CONTEXT Although health sciences programmes continue to value non-cognitive variables such as interpersonal skills and professionalism, it is not clear that current admissions tools like the personal interview are capable of assessing ability in these domains. Hypothesising that many of the problems with the personal interview might be explained, at least in part, by it being yet another measurement tool that is plagued by context specificity, we have attempted to develop a multiple sample approach to the personal interview.METHODS A group of 117 applicants to the undergraduate MD programme at McMaster University participated in a multiple mini-interview (MMI), consisting of 10 short objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)-style stations, in which they were presented with scenarios that required them to discuss a health-related issue (e.g. the use of placebos) with an interviewer, interact with a standardised confederate while an examiner observed the interpersonal skills displayed, or answer traditional interview questions.RESULTS The reliability of the MMI was observed to be 0.65. Furthermore, the hypothesis that context specificity might reduce the validity of traditional interviews was supported by the finding that the variance component attributable to candidate-station interaction was greater than that attributable to candidate. Both applicants and examiners were positive about the experience and the potential for this protocol.DISCUSSION The principles used in developing this new admissions instrument, the flexibility inherent in the multiple mini-interview, and its feasibility and cost-effectiveness are discussed.

Further evidence for the validity of the MMI approach to making admissions decisions has been provided. More generally, the reported findings cast further doubt on the extent to which performance can be captured with trait-based models of ability. Finally, although a complementary predictive relationship has consistently been observed between grade point average and MMI results, the extent to which cognitive and non-cognitive qualities are distinct appears to depend on the scope of practice within which the two classes of qualities are assessed.

While further validity testing is required, the MMI appears better able to predict preclerkship performance relative to traditional tools designed to assess the noncognitive qualities of applicants.

The MMI complements pre-admission cognitive measures to predict performance outcomes during clerkship and on the Canadian national licensing examination.

The MMI provides a reliable protocol for assessing the personal qualities of candidates by accounting for context specificity with a multiple sampling approach. Increasing the heterogeneity of interviewers may increase the heterogeneity of the accepted group of candidates. Further work will determine the extent to which different groups of raters provide equally valid (albeit different) judgments.

ODERN CONCEPTIONS OF medical practice demand more of practitioners than a strong knowledge base. 1 By emphasizing compassionate care, professionalism, and interpersonal skill, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies indicate that physicians are expected to possess strong personal qualities distinct from academic achievement. 2 There is evidence of a link between these aspects of practice and quality of care. [3][4][5][6][7] At the level of medical school admissions, incoming grade point average (GPA) and Medical College Admission Test results have been found to be reasonably good determinants of academic success. 8-10 More problematic, however, has been the identification of measures capable of predicting nonacademic success despite the considerable resources most medical schools allocate to interviewing applicants. 9 Most validity studies in this domain are correlational in nature. Interpretation of the resulting statistics is difficult because restriction of range low-For editorial comment see p 2250.

Illness, death, and costs of immunity and injury strongly select for avoidance of predators or contagion. Ants, cockroaches, and collembola recognize their dead using unsaturated fatty acids (e.g., oleic or linoleic acid) as ''necromone'' cues. Ants, bees, and termites remove dead from their nests (necrophoric behavior) whereas semisocial species seal off corpses or simply avoid their dead or injured (necrophobic behavior). Alarm and avoidance responses to exudates from injured conspecifics are widespread. This involves diverse pheromones, complex chemistry and learning. We hypothesized that necromones are a phylogenetically ancient class of related signals and predicted that terrestrial Isopoda (that strongly aggregate and lack known dispersants) would avoid body fluids and corpses using fatty acid ''necromones.'' Isopods were repelled by crushed conspecifics (blood), intact corpses, and alcohol extracts of bodies. As predicted, the repellent fraction contained oleic and linoleic acids and authentic standards repelled several isopod species. We further predicted a priori that social caterpillars (lacking known dispersants) would be repelled by their own body fluids and unsaturated fatty acids. Both tent caterpillars and fall webworms avoided branches treated with conspecific body fluid. Oleic and linoleic acids were also strongly avoided by both species. Necromone signaling appears widespread and likely traces to aquatic ancestors pre-dating the divergence of the Crustacea and Hexapoda at least 420 million years ago.

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