FURTHER STUDIES OF SITUATIONAL TESTS

In the present paper, results are reported for two different situational judgment tests (SJT) used in validation studies with almost 4,000 employees in 7 different organizations. Across the 2 studies, it was shown that situational test scores were significantly related to performance (weighted average r = .19), cognitive ability (weighted average r = .45), and experience (weighted average r = .20). In one study, there was a slight tendency for experience and cognitive ability to interact in the prediction of situational judgment, such that cognitive ability became less predictive as experience increased. Situational judgment fully mediated the effects of cognitive ability in one study, but not in the other. Finally, SJT race effect sizes were consistent with past research and, while not trivial, smaller than those typically observed for cognitive ability tests. The studies yielded very similar results despite the use of different keying methods (empirical vs. subject matter expert opinion). The preponderance of the evidence indicates that situational judgment measures mediate avariety of job relevant skills. Limitations to these studies and directions for future research are reviewed.     

PERCEPTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCE: A COGNITIVE INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH FOR EXPLAINING MODERATED RELATIONSHIPS

A hypothesis of consistency in cognitive information processing of perceptions of psychological influence (perceived influence of decisions made by a supervisor) was proposed and tested. The hypothesis stated that if (a) having influence was of sufficient importance to a subordinate to effect selective attention to supervisor behaviors that reflected opportunities for influence, then (b) the subordinate would employ perceptions of influence in behavioral decisions (performance) and affective reactions (anxiety, satisfaction). The hypothesis received support in a study of 363 Navy enlisted aircraft maintenance personnel, where selective attentiveness to opportunities for influence was determined by assessing the fit between personal characteristics of a subordinate (e.g., achievement motivation) and the degree of overload in the work environment. Results suggested that relations between perceptions of influence and attitudes/performance should be expected only for those individuals who are attentive to opportunities for influence in the early stages of cognitive processing. Implications of these results for future scientific and professional endeavors are discussed.     

BLACK-WHITE DIFFERENCES IN WORK ENVIRONMENT PERCEPTIONS AND JOB SATISFACTION AND ITS CORRELATES

Numerous studies have reported racial differences in intelligence, abilities, motivation, job satisfaction, and so forth. Relatively few of these studies, however, limited their comparisons to blacks and whites experiencing similar work conditions. The present effort compared black ( n = 166) and white ( n = 1,451) sailors assigned to the same shipboard divisions in order to investigate possible differences in perceived work conditions, satisfaction, need strength, and relationships among these variables. Also explored were two hypothesized sources of race-related satisfaction differences–differences in perceived work conditions and differences in need strength. The results tended to support the need strength hypothesis although satisfaction differences were fewer than expected.     

Memory for Orientation in the Natural Environment

Previous work has demonstrated that memory for information to which people have been exposed for a prolonged period in everyday life may be very poor. One interpretation of such findings is that we tend to remember only information that is likely to be of future functional relevance. However, it is also noticeable that previous investigations have in general studied memory concerning artefacts of arbitrary design rather than the natural environment. As the product of an evolutionary process, it is possible that memory is in general adapted towards dealing with the natural rather than the artificial. For example, in the case of one frequently encountered artefact it has been shown that people retain little information as to whether the head on a coin faces to left or right. The present study probed a naturally occurring counterpart to this, by examining recall of the orientation of the crescent moon. For a new moon it is the right-hand side of the moon that is illuminated whereas for an old moon it is the left-hand side, in the northern hemisphere. The results of Experiment 1 indicated no retention of this information by participants (though, as the results of Experiment 4 confirmed, participants did remember that the new and old moons have opposite orientations). The results of Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed the absence of retention when recall was cued by reference to the solar cycle rather than the lunar cycle, either singly or in combination. It is concluded that, contrary to expectation, memory for the natural environment is in this case no better than memory for the artificial environment, consistent with the primary role in determining the content of everyday memory being taken by functional relevance. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.