Multiple test batteries as predictors for pilot performance: A meta-analytic investigation

Test Batteries (TBs) have a long history of use in pilot selection. The extent to which TBs predict future pilot performance has important implications. The existing pilot-related psychometric meta-analyses have focused primarily on scores of individual ability tests, rather than the combined scores composited from multiple ability tests. The objective of this study was to investigate the predictive validity of TBs' composite scores for several criteria of pilot performance. Informed by the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory, we proposed a classification scheme of six categories representing the most common composite scores in selection assessment: Acquired Knowledge, Perceptual Processing, Motor Abilities, Controlled Attention, General Ability, and Work Sample. For overall pilot performance, based on 267 correlations from 118 independent samples, results showed that the six categories of TBs are valid predictors (Mean(r) = .10-.34), and at least five of them have validity that is likely to generalize across selection contexts.