The effects of biographical data on the prediction of domain knowledge

Abstract

This study examined the effects of life experience information on the prediction of domain knowledge. Specifically, it was hypothesized that individuals with a higher level of experience within a domain would have a higher level of domain knowledge, and that attribution of experience (e.g., educational experience, extracurricular experience, etc) would influence the type of domain knowledge assessment on which an individual was most successful (e.g., open-ended scenarios vs. multiple-choice questions). In order to test these hypotheses, participants completed a biodata measure, various ability and non-ability measures, and a set of domain knowledge tests. Hypotheses were evaluated in the context of regressions and structural equation modeling. Results showed that biodata had significant predictive validity for domain knowledge.