Measuring Human Capabilities An Agenda for Basic Research on the Assessment of Individual and Group Performance Potential for Military Accession (2015) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 7-26
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From page 7... ...
The committee interpreted this charge as requesting recommendations for a basic research agenda aimed at identifying ways to supplement the Army's enlisted soldier accession system with additional predictors that go beyond the currently used cognitive and personality measures (described in the following section) and that have the potential to improve the already high quality of accession decisions.
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From page 8... ...
, testing and measurement methods, test theory, sta tistical and mathematical modeling of collective/group/team performance, and the combination of individual capabilities to create collective capacity to perform. In developing this research agenda, the committee will identify immediate research opportunities in the most promising topics likely to have the highest near-term payoff.
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From page 9... ...
are used for determining qualification for specific occupational assignments once the entry screen has been passed. Extensive research supports the predictive capability of ASVAB performance for subsequent training and first-term job performance (see Armor and Sackett, 2004, for a review)
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From page 10... ...
This constraint is consistent with the cognitive and personality measures currently used by the Army: cognitive problem solving skill and a pattern of personality attributes reflecting ability to adjust to military life are broadly relevant regardless of occupational specialty. Second, the committee was instructed to focus on measures that can be administered pre-accession and in a cost-effective manner to large numbers of individual candidates without requiring special skills to administer the measure or to evaluate performance on the measure, and without requiring elaborate equipment.
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From page 11... ...
For example, measures involving team performance tasks, excluded as a testing measure under the second constraint above, may nonetheless be useful as criteria against which individual measures of propensity for effectiveness as a team member may be evaluated. Furthermore, as the committee developed an agenda for future research, some topics were considered based upon the committee's expectations of the impact of future technology or other capabilities that could significantly change the feasibility for operational use in the long term.
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From page 12... ...
Committee membership included individuals with broad expertise in personnel selection in both civilian and military contexts, individual differences, performance measurement, teamwork, psychometrics, and neuroscience. Initial topic identification relied on the expertise and judgment of committee members.
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From page 13... ...
Second, could we identify settings where we could see analogs to military performance, such as job performance in the civilian workforce, where measures of particular predictor constructs have been (a) successfully developed, (b)
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From page 14... ...
This involved considering the broader individual-differences literature, rather than focusing solely on the personnel selection literature. Fifth, one key feature that might easily be overlooked is that the charge to the committee focused on identifying a basic research agenda that might in time lead to improvements in the Army enlisted soldier selection process.
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From page 15... ...
Thus, following this introductory chapter, Section 2 of the report contains chapters that describe fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, executive attention, inhibitory control, cognitive biases, and spatial abilities. Each of these domains is described in more detail below.
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From page 16... ...
and measuring new constructs not currently part of the Army's enlisted soldier selection system. Finally, a chapter on neuroscience focuses broadly on the potential use of neuroscience-based measures as markers of psychological states (e.g., undue anxiety while completing existing Army selection instruments)
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From page 17... ...
Thus, the Army has interest in multiple criteria. Army research on the use of individual-differences measures that predict outcomes of interest has examined a wide range of criteria, including task proficiency, effort, maintaining military discipline, adjustment to military life, and attrition, among others.
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From page 18... ...
Gen. Robert Brown, commander of the Army Com bined Arms Center, have referred to the need for soldiers who "improve and thrive in conditions of chaos" (see Army Times article on "The Human Dimension" panel during the 2014 Association of the United States Army convention, available at http://www.armytimes.com/ article/20141015/NEWS/310150065/Wanted-Soldiers-who-thrive-chaos [October 2014]
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From page 19... ...
Identification and Measurement of New Predictor Constructs The report's second section includes three chapters that present future research opportunities in the identification and measurement of new predictor constructs.
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From page 20... ...
TABLE 1-1 Grid Showing Links Between Research Domains and Outcomes 20 Task Demonstrating Personal Peer and Team Adaptive Adjustment to Proficiency Effort Discipline Performance Performance Military Life Attrition Fluid Intelligence, x x x Working Memory Capacity, Executive Attention, and Inhibitory Control Cognitive Biases x x x Spatial Abilities x x Teamwork Behavior x x x x Hot Cognition and x x x x x x Performance Under Stress Adaptability and x x Inventiveness Psychometrics and x x x x x x x Technology Situational Judgment Tests x x x x x x x Neuroscience x x x x x x x
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From page 21... ...
Multiple facets of spatial abilities have been identified or proposed, all of which relate to the many different ways individuals understand their own spatial relationship to and within surroundings and also the way individuals understand representations of multidimensional figures in one-dimensional displays. Although one spatial ability measure (Assembling Objects)
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From page 22... ...
Teamwork Behavior Chapter 5 considers individual and team factors that may be of use in predicting successful teamwork behavior. The chapter focuses on how selection and classification of entry-level enlisted soldiers can improve unit performance and mission success.
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From page 23... ...
Section 5. Methods and Methodology This section includes three single chapters linked to the other research domains as methods and methodology for implementation.
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From page 24... ...
Committee on Measuring Human Capabilities: Performance Potential of Individuals and Collectives. Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.
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From page 25... ...
OVERVIEW 25 Trent, T., and J.H. Laurence.
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