Deck 11: Testing Special Abilities

Question 1

Aptitude tests measure achievement, and achievement tests measure aptitude.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Carroll?s research findings indicate that the distinction between measures of aptitude and measures of achievement is unwarranted.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

A test that does an effective job of measuring a highly specific mental ability has wide bandwidth but low fidelity.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The fairness of a test refers to its relative freedom from errors of measurement.

Question 5

Tests of special abilities tend to have broad bandwidths, but tests of general intelligence have high fidelity.

Question 6

Because of their realism, work-sample tests of the in-basket type are useful in measuring proficiency in a wide range of jobs.

Question 7

Ghiselli's review of the effectiveness of aptitude tests in predicting job performance indicated that the average validity coefficients of most of these tests fall between .20 and .30.

Question 8

Pseudo-isochromatic plates are used in industrial screening examinations for vertical and lateral phoria.

Question 9

Psychomotor skills tests tend to have low reliabilities.

Question 10

Psychomotor skills tests are more useful in predicting actual performance on the job than performance in a job training program.

Question 11

Pegboards measures both fine and gross manual movements.

Question 12

Males score higher than females on tests of fine manual dexterity, but females score higher than males on tests of spatial ability and perceptual discrimination.

Question 13

The Revised Minnesota Paper Formboard Test is a measure of the perception of spatial relations.

Question 14

Clerical ability is distinct from general intelligence, because it consists primarily of manual dexterity and perceptual speed.

Question 15

Mechanical ability is more closely related to general intelligence than clerical ability is.

Question 16

Artistic ability consists of a combination of spatial ability, judgment, manual dexterity, and perceptual speed.

Question 17

The validity coefficients of tests of artistic and musical ability are fairly substantial.

Question 18

The most time-honored and effective test of musical ability, the Seashore Measures of Musical Talents, consists of 250 original musical selections for violin and cello.

Question 19

One of the most carefully validated tests of musical ability is the Musical Aptitude Profile, which is composed of meaningful musical selections.

Question 20

Multiple aptitude batteries have proven more useful than separate tests of special abilities for vocational counseling and classification purposes.

Question 21

A multiple aptitude battery should not be administered below the tenth grade, because the abilities of children are not sufficiently differentiated until that grade level is reached.

Question 22

The Differential Aptitude Tests can be administered as early as the fifth grade, but most school systems wait until the seventh grade to administer the D.A.T. for the first time.

Question 23

The most successful aptitude batteries were developed by successive applications of factor-analytic techniques.

Question 24

The reliability of the difference between scores on two tests is usually higher than the reliability of either test by itself.

Question 25

The Differential Aptitude Tests is the most effective battery for academic counseling purposes and the General Aptitude Test Battery is best for vocational counseling at the high school level.

Question 26

The items on a particular subtest of a carefully constructed aptitude test battery have low correlations with each other, but scores on the various subtests of which the battery is composed are highly inter-correlated.

Question 27

The General Aptitude Test Battery is an example of an academically -oriented test battery.

Question 28

The Multidimensional Aptitude Battery is a group-administered version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised.

Question 29

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is administered to high school students and military recruits.

Question 30

The oldest of the many vocational aptitude batteries is the General Aptitude Test Battery.

Question 31

An occupational ability pattern approach is used in counseling with the test batteries devised by John Flanagan.

Question 32

Aptitude tests are not very effective in predicting occupational membership and success over long time spans.

Question 33

When combined with scores on interest inventories, aptitude test scores are highly valid predictors of vocational choice, success, and satisfaction.

Question 34

Bandwidth is to fidelity as

A) ability is to accomplishment.
B) affect is to cognition.
C) aptitude is to achievement.
D) general is to specific.

Question 35

Tests of a single aptitude generally have

A) broad bandwidth and high fidelity.
B) broad bandwidth and low fidelity.
C) narrow bandwidth and high fidelity.
D) narrow bandwidth and low fidelity.

