the mark of collective competence. The author is the group. The result of these efforts –
the Psychological Tests Battery for Cognitive Aptitudes – is the expression of a new
generation of tests, where measurement instruments and theoretical and technical
modelling are synchronized. The fundamental principle underlying this feat has been: the
most relevant and valid cognitive tasks have been standardized and becoming tests.
Further, each test is the result of tens or sometimes hundreds of experiments,
guaranteeing its construct validity.
Theoretical background
BTPAC measures cognitive aptitudes that is our main endogenous information
processing capacities. Any task we have to perform, from placing a brick on a wall or
lifting a burden to scientific research or the management of a company requires
information processing. The quantity and complexity of this processing varies according
to the nature of the task, however the informational processing is always there. As a
result, cognitive aptitudes are the most stable and powerful factors involved in
performance. Recent meta-analyses have proved that cognitive aptitudes are the main
predictor in work performance and successful completion of academic or professional
training (Carrol, 1993). The activities that are relatively stable in time and less
contaminated by knowledge gain the mark of cognitive aptitudes (Carrol, 1993).
Establishing the aptitudes measured by BTPAC relied on two sources of information:
- Classifications of aptitudes available in the literature (e.g. Carrol, 1993;
Fleishman et al., 1984). - The list of aptitudes in the Romanian Occupation Catalogue (COR, 2000) and
Occupational Profiles (PO, 1998-2000) jointly published by the Ministry of
Labour, the Ministry of Education, and The Ministry of Youth – The
Working group for career information and counselling.
By correlating these sources a number of 8 cognitive aptitudes were developed.
General learning ability
General learning ability represents the attitude of assimilating new information,
reorganizing it and operating with it. Thus, the general learning ability appears as a
three-faceted construct: selective assimilation of new knowledge, which requires
focusing one’s attention and resisting interference; capacity for information
organization in memory, involving cognitive inhibition and short-term memory; and an
operational component, which involves: analytic reasoning, analogical transfer, working
memory, and flexibility in categorization.