Can you make situational decisions, even though the situation is unknown to you?

HR professionals in recruiting and selection are mostly happy if they can use simulation based selection tools, meanign that such tools mimic key situations of the later job. This principle is realized, for example, in assessment centers. Situational Judgment Tests are also seen as so called low fidelity simulations. These tests present job-related situations in form of texts or short videos and ask applicants to indicate what they should or would do in such situations. In our research, we seek to understand the underlying working mechanisms of Situational Judgment Tests and pose the question: Do they really gauge situational decisions or rather some general knowledge about what one ought to do at work? 

Schäpers, P., Lievens, F., Schulz, J.-P., Hüffmeier, J., König, C., & Krumm, S. (accepted). Removing situation descriptions from situational judgment test items: Does the impact differ for video-based versus text-based formats? Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.

Schäpers, P., Mussel, P., Lievens, F., König, C. J., Freudenstein, J.-P., & Krumm, S. (accepted). The role of situations in situational judgment tests: Effects on construct saturation, predictive validity, and applicant perceptions. Journal of Applied Psychology

Krumm, S., Lievens, F., Hüffmeier, J., Lipnevich, A. A., Bendels, H., & Hertel, G. (2015). How "situational" is judgment in situational judgment tests? Journal of Applied Psychology, 100, 399-416. doi: 10.1037/a0037674

Corstjens, J., Lievens, F., & Krumm, S. (in press). Contextualized and generic Situational Judgment Tests for selection. In H. Goldstein, E. Pulakos, J. Passmore, & C. Semedo (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of recruitment, selection, and retention. Wiley-Blackwell.

DFG-Grant "Testing of a theory of context-dependability of low-fidelity simulations: Correlates and moderators of the context-dependability of situational judgment tests (KR 3457/2-1)" together with Prof. Dr. Cornelius König