VALIDITY OF STIMULUS AND RESPONSE COMPONENTS IN A VIDEO TEST OF SOCIAL COMPETENCE

Various stimulus components (video, orally-presented questions) and re sponse components (multiple-choice, written, orally-given replies) of situational judgement tests of occupational social competency were inv estigated as to their impact upon the validity for a behavior-oriented role playing criterion while keeping test content constant. The stimu lus component video alone had no impact upon validity. The response co mponents contributed to validity. Validity increased with improved fid elity of response components. Concerning stimulus-response-combination s, the validity of two video tests (r = 0.17 and r = 0.36) was not hig her than the validity of similar oral questioning (r = 0.13 and r = 0. 37) but was significantly lower than a situational interview (r = 0.59 ). Response fidelity proved to be a bottleneck regarding validity of v ideo tests. As a result, it is recommended that, in order to maximize validity of video and multimedia efforts, the developers of video- and multimedia tests focus special attention on response fidelity.