City Research Online

Abstract

Commonly used in employee selection, cognitive ability tests (CATs) show mean score group differences by gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES). Prior research supports both substantive accounts, such as biological and environmental factors, and methodological and contextual accounts, such as stereotype threat and differential item functioning, related to group differences. This systematic review explores the evidence for the theoretical explanations that purport to explain these differences. Two hundred and twenty-five papers met inclusion criteria which explored potential explanations of group differences. These were grouped into 10 factors: biological, environmental, latent trait / measurement invariance, criterion validity, item bias, behaviour in test, anxiety, attitudes, experience, and stereotype threat. Results showed that whilst biological and environmental factors are related to group differences, so are several factors relevant to test design and administration, most notably stereotype threat, differences in domain experience and exposure and self-confidence. Theoretical and practical implications for the occupational use of CATs as well as limitations and recommendations are discussed.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Publisher Keywords:	Cognitive ability tests, Intelligence, Gender, Ethnicity, Socioeconomic status, Employee selection
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Departments:	School of Health & Medical Sciences School of Health & Medical Sciences > Department of Psychology & Neuroscience
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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