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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2009.01.011 Byline: Jane Carstairs (a), Brett Myors (b) Keywords: Internet usage; Cognitive assessment; Achievement measures; Cheating; Educational measurement Abstract: A natural experiment is reported in which the performance of two cohorts of undergraduate students on identical tests of cognitive achievement is compared under differing conditions of proctoring and modes of administration, total N =302. Between-subjects and within-subjects analyses reveal clear effects of test score inflation in the unproctored conditions compared with formal, proctored, examination conditions. These results caution against the use of unproctored cognitive testing in high-stakes situations, including on-line assessment. Author Affiliation: (a) Psychology Department, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV1 1LY, United Kingdom (b) School of Psychology, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4160, Australia

This article presents normative data for the Rey Auditory and Verbal Learning Test ( RAVLT). A representative sample of 390 healthy young adults aged between 18 and 34 living within the Sydney metropolitan area, Australia, completed Form AB of the RAVLT as part of the Macquarie University Neurological Normative Study. Retest data were collected from a subsample of 98 participants after an interval of 1 year. Norms were derived for commonly used measures of the RAVLT and are presented for the whole sample as well as separately for males and females with different levels of education. Age was not found to impact significantly on test performance for this group of young adults, and therefore age-adjusted norms are not provided. An excel program to calculate RAVLT standard scores (mean of 10 and standard deviation of 3) can be downloaded from http://www.psy.mq.edu.au/RAVLT. Poor test-retest reliability raises concerns about the use of the RAVLT in clinical diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perspectives from 22 countries on aspects of the legal environment for selection are presented in this article. Issues addressed include (a) whether there are racial/ethnic/religious subgroups viewed as “disadvantaged,” (b) whether research documents mean differences between groups on individual difference measures relevant to job performance, (c) whether there are laws prohibiting discrimination against specific groups, (d) the evidence required to make and refute a claim of discrimination, (e) the consequences of violation of the laws, (f) whether particular selection methods are limited or banned, (g) whether preferential treatment of members of disadvantaged groups is permitted, and (h) whether the practice of industrial and organizational psychology has been affected by the legal environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the authors' comments on several articles on legal environment for personnel selection published in the journal. The authors agree to the article by E.M. Dunleavy and colleagues and suggest that exploring culture differences help to understand differences in law and its enforcement. They say that A. Gutman's article on the U.S. having better selection methods is true if the focus is on the structural detail of the regulatory and evidentiary process.

This study examines the effect of language background on the performance of healthy participants on a battery of cognitive measures. The study was conducted as part of a larger normative study: the Macquarie University Neuropsychological Normative Study (MUNNS). A comparison was made between the test performance of three language background groups: participants from a non-English-speaking background whose first language was other than English (NESB-OE, N = 42); participants from a non-English-speaking background whose first language was English (NESB-E, N = 34); and participants from an English-speaking background (ESB, N = 40). A number of tests used in clinical neuropsychological assessment were found to be sensitive to the background of the participant, and trends in the data suggest that two factors are operating independently. It is proposed that one factor is language or proficiency in English that impacts on verbal subtests and the other is a sociocultural factor that impacts on performance or nonverbal subtests. These findings question current practices when assessing people from non-English-speaking backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the accuracy of percentile judgments used in the utility analysis of personnel selection procedures. Use of judgement of percentiles in organizational psychology; Standard deviation of performance; Estimation of percentiles in a normal distribution.

The personality characteristics of rock and popular musicians were examined in a sample of 100 musicians who completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and a questionnaire about musical background and experience. Profile analysis revealed that rock musicians share a common profile of high Neuroticism and Openness to Experience, average Extraversion and low Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. No background factors such as instrument played, type of music performed, time spent playing, level of musicianship or commercial success moderated this finding. These results are compared with previous research on classical and rock musicians. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focuses on the evaluation of the logical critique of banding on personnel selection. Range of measurement and decision-making systems; Types of inconsistency in score differences; Concept of the multiple-choice tests; Potential costs of banding.

This paper reports findings from experiments which tested predictions from the theory that psychometric intelligence is largely determined by a limited capacity, or attentional, mechanism. Limited capacity effects were induced by load manipulations involving an increasing number of working memory placekeepers, post cueing. and competing task conditions. Some support for the theory was found using single tests but was not found for competing tasks, which should have produced greater attentional demand. These findings were replicated in a second study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applied issues in organisational psychology concerned with selection, training, career development, and job redesign rely on person-environment fit theories and frameworks as a base. Although they are conceptually simple, considerable care is required in measuring, testing, and applying person-environment fit models. Traditionally, fit theories have failed to acknowledge direct contributions of either the person or the environment to outcomes such as occupational health, satisfaction, and performance, giving disproportionate significance to fit. These measures also fail to detect the complex configural relations among dimensions typically used by practitioners in making fit predictions. Examples are used to illustrate alternative ways of dealing with these difficulties, including response surface, pattern analysis, and fuzzy configural approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]