Racial/ethnic subgroup differences in cognitive ability test range restriction: Implications for differential validity.

Abstract

Recent meta-analyses demonstrated that the observed correlation between cognitive ability test scores and performance criteria was lower for Black and Hispanic subgroups than for Asian and White subgroups in college admissions, civilian employment, and military domains (i.e., differential validity). Given mean score differences between racial/ethnic subgroups, these observed validities may have been confounded by subgroup differences in range restriction. The present study draws on data from hundreds of cognitive ability test validity studies including more than 1 million persons to investigate whether Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White subgroups have differed in amounts of range restriction. We first replicated observed differential validity results and also extended them by presenting the first meta-analytic evidence that observed cognitive ability test validity is lower for the Hispanic subgroup in civilian employment settings. All subgroups were approximately equivalently restricted in range in college admissions and civilian employment domains, but the Black subgroup was more restricted in range than the White subgroup in military studies. In all 3 domains, any differences in range restriction could not account for observed validity differences between subgroups. We also provide estimates of range-restriction-corrected validities; Black and Hispanic subgroups' corrected validities were 11.3-18.0% lower than White corrected validities across domains.