Cognitive ability tests measure a person’s skills needed for a new job or to cope with
the demands of a training course. These tests are not the same thing as tests of
achievement or tests of attainment. Tests of attainment assess specifically what people
have learnt, e.g., typing skills.
Several tests of cognitive ability (generally known as intelligence tests) are used
frequently in employee selection. An important survey on industrial selection (Cooper
& Robertson, 1988) found that about 80% of cognitive ability tests are used effectively
for the said purpose. Group intelligence tests, the kind used most often are primarily
a rough screening device. The tests are short, take little time to complete, and can
be administered to large groups. These can be rapidly and easily scored by even a
clerical staff or a machine.
Personal psychologists have found that tests of cognitive ability are highly valid for
predicting success in training programmes as well as actual job performance (Guion
& Gibson, 1988). Indeed such tests are the “most valid way known of identifying
the employees or trainees who will be the most productive worke
This is a non-verbal intelligence test requiring interactive reasoning about abstract
geometric patterns. This was first published in 1938 and later revised several times
and is designed to cover a very wide range of mental ability and to be useable with
subjects irrespective of age, sex, nationality, or education.
The respondent is provided with 60 abstract geometric patterns with a missing part.
In each case the subject must select from several alternatives the one that fits in a
missing part of the pattern. Some psychologists believe that it provides the purest
available measure of general intelligence, uncontaminated by cultural and educational
influences. English Psychologist John C. Raven (1902-1970) developed this test in
1938. The R.P.M. is available in three forms, differing in level of difficulty. The
Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM-1996 Edition) is the form suitable for average
individuals between the ages 6 and 80 years
An easier form, the Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM-1990 Edition), is available
for younger children and for special groups who cannot be adequately tests with the
SPM for various reasons.
A third form, the Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM-1994 Edition) was developed
for above-average adolescents and adu