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 apparatus
 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 classification
 on this basis. follows.
1. Proficiency tests: Measurement of present occupational
ability.
2. Prognostic tests: Measurement of potential ability; disclosure
 of latent talent.
A. Special abilities such as those revealed by an
analysis of the occupation.
B. General abilities, such as leadership, salesmanship,
 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 compilers
 of tests have grouped them under time-honored psychological
 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