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4 The GATB: Its Character and Psychometric Properties
Pages 73-98

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From page 73...
... has been in use for more than 40 years, and for most of that time it has remained virtually unchanged. Through the years it has been used in state Employment Service offices for vocational counseling and referral and in addition has been made available for testing and counseling to high schools and technical schools, labor union apprenticeship programs, public and private vocational rehabilitation services, and other authorized agencies.
From page 74...
... Form A was reserved for the use of Employment Service offices; Form B was used for validation research and for retesting and was made available to other authorized users for vocational counseling and screening. It was not until 1983 that two additional forms, Forms C and D, of GATB edition B-1002 were introduced.
From page 75...
... . Subtest 2: Computation This subtest consists of arithmetic exercises requiring addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division of whole numbers.
From page 76...
... and the only measure of spatial aptitude, S Sample Item: At the left in the drawing below is a flat piece of metal.
From page 77...
... . Subtest 6: Arithmetic Reasoning This subtest consists of a number of arithmetic problems expressed verbally.
From page 78...
... Subtest 8: Mark Making This subtest consists of a series of small empty boxes in which the examinee is to make the same three pencil marks, working as rapidly as possible. The marks to be made are short lines, two vertical and the third a horizontal line beneath them: ~ .
From page 79...
... CHARACTER AND PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES 79 / ~; , ~ /\\ -- Mu-\ ~. ~ Subtest 10: Turn For Subtest 10, the lower section of the board contains the 48 cylindrical pegs.
From page 80...
... The generation of GATB scores from subtest scores involves a number of conversion procedures intended to provide the scores with meaning and to suitably standardize and weight subtest scores in the
From page 81...
... CHARACTER AND PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES ~ ~ 6<, 1 500450 40g 35g 300 2S~ 200 150 109 SO 490440 390 349 299 249 199 ldg 99 4g 480439 389 339 28023g 189 139 89 3g 470 42g 3g 3Q tp 29 179 12g 7g 2g 4Cig 4 1g 36g 31g 26g 219 1 6g 1 1g hi 1g O 500 45O 440 TO 30O 2sO TO 150 10O SO 49O 440 HO 34O ~ TO 1~ 14O 90 40 4lO 430 38O 33O TO TO ·80 13O SO 3O 47O TO 3~ HO TO 2~ 17O 120 TO SO 46O 410 36O 31O 26O 210 t6O 110 .0 ·0 (Examinee sits here.) Subtest 11.
From page 82...
... 82 ANALYSIS OF THE GENERAL APTITUDE TEST BATTERY 50O 4SO 4~O 3sO 30O 2SO 20O lsO 100 50 49O 44O 39O 34O 29O 24O 190 1 4O 9O 4ao 43G 38O 330 28O 23O 18O 130 ~0 470 41~ 3< 32O 2~ 22O 170 1 ~lO "0 4,0 3dO 31O 26O IlO 16O 110 GO o 4O 30 20 10 ~4~ ~03 S~ ~ 580258 5 3 3 2 ~ 1 1 4984J3333432982481~139343 4 834 23 ~ 3 382 ~2 3~1 ~1 ~ 8~ 38 47~4~3~3282~2~1 ~12~ 78 28 46~41836331826328168tl862 18 (Examinee sits here.) Subte-st 12.
From page 83...
... The conversion tables used to produce aptitude scores are designed to accomplish three things: first, to put all aptitude scores on a single measurement scale having a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 20 in the norming population; second, to make scores on all operational forms of the test comparable with one another (so that a score of 109 on the verbal subtest in Form A means the same as a score of 109 on the verbal subtest in Form B) ; and third, to weight the components of an aptitude score when it consists of more than one subtest.
From page 84...
... describes regression equations relating the three composite scores to job performance in each of the five job families. Regression coefficients were used to formulate relative weights for the aptitude composites in forming B scores.
From page 85...
... Equating Alternate Forms of the GATB As the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing adopted by the major professional organizations point out (American Educational Research Association et al., 1985:31) , alternate forms of a test would, in the ideal case, be interchangeable in use: "it should be a matter of indifference to anyone taking the test or to anyone using the results whether Form A or Form B of the test was used." However, even if considerable care is taken to make two forms of a test as similar as possible in terms of content and format, the forms cannot be expected to be precisely equal in difficulty.
From page 86...
... For these reasons, scores from the alternate forms that are based on Subtests 9 through 12 should not be considered to be interchangeable. RELIABILITY OF THE GATB APTITUDE SCORES Aptitude tests such as the GATB are intended to measure stable characteristics of individuals, rather than transient or ephemeral qualities.
From page 87...
... Whether the stability coefficients of GATB aptitude scores are sufficiently large is a matter of interpretation. Certainly, the stabilities of the cognitive aptitudes (G.
From page 88...
... In particular, the committee conducted an exhaustive review of the literature on convergent validity, which reports the strength of relationships between subtests of the GATB and corresponding subtests of other test batteries. Evidence of strong positive relationships between measures purportedly of the same construct is supportive of construct validity claims for all related measurement instruments.
From page 89...
... , the samples consisted of high school students. Distributions of convergent validity coefficients for the GATB cognitive and perceptual aptitudes are summarized in Table 4-1 and, for ease of visual comparison, are depicted in Figure 4-2.
From page 90...
... Third Quartile IVled~an Quartile 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 \ Maximum FIGURE 4-2 Distributions of convergent validity coefficients for GATE cognitive aptitudes (G.
From page 91...
... COMPARISON WITH THE ASVAB AND OTHER TEST BATTERIES The GATB is one of a number of test batteries used in this country for vocational counseling or employee selection and classification. In order to gauge the relative quality of the GATB, the committee reviewed four of the more widely used of these tests: the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)
From page 92...
... In addition, each Service has developed its own set of aptitude composites from the ASVAB subtests, which are used to qualify applicants for various career fields. For example, the Army uses a selector composite termed "combat" which includes the ASVAB Subtests AR + CS + AS + MC.
From page 93...
... Subsequent forms of the ASVAB have been calibrated to this 1980 Youth Population, making it the only vocational aptitude battery with nationally representative norms i The 1980 Youth Population norms were based on a sample of 9,173 people between the ages of 18 and 23 who were part of the nationally representative National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Labor Force Behavior. The sample included 4,550 men and 4,623 women and contained youth from rural as well as urban areas and from all major census regions.
From page 94...
... Those Services reporting validities that were corrected for restriction of range computed the corrections using the 1980 Profile of American Youth Population. Validities were reported for both the AFQT and the aptitude or selector composite used to place recruits in each of the eight career fields.
From page 95...
... Reel 1984. Relationships of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)
From page 96...
... 1984. Validation of Current and Alternative Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)
From page 97...
... The evidence for the perceptual aptitudes is mixed; the spatial aptitude test bears a respectably large relationship to similarly named subtests in other batteries, but evidence for the form perception and clerical perception subtests is less convincing. Since most aptitude test batteries do not have equivalent psychomotor subtests, this type of analysis is not useful in trying to establish that the K, F
From page 98...
... The areas in which the GATB program does not compare well with the best of the other batteries test security, the production of new forms, equating procedures, the strength of its normative data, the integrity of its power tests will take on heightened significance.


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