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Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-97/5

Title and Subtitle: A Laboratory Model of Readiness-To-Perform Testing. I: Learning Rates and Reliability Analyses for Candidate Testing Measures

Report Date: February 1997

Authors: K. Gilliland, Ph.D. and R.E. Schlegel, Ph.D., The University of Oklahoma, 1000 Asp, Room 314, Norman, OK 73019

Abstract: The concept of Readiness to Perform (RTP) refers to that state in which a person is prepared and capable of performing a job for which that person is willingly disposed and is free of any transient risk factors, such as drugs, alcohol, fatigue, or illness. A large study involving thirty-two subjects, five RTP tests, two work sample tasks, and three self-report measures was conducted at the University of Oklahoma to provide the FAA with a basic laboratory investigation of the "Readiness-to-Perform" (RTP) testing concept.

This report (Volume I) presents the objectives and methodology for the overall study, along with the analysis of data from the initial training phase of the study. Learning rate information for more than seventy task measures used in the study, as well as information on the reliability of those measures, is presented. Based on the learning curve analysis, it was determined that the customary initial high rate of learning was complete for most of the candidate RTP tasks by the tenth training session. A few tasks required additional sessions, but major learning effects for nearly all of these task measures did not exist beyond the middle of the second week of training.

Even following five full weeks of experience, most task measures showed some continued improvement, with the rate of improvement determined by the complexity of the task. Test-retest correlation coefficients computed for various intervals throughout the study confirmed that the RTP tasks provided multiple, highly repeatable measures that were both reliable and stable over the latter four weeks of the study. Interpretations of several interesting findings with respect to performance assessment are provided within the framework of job performance and RTP testing.

Key Words: Performance-Based Testing, Fitness-For-Duty Readiness-To-Perform, Learning Rates, Reliability Analyses, Validity Testing.

No. of Pages: 70