, and frequently tc rank o group cf individUala in regard
to their relattve succe68. Depending upon the nature of the activity to
be meesurcd, and frequently certain extraneoufi restrictiona, one test or
R battery of two or more typca of tents may be ueed. In the selection of
measuring instruments we place cnphaeis upon the p:esence of three b8sf.c
qunlitiee: (1) vnlidfty, cr measuring what w want to measure, (2) reliability,or
consistency of tTICiiBIJrf?ment, and (3) objectivley, or the erc-
elusion of personal feeling not based upon accurate observation. We have
at OUr disposal a variety of measuring inetrumenta*
Llritten tent - The multiple-choice ~ypa of written test hoe become I
almost: univerxy accepted ns the basic meonure. It poesecses the i
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