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Beginning Sept 21
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Assessing Abilities
The most effective way to measure an individual's abilities is by requiring him to perform work- samples that test the speed at which he can perform an assigned task. A worksample is a discrete timed task that has been especially designed and tested to measure one ability and one ability only. By requiring an individual to perform a timed worksample, we learn more about his ability to perform that task than by any other means. One example of an effective worksample would be a test designed to measure a person's powers of observation.
Thus, one of the work samples in the Highlands Ability Battery is designed to test the ability known as Observation. In this work sample, a page containing a photograph of a number of familiar objects is shown to the individual. Next, the individual is shown a photo on which some of the objects have been removed, some have been replaced by different objects and still others have been replaced by similar objects of the same general class (e.g., a nickel is replaced by a quarter.) The individual is assigned a score for each change he identifies. The Observation worksample measures the individual's ability to pay close attention to individual details, to perceive and remember small changes, and to notice irregularities.
In the same way as with Observation, the Highlands Ability Battery utilizes other objective worksamples to measure the other innate abilities. In all, the Battery requires the performance of nineteen separate worksamples, each resulting in a score measuring a different innate ability.
If an individual knows and understands his innate abilities, he can use them more consistently and effectively in everything he does or attempts to do.
