Multidimensional Aptitude Battery

The Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (published by Sigma Assessment Systems) was developed by Douglas N. Jackson and is currently in its second edition (MAB-II). Following the tradition established by Robert Yerkes during World War I with the Army Alpha and Beta for testing literate and illiterate recruits, respectively, the MAB categorizes abilities into verbal and nonverbal components. The MAB contains five verbal subtests (Information, Comprehension, Arithmetic, Similarities, and Vocabulary) and five nonverbal subtests (Digit Symbol, Picture Completion, Spatial, Picture Arrangement, and Object Assembly). Each of these 10 subtests is in a five-point multiple-choice format and has a 7-minute time limit. With instructions and practice items, the MAB-II takes about 90 minutes to complete. With the exception of Digit Span, which Wechsler adapted from the Binet, the MAB contains the same subtests as included in the Wechsler Bellevue, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised (WAIS-R). Correlations between corresponding subtests of the MAB and WAIS-R are of the same order of magnitude as the correlations between subtests of the WAIS and WAIS-R.

Subtest raw scores are converted to scaled scores with a T score metric (i.e., mean of 50, standard deviation of 10). The five verbal and five nonverbal scale scores are summed to produce a sum of scale scores for Verbal and Performance IQ, respectively. The sum of all 10 scale scores is used to calculate Full Scale IQ. Age groups for obtaining the three IQ scores are categorized into 16–17, 18–19, 20–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, 65–69, and 70–74. These nine age groups are also used to obtain age corrected scale scores for the 10 subtests. The three IQ scores have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.

The MAB-II can be administered in paper and pencil format with reusable question booklets and answer sheets to individuals or to groups. Where large volumes of clients are assessed comprehensively (i.e., 10 subtests) in contexts such as employee selection or [Page 641]research, group administration makes such testing feasible. There are separate question booklets for the verbal subtests and performance subtests. In addition to hand scoring and mail in scoring, computerized administration with automated scoring and reporting is also available. Reports generated by the software are either clinical with some limited interpretation or ASCII (text) data file reports for research. The MAB-II is available in French and English.