ScheduleToday and Wednesday: LectureMonday, 4/08: Exam

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Mental Measurements Yearbook (1938) Now in its 19th edition, updated in 2012 You can access it online for free through our

library I included the Szostek & Hobson article so

you can get an idea of how important this resource is from a legal perspective – article was published in 2011 and is up-to-date▪ Courts have acknowledged it as the “bible of

testing” and the “authoritative source on testing”

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(Just a brief mention of the MMY – you should always check the reviews for any off-the-shelf test an organization isplanning on using – not going over the other study objectives on the article)

For decades, tests have been classified as either achievement tests or aptitude tests

Definitions of “achievement” and “aptitude” Achievement

The act of accomplishing or finishing something successfully, especially by means of skill, practice, or perseverance

AptitudeA natural or acquired talent or ability or inclination; quickness in learning and understanding - intelligence

The distinction represents the mind-body dualism typical of traditional testing

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(in this material, GFB argue that the terms “achievement test” and “aptitude test”are inappropriate and should be replaced with the term “ability test” - and I agree with them; excellent material)

Achievement tests (supposedly) measure What a person learned as a result of a specific

structured educational/training experience/course Scores are interpreted to be a measure of how much an

individual knows as a result of the education or training English grammar, math, science, social studies, etc. These are the types of tests used in grade school and

high school to measure student learning/proficiency▪ In Michigan, MEAP tests: Michigan Educational Assessment Program

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Aptitude tests (supposedly) measure Accumulation of learning from a number of diverse and

usually informal learning experiences Although not emphasized by GFB, there is a genetic

implication▪ You have artistic ability or you don’t▪ You have mechanical aptitude or you don’t▪ Women don’t have an aptitude for math▪ Men don’t have good spatial aptitude

Said to measure potential to learn, or the potential to develop new skills and acquire new knowledge▪ If you don’t have the aptitude you can’t be a good artist, mechanic,

mathematician Intelligence tests, SATs, GREs, Artistic Aptitude These are the tests that you are told you can’t study for (hog

wash - most people don’t say that any more)

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(Olympic athletes and musicians have “natural” ability – then we learn the parent was an Olympic athlete or musician – both parents were musicians…)

All tests measure what a person has learned up to the time he or she takes the test and that is the only thing a test can measure

They cannot and do not measure innate or unlearned potential (even if that existed)

Thus, the distinction between achievement tests and aptitude tests is arbitrary and

We should use the term “ability tests” for both types of tests Ability in the sense of competence or proficiency,

regardless of how you have acquired the ability/skill

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Tests can and do measure the prerequisites that are necessary for further learning in an specified area, and thus can predict future learning/performance If students do not do well in PSY 3600, Concepts and

Principles of Behavior Analysis, they cannot do well in PSY 4600, Survey of Behavior Analysis Research, thus a student’s grade in PSY 3600 can predict his or her performance in PSY 4600

You can’t balance an equation in chemistry unless you know algebra, thus a test of algebra can predict performance in a chemistry class

7(not in text, but important to understand)

Mental ability tests were at the center of early critical Supreme Court decisions regarding unfair discrimination

Thus, many companies stopped using them However, there is a lot of research in selection

that indicates that mental ability tests are related to almost all jobs

Validity correlations are often quite high, and higher than correlations of other tests

Many companies are now using them again Remember, however, if you use one of these,

you must conduct an empirical validity study (or use validity generalization - risky)

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(as a behavior analyst, I still have trouble with the term “mental” ability since it still implies mind-body dualism; I’m more comfortable, but not completely with “cognitive” ability; but haven’t been able to come up with anything different that and certainly like those terms better than “intelligence” tests)

A rose is not a rose is not a rose A mental ability test is not a mental ability test is not a

mental ability test Mental ability tests measure a collection of

abilities - a learned repertoire that typically includes: Verbal, math, memory, and reasoning abilities

