Critique of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test: The more you know, the lower your score

Abstract

The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test is one of the oldest, most frequently used, multiple-choice criticalthinking tests on the market in business, government, and legal settings for purposes of hiring and promotion. I demonstrate, however, that the test has serious constructvalidity issues, stemming primarily from its ambiguous, unclear, misleading, and sometimes mysterious instructions. Erroneously scored items further diminish the test's validity. As a result, having enhanced knowledge of formal and informal logic could well result in test subjects receiving lower scores on the test. Many of the W-G's validity issues, however, could be easily remedied.