Cognitive abilities
The term Cognitive ability refers to a general mental capability that involves reasoning, planning, problem solving, abstract thinking, complex idea comprehension, and learning from personal or vicarious experience. One of the the most comprehensive theory for cognitive abilities is the three strata model which was proposed by Carroll (1993). The primary stratum of it consists of specific and narrow abilities, the second stratum includes group factors and broad abilities, and the third one is the general intelligence or g factor. Cognitive ability is largely considered the best predictor of job performance. Primary researches and Meta-analytic reviews connects cognitive ability to job performance in the literature both in the United States and European countries. The predictive validity of cognitive ability is largely dependent on the complexity of the job which exists with the strongest validity coefficients observed for people performing highly complex jobs. Cognitive ability is known to impact job performance through job knowledge acquisition.