A meta-analytic investigation of cognitive ability in employment interview evaluations: Moderating characteristics and implications for incremental validity.

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the extent to which employment in-terview evaluations reflect cognitive ability. A meta-analysis of 49 studies found a cor-rected mean correlation of.40 between interview ratings and ability test scores, suggest-ing that on average about 16 % of the variance in interview constructs represents cognitive ability. Analysis of several design characteristics that could moderate the relationship between interview scores and ability suggested that (a) the correlation with ability tends to decrease as the level of structure increases; (b) the type of questions asked can have considerable influence on the magnitude of the correlation with ability; (c) the reflection of ability in the ratings tends to increase when ability test scores are made available to interviewers; and (d) the correlation with ability generally is higher for low-complexity jobs. Moreover, results suggest that interview ratings that correlate higher with cognitive ability tend to be better predictors of job performance. Implications for incremental va-lidity are discussed, and recommendations for selection strategies are outlined. Understanding of the validity of the employment in-terview has increased considerably in recent years. In particular, a series of meta-analyses has affirmed that the interview is generally a much better predictor of perfor-mance than previously thought and is comparable with many other selection techniques (Huffcutt & Arthur,

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