Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) Form U: Reviewing Psychometric Properties of Candidate Cognitive Subtests

The Air Force Personnel Center Strategic Research and Assessment Branch (AFPC/DSYX) initiated a contract to evaluate cognitive subtests not previously included in the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) to determine which ones should be considered for inclusion in the next generation AFOQT Form U. The current effort reviewed 16 candidate Department of Defense (DoD) batteries and subtests. Archival data were available for some subtests. Of those, two were recommended for Form U on an experimental basis - Weight Perception (WPt) and Non-Verbal Reasoning (NVR). The subtests for which the data were not available were reviewed based on the extant literature. Of those, two were recommended for inclusion in Form U, also on an experimental basis - Assembling Objects (AO) and Mental Counters (MCt). The rest of the tests were either already included in the AFOQT or had psychometric deficiencies, such as lack of incremental validity or high mean score subgroup differences. We also examined criterion-related validity for Physical Science (PS) across four samples. PS has been included in the AFOQT Form T since 2015 on an experimental basis. Given the evaluations, it is unlikely that PS would add incremental prediction above and beyond the other AFOQT subtests for officer commissioning or aircrew training qualification. Additional analyses are needed to determine whether PS has utility for predicting performance in non-aircrew training courses. Finally, we reviewed available literature to determine what other constructs should be considered for inclusion in AFOQT Form U. Based on our review, we recommended that the AFOQT content be expanded to include measures of inductive reasoning (fluid intelligence), learning/learning agility, short term (working) memory, long term (meaningful) memory, and emotional intelligence.