14 different abilities are often measured in some combination by mental ability tests (next slide)

Different mental ability tests often measure a different set of these abilities

Thus a person may score differently on different tests of mental ability

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(FE: main abilities include some form of verbal, math, memory, and reasoning abilities)

Memory span Numerical fluency Verbal

comprehension Conceptual

classification Semantic relations General reasoning Conceptual foresight

Figure classification Spatial orientation Visualization Intuitive Reasoning Ordering Figure identification Logical evaluation

anddeduction

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(that is why if you use the PAQ you must take great care in selecting tests that are similar to the GATB teststhat are recommended)

The term mental ability makes it explicit that these tests measure various cognitive abilities of the applicant (and not some innate, unlearned, hypothetical construct called “intelligence”)

These cognitive abilities are most directly identified by the what is measured (some combination of the 14 abilities listed earlier) and from the content of the items themselves

They should be thought of the same way the other abilities discussed in the book are thought of e.g., mechanical ability, clerical ability

In other words, the authors are resisting the traditional view that there is something called “intelligence”

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I am going to show you some examples of mental ability tests at the end of class, just to “de-mystify” them a bit

The authors describe the Wonderlic Personnel Test which is probably the most popular Given to all players at the NFL Scouting

Combine and scores are reported to NFL teams before the annual draft

For a moment, look at items in the text that are similar to the ones on the Wonderlic Personnel Test

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1. Which of the following months has 30 days?(a) February (b) June (c) August (d) December

2. Alone is the opposite of:(a) happy (b) together (c) single (d) joyful

3. Which is the next number in this series: 1, 4, 16, 4, 16, 64, 16, 64, 256,

(a) 4 (b) 16 (c) 64 (d) 1024

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(Two slides - Note: all six items are different types of items: general knowledge, opposites - verbal comprehension and vocabulary, numerical reasoning and ordering)

4. Twilight is to dawn as autumn is to:(a) winter (b) spring (c) hot (d) cold

5. If Bob can outrun Junior by 2 feet in every 5 yards of a race, how much ahead will Bob be at 45 yards?

(a) 5 yards (b) 6 yards (c) 10 feet (d) 90 feet

6. The two words relevant and immaterial mean: (a) the same (b) the opposite (c) neither same nor

opposite

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(again, notice the type of questions: semantic or verbal reasoning, numerical fluency/reasoning, verbal comprehension - opposites)

What have the validity studies uniformly concluded?

Mental ability tests are among the most valid of all selection instruments

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(work samples are the only tests that seem to be as valid, recent data suggest they have just as much adverse impact; next slide on validity of mental ability tests as well)

Differences in the actual tasks that a person performs as part of a job have very little effect on the magnitude of the validity coefficients for mental ability tests

In other words, mental ability tests are valid predictors of performance for a wide variety of jobs

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They have repeatedly been shown to have adverse impact on protected classes, particularly blacks and hispanics

This led to the notion that these types of test might have differential validity - next

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14A: What is meant by differential validity? Notion/hypothesis that tests are less valid for

minority groups than for non-minorities▪ That is, a test may be significantly more valid for

whites than for blacks▪ Term is related to test bias regarding ability tests,

particularly mental ability tests▪ This claim is made over and over again with respect

to SATs and GREs - that those tests are more predictive of the performance of white students than they are of the performance of minority students

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(extremely important; and mentioned often in selection as well as admissions to colleges and universities,- and is still very controversial)

The argument is that the content of ability tests is based on content/items related to the white middle-class (e.g., vocabulary and grammar), and thus the scores of the minorities are lower than what they should be

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The data are very clear about this issue

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Differential validity does not exist

• That is, tests are equally valid for whites and other ethnic/racial groups

• It makes sense– Verbal comprehension skills are verbal comprehension skills– Verbal reasoning skills are verbal reasoning skills– Math skills are math skills, etc.

