Topic: Selection
Publication: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2011)
Article: Role of test motivation in intelligence testing
Authors: Angela L. Duckworth, Patrick D. Quinn, Donald R. Lynam, Rolf Loeber, and Magda Stouthamer-Loeber
Reviewed By: Scott Charles Sitrin
Will a person’s IQ vary with his or her level of motivation? In other words, does level of motivation affect performance on intelligence tests? In investigating this question, a recent study had two main findings. First, IQ varies with the amount of incentives offered to the IQ-test takers.
For instance, subject A had a higher IQ when she was paid $100 to take the IQ test than when she was paid $50. Secondly, IQ scores reflect both level of intelligence and level of motivation, and that both predict academic performance and life outcomes. In other words, an individual’s IQ score of 100 is three parts intelligence and on part motivation.
In applying the results to business setting, employers may want to de-emphasize the result of IQ and other intelligence tests as the results of these measures measure more than intelligence and include confounds, such as levels of motivation and interest.
human resource management, organizational industrial psychology, organizational management
I’m a bit curious about your rationale for this statement:
“In applying the results to business setting, employers may want to de-emphasize the result of IQ and other intelligence tests as the results of these measures measure more than intelligence and include confounds, such as levels of motivation and interest.”
Intelligence tests are only really used in a selection/promotion context (or at the least, I’d question the wisdom of using an intelligence test “developmentally”), and even then, they are fairly uncommon. But when they are being used for selection/promotion, why would you not want to capture motivation and interest? And wouldn’t this effect be present for ANY selection/promotion test? While this study focuses on intelligence, this effect is unlikely to be limited to intelligence. Your argument seems a pretty short step away from “don’t use testing.”
Given that measures of cognitive ability are consistent predictors of job performance and motivation is certainly relevant to job performance and something that any recruiter or hiring manager would say is important to a job, I am not sure why one would conclude that employers should de-emphasize the results of these kinds of measure…