The Biographical Inventory in Naval Aviation Selection: Inside the Black Box

Abstract

A biographical inventory has been used in the selection of students for naval aviation training since World War II, and its validity in predicting their retention in this training has been well established. This study investigated the constructs underlying the inventory and their relations to student retention criteria. A factor analysis of the items on the inventory for student pilots identified five factors. One factor, being a commissioned officer, appeared to account for the inventory's validity.

Notes

1 The most recent validity study of the current form was for aviators entering training from 1993 to 1998 (Williams, Albert, & Blower, 2000).

2 Now called Aviation Preflight Indoctrination.

3 Half stanine scores divide each stanine into halves (e.g., the original stanine 1 with 4% of the distribution becomes half stanines 1 and 2, each with 2% of the distribution), except for stanine 9, which is divided into thirds (original stanine 9 with 4% of the distribution becomes half stanines 17, 18, and 19, each with 1.3% of the distribution).

4 Stanine scores for the Mechanical Comprehension Test, Spatial Apperception Test, and Biographical Inventory composite score were obtained from the half stanines usually reported for these tests. Stanine scores for the Aerospace Information Test and the Student Naval Aviator score were calculated from raw scores for 1983 applicants for naval aviation training (N = 22,584).

5 Now called Officer Candidate School.

6 An example of experimentally dependent items: An initial item about whether a parent engages in a certain activity is inapplicable; a follow-up item about this activity must also be inapplicable. An example of logically dependent items: One item is about which activities are preferred; the other item is about which of these same activities are not preferred.

7 The intercorrelation matrix is available from the author.

8 A comparability coefficient for a half sample is the correlation between the corresponding factor score derived from the data for that sample and the factor score derived from the data for the other half sample.

9 Only a single, paraphrased item per factor is reported for security reasons. A list of all of the items (paraphrased) that define the factors is available from the author.

10 Correlations of the factor scores with the Student Naval Aviator score, Biographical Inventory composite score, and Flight Aptitude Rating are not reported because of the item overlap between the factor scores and the Student Naval Aviator score, a component of both the Biographical Inventory composite score and the Flight Aptitude Rating.