A METAANALYTIC INVESTIGATION OF COGNITIVE-ABILITY IN EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW EVALUATIONS - MODERATING CHARACTERISTICS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR INCREMENTAL VALIDITY

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the extent to which e mployment interview evaluations reflect cognitive ability. A meta-anal ysis of 49 studies found a corrected mean correlation of .40 between i nterview ratings and ability test scores, suggesting that on average a bout 16% of the variance in interview constructs represents cognitive ability. Analysis of several design characteristics that could moderat e the relationship between interview scores and ability suggested that (a) the correlation with ability tends to decrease as the level of st ructure increases; (b) the type of questions asked can have considerab le influence on the magnitude of the correlation with ability; (c) the reflection of ability in the ratings tends to increase when ability t est scores are made available to interviewers; and (d) the correlation with ability generally is higher for low-complexity jobs. Moreover, r esults suggest that interview ratings that correlate higher with cogni tive ability tend to be better predictors of job performance. Implicat ions for incremental validity are discussed, and recommendations for s election strategies are outlined.