Problems of Work Evaluation

In reviewing the history of the development of techniques of work evaluation, four different approaches are appraised: (1) the mental testing approach, (2) the job analysis approach, (3) the work-sample approach, and (4) the situational assessment approach. Each of these sets of methods is found to arise from somewhat different sectors of society, to serve differing interests, and to have differing objectives. After examination of the merits and limitations of each of the four approaches, the conclusion is drawn that “no one of these four methods can do everything; each deals with a restricted facet of a many-faceted problem.” Attention is called to the general need for validation through professional observation in unprotected industrial settings.     

Wistful Wish: Evaluation Without Values

Two recommendations from a recent statement of standards for counselor education are examined for underlying philosophical assumptions. The first recommendation, that counselors should possess ability for and conduct scientific research, assumes that the counseling process is lawful and orderly, that theoretical concepts can be operationally defined and that empirically testable predictions can be derived from counseling theories. A second recommendation suggests that counselors-in-training be selectively admitted and retained. Underlying this recommendation is the assumption that counseling is a process of influence that can be evaluated. Such evaluation must be based on conditions outside the counseling relationship, in the social context of the life of the client. The serious implications of these assumptions are illustrated and discussed.     

Saturation of red: A prothetic continuum

A battery of procedures was used to scale the saturation of colors produced by mixtures of red and gray papers. By direct magnitude estimation, the apparent saturation was found to grow as the1.7 power of the percentage of red in the mixture. The power law was confirmed by the cross-modality matching of loudness to saturation. The inverse continuum, paleness, was also scaled. Saturation appears to be a prothetic continuum because the category scale is curved and the subjective size of the jnd increases as saturation increases.     

The active use of grammar in speech perception

Judgments of the location of short bursts of noise in sentences were used to reveal perceptual segmentation of sentences. It was assumed that segmentation would correspond to major constituent boundaries. In order to control for correlated variables of pitch and intonation, identical acoustic material was provided with alternate constituent structures. It was found that differences in response to identical strings were predicted by the points of variation in constituent structure.     

Regression effect in psychophysical judgment

Psychophysical judgment, like all other kinds of judgment, involves a matching or equating of two different domains. When the judgment involves the matching of values on two perceptual continua, the observer tends, on the average, to constrict the range of his adjustments on whichever variable is placed under his control. When the observer adjusts each variable in turn, two different regression lines are produced. This regression effect presumably occurs whenever the results of the matching judgments yield less than a perfect correlation. Illustrative examples are given for the continua, loudness, vibration, brightness, and duration.     

Source variability and recall of auditory material 1

Recall of auditory narrative material was measured under three conditions of presentation. These were a single source condition with material from one speaker, a four source fixed sequence condition with material from four speakers in a fixed sequence of 3-sec. lengths, and a four source random condition with material from four speakers in a random sequence of 3-sec. lengths. Recall was better for the single source condition than for the four source conditions. No significant difference was found between the fixed and random sequential presentations. Results are discussed in terms of the attentional behaviors involved in the tasks.