TESTING COMMON-SENSE

Predictors of success in school, such as conventional psychometric intelligence (e.g., IQ) tests, are less predictive of success out of school. Even the most charitable estimates of the relation between intelligence test scores and real-world criteria such as job performance indicate that approximately three fourths of the variance in real-world performance is not accounted for by intelligence test performance. Researchers have begun to explore new constructs in search of measures to supplement existing cognitive ability tests as predictors of real-world performance Among the most promising constructs is practical intelligence, or common sense. Performance opt measures of practical intelligence predicts real-world criteria such as job performance but is relatively unrelated to performance on intelligence tests and other common selection measures. Consequently, its contribution to prediction is largely independent of the contributions of existing measures, including measures of cognitive ability.