The Wonderlic Contemporary Cognitive Ability Test (formerly the Wonderlic Personnel Test) is an assessment used to measure the cognitive ability and problem-solving aptitude of prospective employees for a range of occupations. The test was created in 1936 by Eldon F. Wonderlic. It consists of 50 multiple choice questions to be answered in 12 minutes. The score is calculated as the number of correct answers given in the allotted time, and a score of 20 is intended to indicate average intelligence.
The Wonderlic Personnel Test was based on the Otis Self-Administering Test of Mental Ability with the goal of creating a short-form measurement of cognitive ability.
In 2015, Wonderlic introduced WonScore, a cloud-based assessment platform that expanded upon the Wonderlic Personnel Test by incorporating personality and motivation measures alongside cognitive ability testing for personnel selection and workforce evaluation."WonScore by Wonderlic Review" Finances Online. Retrieved 2020-03-05."Newton Partners With Wonderlic for Pre-Hire Assessments" Newton Software. Retrieved 2020-03-05. Later, Wonderlic materials referred to the platform as Wonderlic Select, which continued to incorporate cognitive ability, personality, and motivation assessments within a broader employment assessment system. History Created in 1936 by E. F. Wonderlic, the Wonderlic Personnel Test was the first short-form cognitive abilities test. It was developed to measure general cognitive ability in the areas of math, vocabulary, and reasoning. Wonderlic created and distributed the test as a graduate student in the psychology department at Northwestern University. Regarding the time allotted to take the test, Wonderlic, in an article released in 1939, stated that "the length of the test was made such that only about two to five per cent of average groups complete the test in the twelve-minute time limit."
Originally designed to aid in employee selection at companies such as AT&T"How A Multiple-Choice Test Became A Fixture Of The NFL Draft" Five Thirty Eight. Retrieved 2020-03-05. and Oscar Mayer in the 1940s, the Wonderlic Personnel Test has been used by both the United States Armed Forces and the National Football League. During World War II, the Navy began using the Wonderlic Personnel Test to select candidates for pilot training and navigation. From 1940–1960 the test was supplied for free as the data was valuable to E. F. Wonderlic. In the 1970s Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was the first to use the Wonderlic Personnel Test to predict player performance. Formerly used in the annual NFL Combine as a form of pre-draft assessment, the NFL stopped administering the test in 2022.
The Wonderlic test is continually updated with repeated evaluations of questions. Also, beginning in the 1970s, Wonderlic began to develop other forms of the Wonderlic Personnel, some of which include: Wonderlic Perceptual Ability Tests, Wonderlic Scholastic Level Exam, or the Wonderlic Contemporary Cognitive Ability Test.
Transition to digital and multi-measure assessments
Beginning in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, employment assessment practices increasingly incorporated combinations of cognitive, behavioral, and motivational measures in personnel selection and workforce evaluation.
Industrial and organizational psychologists increasingly examined broader psychometric frameworks incorporating constructs beyond cognitive ability alone, including personality, interests, and workplace behavior. Beginning in the 2010s, Wonderlic expanded beyond standalone cognitive testing into broader digital employment assessment systems that combined cognitive ability, personality, and motivation measures.
Versions
The Wonderlic Personnel Test measures an individual's problem-solving and learning capability. The test has been offered in multiple forms, including the Wonderlic Personnel Test–Quicktest (WPT-Q) (30 questions in 8 minutes) and the Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT-R) (50 questions in 12 minutes). The Quicktest differs from the standard Wonderlic Personnel Test in that it is not proctored, while the standard version is more comprehensive.
In 1992, Wonderlic introduced the Wonderlic Scholastic Level Exam (SLE), a scholastic adaptation of the Wonderlic Personnel Test designed to assess the cognitive ability and problem-solving skills of prospective college and university students. The SLE has also been used in admissions processes for certain nursing and medical education programs.
Personality assessments
Wonderlic later developed personality assessment products intended for use in personnel selection and workforce evaluation contexts. These assessments measured workplace-related personality characteristics and behavioral tendencies associated with employee assessment processes.
The Wonderlic personality assessments are based on personality frameworks similar to the Five-Factor Model used in industrial and organizational psychology.
Later Wonderlic Select (formerly WonScore) incorporated personality-related measures alongside cognitive ability assessments for use in employee hiring, selection, and workforce development.
Motivation assessments
Wonderlic later introduced workplace motivation assessments based in part on vocational interest and occupational preference models used in personnel psychology.
These assessments evaluated occupational interests and workplace preference factors associated with employee motivation and job fit within organizational settings.
