EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
CLASSIFICATIONS OF TESTS 
A classification of tests helps to make clear precisely what 
the investigator is attempting, and what he may and may 
not hope to accomplish. 
Bases of classification include the purpose of the test, the 
ability measured or type of response called for, the appara- 
tus or material used, the procedure or technique, and the 
restrictions which the technique places upon the response. 
Purpose. The purpose of a vocational test is to provide 
a record of achievement in a standardized task bearing a 
close relationship to future performance in an occupation. 
The test should then attempt to measure either the present 
occupational ability of the applicant or his capacity for 
acquiring this occupational ability. A suggested classifi- 
cation on this basis. follows. 
1. Proficiency tests: Measurement of present occupational 
ability. 
2. Prognostic tests: Measurement of potential ability; dis- 
closure of latent talent. 
A. Special abilities such as those revealed by an 
analysis of the occupation. 
B. General abilities, such as leadership, salesman- 
ship, planning, intelligence. 
Ability measured. Since abilities themselves are difficult 
to classify, it follows that a classification of tests on the 
basis of abilities cannot be entirely satisfactory. Some com- 
pilers of tests have grouped them under time-honored psy- 
chological categories such as the following: 
1. Sensory abilities: sight, hearing, pressure, warmth, cold, 
pain, taste, smell, kinesthesia, equilibrium, organic 
sensations 
Limits of sensitivity, lower and upper 
Thresholds of discrimination 
Quality 
Intensity 
Duration 
QO