TESTING COMMON-SENSE

Predictors of success in school, such as conventional psychometric int elligence (e.g., IQ) tests, are less predictive of success out of scho ol. Even the most charitable estimates of the relation between intelli gence test scores and real-world criteria such as job performance indi cate that approximately three fourths of the variance in real-world pe rformance is not accounted for by intelligence test performance. Resea rchers have begun to explore new constructs in search of measures to s upplement existing cognitive ability tests as predictors of real-world performance Among the most promising constructs is practical intellig ence, or common sense. Performance opt measures of practical intellige nce predicts real-world criteria such as job performance but is relati vely unrelated to performance on intelligence tests and other common s election measures. Consequently, its contribution to prediction is lar gely independent of the contributions of existing measures, including measures of cognitive ability.