• Thus if any of these skills are required by the job, they should be “equally required” by whites and members of other ethnic/racial groups

Meta-analyses have been consistent – there are significant differences in mean test scores among racial/ethnic groups

Ranking:AsianswhitesHispanicsblacks

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Cognitive ability tests have a high correlation with job performance and academic performance

They have a disproportionate impact on Hispanics and blacks

Often result in adverse impact as legally defined when used for selection

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(important, difficult issue arises)

Remember, adverse impact, however, does not mean that unfair discrimination has occurred; if the tests are job related then fair discrimination has occurred

SO16: Three things that make a defense against adverse impact likely:

Their overall validity – they are among the most valid and least expensive tests

Differential validity does not exist Adverse impact cannot be overcome by

using any other measure

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It is not appropriate to conclude from these studies that differences are due to genetic differences educational differences cultural differences

Studies do not address the reasons

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(the authors want to caution any one making any general conclusions as to why differences exist; particular concern about race-based genetic arguments as advanced in the Bell Curve, published a number of years ago that re-opened the debateabout race-based genetic intelligence.)

Cognitive ability tests are among the most valid tests for a large number of jobs (and some selection specialists would say for all jobs)

Evidence also indicates that adverse impact is highly likely with these tests

25(skipping to SO19; cont. on next slide)

Because they are so valid, some selection specialists believe cognitive ability tests should be used extensively in selection

Some, however, have expressed deep reservation about using them because of the social implications of the disqualification of larger proportions of minorities

26(very nice discussion of this in text; directly quoting GFB here; cont. on next slide)

To some extent, the decision may reflect the values/goals of the organization If goal is to maximize individual performance with minimal cost,

cognitive ability tests will do this If the organization has multiple goals of sustaining high

performance while maintaining a broad representation of minorities, then it would be better to limit the use of cognitive ability tests and use other, generally more expensive and almost equally valid instruments▪ biodata inventories (I don’t like these as you will see next unit)▪ structured interviews▪ assessment centers

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(that’s the rub - the expense of those other instruments)

*The authors include work samples in their list but in later in this chapter present recent data thatindicates work samples appear to have as much adverse impact as cognitive ability tests.

If an organization has diversity as a selection goal and wants to use cognitive ability tests because of their validity and the fact that other options are much more expensive, what is the main/best option?Vigorous recruitment of minority applicants

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(now back to SO17: remember race norming is not legal; often a problem because selection specialists are typically not the ones who are responsible for recruitment –selection specialists really need to work with the HR staff)

The authors describe several very popular tests

Refer to this material if you are ever looking for tests in these categories

I am not going to have you learn anything specific about these tests

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Height and weight requirements have often been challenged in court Adverse impact on females and Asians

The courts have rarely let them stand The rationale for using these measures is

that they are substitute measures for strength

But courts have consistently held that if strength is the job requirement, then it should be measured directly (physical ability test)

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(a lot of organizations in the past; police and fire)

The data and information on personality tests is difficult

For many years, companies used personality tests that were developed by clinical psychologists, and some of those tests are still popular and being used by organizations One is the California Personality Inventory Have not had good validity historically In prior editions of the book, GFB advised against their

use They remain cautious in this one, but “cautiously

optimistic”

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There is some good work going on right now, however, the field is in a bit of flux right now Intuitively we know that “personality” influences how

effective a person is at work, we just haven’t tapped into what the relevant KSAs really are, or what the relevant clusters of behaviors are

Even with the recent work, validity coefficients tend to be low, but they do appear to add independent predictive power (above and beyond cognitive ability tests and other types of ability tests)

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There is some agreement in the field that personality characteristics can be grouped into five broad dimensions called the Five-Factor Model or Big Five Conscientiousness

▪ Being responsible, organized, dependable, planful, willing to achieve, and persevering

Emotional stability (only one described in negative terms)▪ Being emotional, tense, insecure, nervous, excitable, apprehensive,

and easily upset Agreeableness (relevant for team work)

