Exploring the Relationship between Cognitive Ability Tilt and Job Performance

Abstract

Most of the work examining the relationship between intelligence and job performance has conceptualized intelligence as g. Recent findings, however, have supported the claim that more specific factors of intelligence contribute to the prediction of job performance. The present study builds upon prior work on specific cognitive abilities by investigating the relationship between ability tilt, a measure representing differential strength between two specific abilities, and job performance. It was hypothesized that ability tilt would differentially relate to job performance based on whether or not the tilt matched the ability requirements of the job, and that ability tilt would provide incremental validity over g and specific abilities for predicting performance when the tilt matched job requirements. Hypotheses were tested using a large sample from the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) database. Ability tilt related with job performance in the expected direction for 27 of the 36 tilt-job combinations examined, with a mean effect size of .04 when the tilt matched job requirements. The mean incremental validities for ability tilt were .007 over g and .003 over g and specific abilities, and, on average, tilt explained 7.1% of the total variance in job performance. The results provide limited evidence that ability tilt may be a useful predictor in addition to ability level, and contribute to our understanding of the role of specific abilities in the workplace.

Predictors of standardized in‐service examination performance and residency outcomes in a graduate periodontics program

“…Indeed, the strong and generalizable correlation between general cognitive ability and job performance is one of the most well-established findings in organizational psychology. 3,4 Although the relationship between AIE score and cognitive ability has not been investigated directly, correlation between general intelligence and academic test scores commonly approximates 0.50. 5,6 Much higher correlations have been observed between general intelligence and performance on specific large-scale standardized examinations such as the American College Test (0.77), 7 the Scholastic Achievement Test (0.82), 8 and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (0.78).…”

“…Intuitively, percieved intelligence may be a factor in the selection of educators for GDE programs and in the identification of military officers for command. Indeed, the strong and generalizable correlation between general cognitive ability and job performance is one of the most well‐established findings in organizational psychology 3,4 . Although the relationship between AIE score and cognitive ability has not been investigated directly, correlation between general intelligence and academic test scores commonly approximates 0.50 5,6 .…”