Question 36

The most general of the following terms, in that it encompasses all of the others, is

A) ability.
B) achievement.
C) aptitude.
D) intelligence.

Question 37

Which of the following is (are) true of aptitude and achievement tests? (1) they can be used to predict performance; (2) they can have either a narrow or a broad bandwidth.

A) only 1
B) only 2
C) neither 1 nor 2
D) both 1 and 2

Question 38

Ghiselli?s survey of the average validity coefficients of aptitude tests found that most of them were in the

A) .20s.
B) .30s.
C) .40s.
D) .50s.

Question 39

On the average, the validity coefficients of tests of special abilities are in the

A) .20s.
B) .30s.
C) .40s.
D) .50s.

Question 40

Additional variables that affect the correlation between test scores and criterion scores in a systematic way are known as __________ variables.

A) contaminating
B) dependent
C) independent
D) moderator

Question 41

Moderator variables and fairness are concerned primarily with a test?s

A) communality.
B) reliability.
C) validity.
D) variance.

Question 42

The in-basket technique was designed primarily for use in the selection and placement of__________ workers.

A) assembly
B) maintenance
C) managerial
D) technical

Question 43

Pseudoisochromatic plates are used to detect problems in perceiving

A) color.
B) light.
C) movement.
D) pitch.

Question 44

A nearsighted person, who has less than average visual acuity, might attain a score of__________ on the Snellen chart.

A) 10/20
B) 20/100
C) 20/15
D) 100/20

Question 45

Which of the following statements are true about tests of psychomotor abilities? (1) their reliabilities are low; (2) the correlations among different tests are low; (3) they are highly susceptible to practice effects.

A) 1 and 2
B) 1 and 3
C) 2 and 3
D) 1, 2, and 3

Question 46

Psychomotor tests have proven most useful in predicting performance in

A) complex jobs involving higher-order cognitive skills.
B) complex jobs involving higher-order perceptual skills.
C) job proficiency rather than the effects of job training.
D) routine assembly and machine operation.

Question 47

For which of the following purposes have tests of psychomotor abilities proven most effective?

A) educational counseling and guidance
B) forecasting job proficiency
C) predicting performance in job training programs
D) vocational counseling and guidance

Question 48

Pegboards, such as those devised by Johnson O'Connor and by psychologists at Purdue University, are measures of __________ manual movements.

A) small
B) medium
C) large
D) large and small

Question 49

The fact that motor skills are greatly affected by __________ lowers the validity of tests of these abilities.

A) faking
B) heredity
C) intelligence
D) practice

Question 50

The correlations among the various components contributing to a general factor of motor ability are

A) low.
B) moderate.
C) high.
D) undetermined.

Question 51

Which of the following tests is a measure of fine manual movements but not gross manual movements?

A) Hand-Tool Dexterity Test
B) Minnesota Rate of Manipulation Test
C) Pennsylvania B-manual Worksample
D) Purdue Pegboard
E) Stromberg Dexterity Test

Question 52

The Revised Minnesota Paper Formboard is a measure of

A) clerical ability.
B) mechanical comprehension.
C) psychomotor ability.
D) sensory acuity.
E) spatial perception.

Question 53

The most popular of all tests of mechanical ability is the

A) Bennett Test of Mechanical Comprehension.
B) Minnesota Mechanical Assembly Test.
C) Minnesota Paper Formboard.
D) Minnesota Spatial Relations Test.

Question 54

Gender differences are most likely to be found on tests of __________ ability.

A) artistic
B) clerical
C) mechanical
D) musical

Question 55

On this test the examinee selects the one answer frame out of five which shows how a cut up figure would look when put together. The test is referred to as a

A) paper form board.
B) picture puzzle test.
C) test of mechanical assembly.
D) test of mechanical comprehension.

Question 56

Clerical ability tests consist of items to measure perceptual speed and accuracy, as well as

A) academic achievement.
B) general intelligence.
C) mechanical comprehension.
D) psychomotor skills.