▪ Being courteous, flexible, trusting, good natured, cooperative, forgiving, softhearted, and tolerant

Extroversion▪ Being sociable, gregarious, assertive, talkative, and active

Openness to experience (also called intellect or culture)▪ Being imaginative, cultured, curious, intelligent, artistically sensitive,

original and broad minded

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Good news: to date there has been little or no adverse impact (a) across racial and ethnic groups and (b) between males and females

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Two traits have been shown to be universal predictors, that is, valid across jobs Conscientiousness Emotional stability

The other three were found to be valid for only a few jobs or specific criteria Extraversion (managers and training criteria) Agreeableness (team work) Openness to experience (training criteria)

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If you do use a personality test, you must use a criterion-related validity study to support it because personality traits cannot be directly observed Concurrent validity Predictive validity Validity generalization

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(in other words you cannot use content validity: also have some legal issues to be aware of)

ADA (dealt with this previously in U3) If a test can and is used to diagnose mental/psychiatric

disorders, then it will probably be considered a medical examination under ADA

If it deals with other personality traits (the Big 5, for example) then it probably will not be considered a medical examination although I don’t know how courts would/will handle “emotional stability” as it relates to ADA

Nonetheless, my strong advice to you is to treat every personality test as a medical examination until things are clarified more by the courts

Which means you should only administer personality tests post-offer and keep the results in a file that is separate from the personnel file

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Clarifying court case, 2005, 7th Circuit Court MMPI is a medical examination and thus

illegal for pre-employment use (certainly that was expected)

Psychological tests that measure personal traits such as honesty, integrity, preferences and habits do not constitute medical examinations

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Right to privacy (be able to explain this as well) Although a right to privacy is not explicitly guaranteed

under the US Constitution, individuals are protected from unreasonable intrusions and surveillance

Personality tests, by their nature, reveal an individual’s thoughts and feelings

Several states have laws that explicitly guarantee a right to privacy▪ To date, litigation has occurred about questions

relating to sexual inclinations and orientation and religious views

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(second thorny issue)

Soroka v. Dayton Hudson (1991) California Court of Appeals stopped Dayton Hudson’s

Target stores from requiring applicants for store security positions to take a personality test that contained questions about sexual practices and religious beliefs

The court also stated that employers must restrict psychological testing to job-related questions

The ruling was later dismissed because the parties reached a court-approved settlement▪ Dayton-Hudson agreed to stop using the personality test▪ Divided $1.3 million dollars among the estimated 2,500

members of the plaintiff class who had taken the test

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Performance or work sample tests are excellent and I highly recommend their use when you can do them Typing test Having candidates write a computer program to solve

a specific problem Role playing a sales situation with an applicant for a

sales position Having mechanics trouble shoot a problem with an

engine You are getting an actual sample of behavior

under controlled testing conditions (which permits you to easily compare performance across applicants) 41

(this slide NFE)

From a technical perspective, they have high validity

They reduce two limitations of other selection procedures, and both are related to verbal behavior Most selection procedures rely heavily on verbal

behavior▪ Written answers to questions (ability tests)▪ Oral descriptions of abilities/skills (interviews, training

and evaluation assessments)

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(This slide NFE)

Willful distortion and faking (people want to look good) This varies dependent upon the selection procedure

▪ Reports about past experiences (interviews, T&Es) where the information is difficult to confirm - most susceptible

▪ Personality and honesty inventories, next susceptible▪ Ability tests, least susceptible

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Relationship between verbal behavior and actual behavior is not perfect (as we behavior analysts well know) Much of our behavior is contingency-shaped, not rule-

governed This is particularly a problem for exemplar performers

who are not verbally fluent▪ Automobile mechanic▪ Plumbers▪ Machine operator

It can also be a problem for employees who are exemplar performers but can’t describe what makes them exemplary performers – sales representatives