Modern Wonderlic assessment platforms incorporated combinations of cognitive, behavioral, and motivational measures in personnel evaluation processes. Modern assessment platforms
In addition to earlier forms of the Wonderlic Personnel Test, later assessment systems associated with Wonderlic incorporated broader psychometric approaches intended for employee selection and employee development.
Such systems reflected wider developments within industrial and organizational psychology emphasizing multi-factor approaches to employee assessment, including cognitive ability, workplace behavior, and motivational variables.
Research in personnel psychology has increasingly examined integrated assessment systems combining multiple predictors of workplace performance and organizational fit.
Sample questions Similar to other standardized tests, the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test presents its questions in an open response. The types of questions that have appeared in the oldest versions of the Wonderlic test include: analogies, analysis of geometric figures, arithmetic, direction following, disarranged sentences, judgment, logic, proverb matching, similarities, and word definitions. However, the questions may take different angles depending upon the 'intelligence' of the question setters. Practice questions will include: If a piece of rope cost 20 cents per 2 feet, how many feet can you buy for 30 dollars? Which of the numbers in this group represents the smallest amount? 0.3 0.08 1 0.33 A high-speed train travels 25 feet in 1/3 second. In 4 seconds, the train will have traveled __?__ feet. A watch lost 1 minute and 12 seconds in 36 days. How many seconds did it lose per day?
Application to industrial-organizational psychology
The Wonderlic test, as a vocational and intelligence test, falls under the field of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. As a personnel test the Wonderlic is used to gauge an applicant's job potential, educational potential, and training potential. Six forms of this test are made available (A, B, C, D, E, and F) in which Wonderlic suggests that when two of these versions are to be used, the best combinations are A and B or D and F.Kazmier, L.J. & Browne C.G.(1959). Comparability of Wonderlic test forms in industrial testing. Journal of Applied Psychology. 43(2):129–132. However, a study conducted by psychologists Kazmier and Browne (1959) shows that neither of these forms can be regarded as directly equivalent. While there is no lack of tests that could be used in place of the Wonderlic, such as the IQ or the Mechanical Aptitude Test, it is a quick and simple vocational test for personnel recruitment and selection. The Wonderlic test has been peer reviewed by the American Psychological Association and has been deemed worthy of field applications to the industrial use of personnel testing. Other sources can be found on the database APA PsycNET.
Reliability In 1956, Weaver and Boneau reported in the Journal of Applied Psychology that two of the five forms, A and B, that were published at the time were harder than the others which caused scores on those forms to be significantly lower than scores obtained on forms C–F. Concerning these observed differences, Weaver and Boneau state: "This accords with the history of the development of the test. Forms D, E, and F are made up of items selected from the Otis Higher, while A and B were developed later and include types of items not found in the Otis." Those findings, seemingly, invalidate the claim that those forms were equivalent or consistent. E. N. Hay made a similar observation as well. Hay found that form F was significantly easier than Form D. Furthermore, Kazmier found Form B to be the most difficult of the five forms and, thus, recommended that it "not be regarded as directly equivalent to any of the forms." Kazmier also found Forms D and F to be significantly different from each other and recommended that these forms be regarded as inequivalent. In a study of the Wonderlic's test-retest reliability, conducted in 1992, Stuart McKelvie "concluded that conscious repetition of specific responses did not seriously inflate the estimate of test-retest reliability." To put it simply, one's memory of some of the answers does not significantly affect one's score on the Wonderlic.
In 1982, Carl Dodrill conducted a study in which 57 adults were administered the Wonderlic twice over a five-year period. In the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Dodrill reported that the test-retest reliability for the Wonderlic was .94. According to a 1989 article in Psychological Reports, the Wonderlic scored a r=.87 on the reliability scale compared along with the Pearson test score of r=.21.
Updated versions of the Wonderlic Personnel Test introduced new forms using computerized item response theory scoring designed to produce comparable scores across different versions of the test. Research has found that scores on updated Wonderlic forms are strongly correlated with earlier versions and suitable for use across a variety of internet-enabled devices.
Validity
In an article written in Psychological Reports, T. Matthews and Kerry Lassiter report that the Wonderlic test "was most strongly associated with overall intellectual functioning," which is what it is purported to measure. However, Matthews and Lassiter did not find the Wonderlic to be a successful measure of fluid and crystallized intelligence, and they stated that "the Wonderlic test scores did not clearly show convergent or divergent validity evidence across these two broad domains of cognitive ability." In academic testing, the Wonderlic test has shown high correlations with aptitude tests such as the General Aptitude Test Battery.