Verbal aptitude
Verbal abilities represent an essential component in the communications and human
relations, at a large. The level of development of these abilities allows the efficient
performance in the majority of professions, especially those requiring understanding and
communicating precise contents in the domains of education, law, public relations, etc.
Verbal aptitude includes several levels: vocabulary abilities, that is understanding the
meaning of words and correctly operating with them , indispensable in day-to-day
interactions; syntactic abilities represent the capacity to combine words in sentences and
the sentences in phrases according to precise rules, essential in communication, especially
for coding and decoding spoken and written language; and abilities to understand
written texts refers to the reader’s capacity to make as coherent a representation as
possible of a written message making recourse to certain mental operations.
Numerical aptitude
Evaluating numerical aptitude is an important component both aptitude evaluation
batteries and intelligence. Numerical evaluation tests are included in complex intelligence
tests (WISC-R, WAIS-R, Wechsler, 1986), while multidimensional intelligence models
consider numerical aptitude a specific manifestation of intelligence, part of logical and
mathematical intelligence (Gardner, 1983).
As a component of psychological aptitude tests batteries, numerical aptitude tests such as
those included in GATB – General Aptitude Tests Battery (United States Department of
Labor), DAT – Differential Aptitude Test (Bartram, Lindley and Foster, 1992) or EAS –
Employee Aptitude Survey (Ruch and Ruch, 1983) have proved useful in professional
performance predictions (Kolz, McFarland and colab., 1998; Hunter and Hunter, 1984).
Meta-analytical studies have identified in the composition of numerical aptitude two
important aspects (Snow and Swanson, 1992): mathematical calculus ability – the
capacity to rapidly and correctly perform simple calculus using the four arithmetic
operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division; and mathematical reasoning
capacity – the ability to analyse a mathematical problem and using the correct method for
its solving. Consequently, accurately evaluating numerical aptitude necessarily means
evaluating these two components. Individual differences in numerical aptitudes can be
attributed to factors such as: gender, age, education (Byrnes, 2001). Psychological studies
have evinced the particular relationship between performance in numerical aptitude tests
and the variables mentioned above. Thus, the numerical aptitude develops in time and
together with the educational level (Giaquinto, 2001); the mathematical calculus
performance is superior with women, carries significantly bigger differences before the
age of 15 and in case of gifted children, and the mathematical reasoning performance is
higher with men, especially after the age of 14 and in case of gifted children (Halpern,
1992; Becker, 1990; Hyde, Fennema and Lamon, 1990).