CLAVES: A STUDY OF PSYCHOMETRIC QUALITY OF A GENERAL MENTAL ABILITY TEST

Introduction: The General Mental Ability test has proven to be particularly useful both in evaluating personnel and orientation. The Italian adaption of the Claves test, an instrument applicable to this area, is the object of the present study. Method: The Italian version of the Claves was administered to 947 subjects of both genders in conjunction with the APM - Advanced Progressive Matrices by Raven. Results: The difficulty level of the test was appropriate to the study sample. The difficulty of each single item (as expressed by the Delta index) tends to increase in a substantially progressive way compared to the succession of the test items. The internal homogeneity of the tool was optimal (.91). The construct validity of the tool compared to the APM Matrices was in line with our expectations. Conclusions: The emerging results appeared to be substantially good. Moreover, there were indications that further studies of this tool should be conducted.