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Difficulty of accurately simulating job tasks that are representative of the job

Applicants must already have the KSAs being tested – they cannot cover specialized things that must be learned on the job General sales skills OK, but questions that deal with specific

company-related products and pricing will not be Very costly to develop and and often to administer

(many must be done one-on-one)

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Many consulting firms use stress interviews Stress interviews

Interviewer creates a stressful situation, often by asking many questions rapidly, not allowing much time for the applicant to respond, interrupting the applicant frequently, acting in a semi-hostile manner, or in a cool aloof manner

Why bad? Even if the job is one of high work demands that produce stress,

rarely is the situation staged in the interview representative of the actual work demands that produce the stress

In very few jobs, is the stress related to a semi-hostile or cool/aloof stranger rapidly firing questions

The behavior of the applicant doesn’t readily generalize to the job and thus should not be used as a predictor

46(maybe OK for a press secretary for a politician)

Validity They both have high validity: they are two of

the most valid types of selection instruments Adverse impact

Equal adverse impact Cost

Performance tests cost much more to develop and administer

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Assessment centers or even the use of some of the exercises often included in assessment centers have been highly successful In-basket tests Leaderless group interaction tests Case analyses

Main problem is their time and expense to both develop and administer

You are unlikely to become involved in designing an assessment center, thus I am skipping them for the sake of time

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Refer you to the Minnich & Komaki article in U7 in the course pack from the OBM Network NewsThe article describes the use of a validated in-basket test to assess the effectiveness of managers based on Komaki’s Operant Supervisory Taxonomy and IndexThis is one of the best examples I have ever seen of the intersection of behavior analysis and traditional I/O Psychology

Operant supervisory taxonomy and index Assessed the difference between high performing and

low performing managers Found that work sampling and type of consequence

following performance distinguished between high and low performing managers

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(Gives a detailed description of the instrument, some of the actual items, and responses, along with analysis of responsesUnfortunately, it is not commercially available – done as Minnich’s dissertation)

During the introduction to the course, I provided some information about graphology Used as a selection tool in/by (very popular in Europe):

▪ 5,000 US companies ▪ 68% of Swiss companies ▪ 50% of French companies▪ 80% of French selection consultants▪ 80% of Western European countries

I am appalled, as are the authors, that a section on graphology has to be included in a legitimate text on personnel selection and placementbut the good news is that its use appears to be declining, at least in this country

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(couldn’t resist including this; this slide NFE)

Graphology has no validity whatsoever as a selection tool oras GFB state, “it flat out doesn’t work.” For validity studies, see 593-594,0

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(NFE) Just for fun, look at Table 14.4 Gatewood sent a handwriting sample to a

graphologist who graduated from the program conducted by the International Graphoanalysis Society Four times (for each edition of the book),

they calculated reliability (same graphologist) and reported the results with commentary by GBF

Read pages 594-596

52(love the way the authors handle this - humor and irony; Ok moving on..)

For all practical purposes, it is illegal Federal law, Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 It can be used in some specific employment situations for

selection (there are other requirements for use with current employees)▪ Private employers whose primary business purpose is to provide

security services (e.g., protection of nuclear power facilities, public water supply facilities, shipments or storage of radioactive or other toxic waste materials, public transportation)

▪ Employers involved in the manufacture, distribution, or dispensing of controlled substances

▪ Federal, state and local government employers; also private consultants or experts under contract to governmental depts. and agencies (e.g., Defense Dept., Energy Dept., National Security Agency, CIA, FBI)

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(spies and spooks)

Frequency of false positives; that is, there is a high degree of error with respect to finding that an individual is lying when in fact, the individual is not (details below, NFE) Assume 90 percent accuracy (high end estimate) Assume rate of stealing is 5% of the working population If 1,000 polygraphs were given, we would expect 50

individuals would be lying, and given 90% accuracy, 45 of those would be detected

