I__. - International Military Testing Association

abilities for test development (Studies 1 and 21, as well as look at the relationship
between relative importance and relative time spent ratings (Study 3).
1STUDY
Data Collection: Ninety four professional and administrative occupations in the
civilian Federal work force were studied. A list of major duties was developed
for each occupation. Then a list of abilities was developed by reviewing the
construct literature (Northrop, 1989; French, Ekstrom and Price, 1363; and
Peterson and Bowans, 1982). Abilities that could not be assessed through a .
written test were not included. The resulting list contained seven abilities:
verbal comprehension, general reasoning, number facility, logical reasoning,
perceptual speed, spatial orientation, and visualization.
Using the job-specific duty lists that were developed for each occupation,
five research psychologists rated the seven abilities for their importance to
SdCh overall job using a five-point scale. The scale ranged from "l-Unimportant"
to "5-Crucial." It should be stressed that rather than rate each ability against
each duty for every job, the psychologists were asked to read each duty list in
its entirety and make a "holistic" judgment concerning the importance of aach
of the abilities for the overall job. The psychologists made holistic ratings
for tl-le occupations. Based on each psychologist's overall ratings for each job,
averages for each ability were computed for each of the six job families.
Approximately 6,000 job incumbents completed and returned the inventory.
As part of this inventory, job incumbents were asked to rate each of the seven
abilities using the sama five-point scale used by the psychologists. The
inventory stressed that the incumbents rate each ability as it related to their
overall job. That is, they were asked to make a "holistic" judgment about the
importance of each ability. Based on each ir,cumbant's overall rating for the‘;r
job, averages were computed for each job family for each ability.
RESULTS
The mean overall ability ratings of the psychologists and the job
incumbents, for two of the largest job families, can be found in Table 1.
Table 1. Comparisons of ability ratings for psychologists (N=5) and job
incumbents by job family.
Psychologists Incumbents
mS.D.
Business, Finance & Management Occupations
Mean S.D.
Verbal Comprehension 4.56 (.41) 4.40 (1.10) 2306
General Reasoning 4.60 (.41) 4.13 (1.13) 2306
Number Facility 3.99 C.71) 3.54 (1.27) 2306
Logical Reasoning 4.38 (.48) 3.59 (1.29) 23c5
Perceptual Speed 1.82 (1.12) 2.72 (1.33) 2306
Spatial Orientation 1.68 c.62) 1.57 (1.29) 2306
Visualization 1.55 c.38) 1.95 (1.46) 2306
Personnel, Administration & Computer Occupations
Verbal Comprehension 4.64 l.44) 4.51 (1.03) 1197
Ganeral Reasoning 4.59 (.40) 4.25 (1.07) 1197
Number Facility 3.18 l.56) 3.07 (1.31) 1197
Loyical Reasoning 4.44 (.50) 3.59 (1.29) 1197
Perceptual Speed 1.66 c.92) 2. 72 (1.33) 1197
Spatial Orientation 1.34 (.49) 1.57 (1.29) 1197
Visualization 1.26 (.46) 1.95 (1.46) 1197
53