Additional distributions of test scores of industrial employees and applicants

Abstract

Follow-up studies were made in 4 plants to test previous conclusions that applicants for industrial jobs often make a distribution of employment test scores that is different from the distribution of scores on the same test made by the employees against whom the test had been validated. In all 4 follow-up studies, the mean scores of applicants were different from employees. However, since they were as likely to be lower scores as higher scores, the hypothesis that only better applicants apply after testing is started because "the word gets around" is not supported. Additional controls in testing are suggested and the necessity of validating tests for the jobs in question is indicated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)