However, the problem lies with the other 950 individuals 95 (950 X .10) would be identified as lying when they had

not Thus, 140 individuals would be identified as having lied, with

68% of them being false positives Not good

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(text actually gives 3, I am asking you to learn the major one; (a) other reactions than guilt can trigger an emotional response; (b) there are countermeasures that can be used to avoid detection - I am sure you can find them on the web)

There are two basic types of paper and pencil integrity tests Overt integrity tests

▪ Self-report inventories that measure a job applicant’s “attitudes” and “cognitions” toward theft that might predispose him/her to steal at work

Personality-based measures▪ Self-report inventories that measure integrity as

part of a larger syndrome of antisocial behavior or organizational delinquency and thus not only measure theft but things like drug and alcohol abuse, vandalism, sabotage, assaultive actions, insubordination, absenteeism, excessive grievances, bogus worker compensation claims and violence

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(this slide NFE)

Pencil and paper integrity tests were developed to replace polygraph testing after the Employee Polygraph Protection Act was passed in 1988

A few states have passed laws against the use of these tests as well, so be careful and check the state laws

Once again the reason for concern is the high number of false positives that occur

Because of the concern about theft by employers, the use of integrity tests is on the rise and thus more validity studies have been conducted recently

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(this slide NFE)

These tests indicate that these measures do correlate with measures of theft, general counterproductive behaviors (grievances filed, absenteeism, disciplinary actions, etc.), and various types of job performance

They appear to be OK to use in a selection program, however, at the current time, many still oppose their use False positives and the social implications of that – how

would you like to be identified as a liar and cheater when you were not?

Frequency of false positives is unknown

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Use of drugs and alcohol have been a major concern since the 1960s (casting dispersions on my generation, the hippie generation)

NFE, but paper and pencil drug tests - see items▪ Do you think that it is OK for workers to use “soft” drugs at work if

this does not cause poor performance?▪ In the past six months, how often have you used marijuana at

work?▪ In the past six months, have you brought cocaine to work even

though you did not use it at work?

No public studies that have evaluated either the reliability of validity of these tests

In one court case, the court ruled that these were illegal based on the Fifth Amendment’s prohibition against involuntary self-incrimination

58(I find it hard to believe anyone would answer these types of questions honestly!)

The legal status of drug testing is unclear Organizations face less risk using drug testing for

pre-employment selection (testing individuals who are applying for a job)

They face considerably more risk if they test existing workers for promotions (or transfers) or testing workers to detect drug users for disciplinary or counseling purposes

NFE, but why? Applicants cannot take advantage of collective bargaining or challenge employment at-will principles, as can employees who feel they have been wrongly treated

NFE, Consult a good lawyer in employment law before implementing drug testing for selection purposes!

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(last slide – distribute EAS tests)

Questions???

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Drug testing is not considered a medical test under ADA You can administer a drug test before an offer

is made Why?

Those using illegal drugs are excluded from coverage under ADA. Thus, while many would consider drug testing a medical test, it is not considered a medical test under ADA

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15 states and the DC have passed medical marijuana laws

If a person has a disability and uses medical marijuana, what about drug testing?

Many laws protect employers with clauses like “employers are not required to accommodate the medical use of marijuana in any workplace.”

However, laws are varied and there have not yet been many cases

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California Supreme Court, 2008 OK to fire a worker after drug test Employers are under no obligation to

accommodate medical marijuana on or off the job

The law protects the individual from criminal prosecution but provides no protection on the job

Why? Marijuana remains classified as an illegal substance under federal law

(I dealt with this previously, but want you to learn this point now; so drug test away)

Agreed to review a case in which a customer service consultant was “fired” (not hired) for her legal, at-home use of marijuana Applicant disclosed her use during the

hiring process Gave the company a copy of her

physician’s authorization Was not hired after a pre-employment

drug screen when she tested positive for THC. 64

Don’t think so, but who knows?

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(no one knows where this is going)