Question 57

In the "number checking" and "name checking"tasks on the Minnesota Clerical Test, __________ is emphasized more than __________.

A) intelligence, perceptual ability
B) power, speed
C) speed, power
D) visual acuity, manual dexterity

Question 58

Aptitude for computer programming has most in common with __________ ability.

A) artistic
B) clerical
C) mechanical
D) psychomotor

Question 59

The oldest test of musical ability is the

A) Drake Musical Aptitude Test.
B) Musical Aptitude Profile.
C) Seashore Measures of Musical Talents.
D) Wing Standardized Tests of Musical Intelligence.

Question 60

On which of the following tests is the examinee directed to listen to a series of musical tones and discriminate between them in terms of pitch, loudness, and time, to make judgments concerning their timbre and rhythm, and to remember tones?

A) Drake Musical Aptitude Test
B) Musical Aptitude Profile
C) Seashore Measures of Musical Talents
D) Wing Standardized Tests of Musical Intelligence

Question 61

A group of tests used to predict a person?s ability to benefit from special training in various fields of work is known as a(n)

A) achievement test battery.
B) aptitude test battery.
C) performance test of specific abilities.
D) vocational interest test.

Question 62

In order to be most useful for purposes of differential prediction, the correlations among the various subtests comprising an aptitude test battery should be

A) around .50 on the average.
B) as close as possible to zero.
C) as highly negative as possible.
D) as highly positive as possible.

Question 63

Multiple aptitude batteries have proven most useful in

A) personnel selection and classification.
B) personnel selection and screening.
C) vocational counseling and classification.
D) vocational counseling and screening.

Question 64

On a multiple aptitude battery, correlations among the items comprising a particular subtest should be __________, and the correlations among subtests should be __________.

A) high, high
B) high, low
C) low, high
D) low, low

Question 65

The tests that make up an aptitude test battery should

A) consist of items having low correlations with each other.
B) have low correlations with each other.
C) have high correlations with each other.
D) have high correlations with composite scores on the battery as a whole.

Question 66

A small standard error of the difference between scores on two subtests of a multiple aptitude battery would imply that

A) the reliabilities of the subtests are small.
B) significant differences between subtest scores are more likely to be detected.
C) a larger difference between subtest scores is necessary to be significant.
D) the two subtests have a high correlation with each other.

Question 67

Which of the following conditions must be met in order for differences among an individual?s scores on various tests comprising an aptitude battery to be interpretable?

A) The correlations among the tests must be high.
B) The percentile bands representing scores on various tests must show some overlap.
C) The reliabilities of the difference scores must be high.
D) The score profile must be as flat as possible.

Question 68

An examinee's score pattern on the __________ may be expressed in terms of its similarity to 36 or so occupational ability patterns (OAPs).

A) Differential Aptitude Tests
B) General Aptitude Test Battery
C) Guilford-Zimmerman Aptitude Survey
D) Multiple Aptitude Tests

Question 69

The uniform selection and classification test currently used by the United States Armed Forces is the

A) AFQT.
B) AGCT.
C) Army Alpha.
D) ASVAB.

Question 70

Distinguish between the concepts of aptitude and achievement, and cite evidence supporting the distinction.

Question 71

Differentiate between general and specific abilities, and provide examples of instruments designed to measure each of these abilities.

Question 72

Do paper-and-pencil, performance, and computer-based tests which are designed to measure the same abilities actually measure those abilities? Why or why not?

Question 73

Distinguish between tests of psychomotor skills and tests of mechanical comprehension, and provide examples of tests in each category.

Question 74

Compare the Differential Aptitude Tests with the General Aptitude Test Battery in terms of structure and applications.

Question 75

How effective are scores on aptitude tests as predictors of both short-term and long-term performance criteria, and what are the reasons for the predictive accuracy or inaccuracy of these tests?