In a world embracing simplicity and certainty, researchers often take great pains to emphasize the tentative nature of their conclusions\u2014well-captured by the phrase, \u201cStatistics means never having to say you\u2019re certain,\u201d and the shopworn joke about psychologists responding to all questions with, \u201cIt depends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even so, there must be some things researchers assert confidently, right? Some unassailable, unimpeachable principles strong enough to build decades of research on?<\/p>\n
Within the field of industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology, there has been at least one such fundamental truth: cognitive ability is the best predictor of work performance. Rooted in numerous meta-analyses<\/a> and confidently proclaimed for over half a century, decades of research and hiring and promotion methods have been built on this proclamation.<\/p>\n Thus, it would take a giant in I-O psychology like Sackett to thoughtfully and rigorously revisit the statistical corrections that lie at the heart of meta-analytic methods and challenge 50 years of research. In doing so, Sackett\u2019s work, among other intriguing findings, revealed that structured interviews may in fact be the strongest predictor of job performance\u2014not cognitive ability.<\/p>\n \u201cI view this as the most important paper of my career,\u201d Sackett said, noting that it offers a \u201ccourse correction\u201d to the I-O field\u2019s cumulative knowledge about the validity of personnel selection assessments. This consequential paper, \u201cRevisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection: Addressing systematic overcorrection for restriction of range<\/a>,\u201d recently released as an advance online publication by the Journal of Applied Psychology<\/em>, is co-authored by Charlene Zhang, Ph.D., from the University of Minnesota, Christopher Berry, Ph.D., from Indiana University, and Filip Lievens, Ph.D., from Singapore Management University. Berry received HumRRO\u2019s Meredith P. Crawford Fellowship<\/a> in 2006.<\/p>\n<\/div>