Incremental validity of noncognitive tests for medical school academic achievement

This paper reports an investigation of the incremental validity of noncognitive tests. Incremental validity is the predictive ability of a measure when entered into a regression equation after the routine predictors have first been included. Three noncognitive tests--Rotter Locus of Control, Adjective Check List, and Student Orientations Survey--were administered to a first-year medical school class. When entered after the usual academic predictors of success in medical school--Undergraduate Grade Point Average and Medical College Admission Test--the three noncognitive tests added little to the prediction of first-year medical school Grade Point Average. It is concluded that while noncognitive measures are useful in characterizing a medical school class and in discovering nonacademic correlates of academic success in medical school, limited incremental validity related to first-year academic performance was demonstrated.