General Aptitude Test Battery: what it is and how it is used

Adolescence is, for the vast majority, a critical moment in our lives. It is the moment in which you should think about what you want to be when you grow up, since in two or three years you have to make an (almost) final decision.

Despite the fact that each one has vital aspirations, sometimes it is very difficult to decide. That is why there are tests that allow us to orient ourselves at work, one of them being the General Battery of Aptitude Tests.

This instrument has proven useful in helping those people who still don't know what to do with their lives and, depending on their strengths, it allows them to give advice. Let's take a closer look at how it does it.

• Related article: "Types of psychological tests: their functions and characteristics"

General battery of aptitude tests, what is it?

The General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) is a a questionnaire that measures people's aptitudes and, depending on those in which you are better, it is recommended to train in one type of profession or another. This type of test is used in the field of employment guidance, being especially useful for adolescents who have not yet decided on their professional future.

The most modern version of this questionnaire includes 12 subtests, which measure 9 factors or aptitudes. These subtests are: comparison of names, calculation speed, three-dimensional space, vocabulary, comparison of tools, arithmetic reasoning, shape matching, scratching, peg placement, peg flipping, assembling and disassembly.

According to the model behind this battery of tests, the idea of ​​fitness is something you have innately. That is, although education can increase knowledge through content learning, people, already from birth, are more skilled in tasks that are related to one aspect or another. The General Aptitude Test Battery, with this in mind, measures what people are good at, regardless of how much they know.

For example, if this battery of tests is administered to a subject and the subject is found to have high scores on the tests that measure numerical aptitude, it can be understood that the person will be good in disciplines such as mathematics, physics and chemistry. It is possible that he has not done anything related to these subjects for years, but he has aptitudes numerical indications indicates that he will instinctively have a great facility to understand these disciplines.

Historical background

The origins of these tests date back to the last century, at the time of World War II. The USES (United States Employment Service) was dedicated to building nearly 100 tests whose purpose was to measure different aptitudes that seemed to be related to the degree of success in some professions. These first tests took into account aspects such as arithmetic, vocabulary, orientation in space...

After carrying out several studies and evaluating the data obtained, through factorial analysis, up to 9 independent factors were established, each of them related to several professions. Subsequently, perfecting both the test items and its design, the final version of the General Battery of Aptitude Tests was elaborated.

This instrument already represented a great advance at the time, given that It allowed people to be guided according to their strengths in a relatively short period of time, about two and a half hours. It is for this reason that since 1945 this questionnaire has been widely used.

What skills do these tests measure?

As already mentioned, the origins of this instrument date back to the last century and, when it was obtained the definitive version after using factorial analysis, the following 9 were established aptitudes.

1. General Intelligence (G)

It is understood by general intelligence the ability to learn anything in any context. That is, having the ability to capture or understand instructions and fundamental principles.

Within this ability would be the ability to reason and make judgments.

2. Verbal (V)

Verbal aptitude is the ability to understand the meaning of words and make appropriate use of them.

This ability is essential for language, both when formulating it, orally or in writing, and understanding the relationships between words what one listens to or reads.

• You may be interested in: "Linguistic intelligence: what is it and how can it be improved?"

3. Numerical (N)

Ability to perform arithmetic type operations quickly and safely. It is a basic aptitude to be able to adequately understand mathematics and other disciplines in which numerical symbols are used.

4. Spatial(S)

Spatial aptitude refers to the ability to visualize geometric shapes and be able to understand their representation both dimensionally and three-dimensionally.

It is also important to recognize the relationship between an object and its movement in space.

5. Shape perception (P)

The perception of shapes is related to being able to perceive details of objects, in addition to being able to perform visual comparisons between objects and noting small differences in terms of shape, shading, length, width...

6. Office Perception (Q)

The perception of office refers to the ability to perceive verbal and numerical details, observing important differences in the content or errors that must be corrected.

7. Motor coordination (K)

Ability to coordinate the movement of the eyes with that of the extremities, hands and fingers. Ability to execute safe and precise movements

8. Manual dexterity (M)

Ability to handle hands with ease and dexterity, performing movements such as placing objects or rotating them precisely.

9. Digital Dexterity (F)

Ability to handle small objects with the fingers, quickly and safely.

What uses does it have?

There are several uses that can be made of this questionnaire, although it should be noted that all of them are related to the world of work. Usually used to guide adolescents who, at the end of the compulsory studies, do not know what to continue studying or what to dedicate themselves to, this tool being a clue to where they could dedicate themselves.

The aptitude of general intelligence, being an indicator of the person's ability to learn regardless of context and content, can serve the time to find out if a teenager should continue studying after finishing high school or should choose to train for jobs that require less studies. Tests that address verbal and numerical aptitude also serve as useful indicators for this purpose.

However, if the person has already decided to study something after completing the compulsory education cycle, this questionnaire can be used to help them choose a specific field or profession.

However, it is not only useful for those people who have not yet studied a career. It is also used to select those employees who possess the most suitable skills. for the type of work for which they ask to be hired or, once inside the company, it serves to place them in departments where they can shine in a certain skill.

For example, if you are looking for a job in a factory, you would expect the employer to look for candidates who have skills related to operating machinery, such as motor coordination, manual dexterity, and digital dexterity.

critics

As with virtually any test, the General Aptitude Test Battery is not without its critics. The subtests that make it up, especially those that measure perceptual aspects, seem to be do not have sufficient construct validity, in terms of convergent validity. However, it should be noted that the subtests dedicated to measuring more cognitive aspects are solidly valid.

Another criticism that has been the object of is related to the pillar of this questionnaire: aptitudes. Some researchers argue that the proposed aptitudes in the general battery of aptitude tests are too correlated, which could come to say that what the different subtests of this instrument measure is what same.

Finally, one of the criticisms he has received is related to the race of the subjects in the United States. It has been seen that white people obtained much higher scores than African-American people, probably due to that the questionnaire is not exempt from items that have been formulated in a way that is not independent of the culture of these two groups ethnic.

Bibliographic references:

• Hartigan, J. A., & Wigdor, A. K. (Eds.). (1989). Fairness in employment testing: Validity generalization, minority issues, and the General Aptitude Test Battery. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.
• Jaeger, R. M., Linn, R. L., & Tesh, A. S. (1989). Appendix A: A synthesis of research on some psychometric properties of the GATB. In J. TO. Hartigan & A. K. Wigdor (Eds.), Fairness in employment testing: Validity generalization, minority issues, and the General Aptitude Test Battery (pp. 303-324). Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.
• Keesling, J. W. (1985). [Review of the USES General Aptitude Test Battery]. In J. v. Mitchell, Jr. (Ed.), The ninth mental measurements yearbook (pp. 1644-1647). Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.
• Kirnan, J. P., & Geisinger, K. F. (1984). General Aptitude Test Battery. In J. Hogan & R. Hogan (Eds.), Business and industry testing: Current practices and test reviews (pp. 140-157). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.