Internet testing: Equivalence between proctored lab and unproctored field conditions

Companies that use web-based testing do not need to invite applicants to their offices for screening purposes, and applicants are not required to travel. Given the world-wide accessibility of the Internet and the savings in travel costs, web-based testing expands the applicant pool to geographically distant regions. This advantage comes along with the tangible drawback of less control over the testing situation and therefore possible influence on the data quality of scores obtained via Internet testing. This study examined the equivalence of proctored and unproctored web-based psychological testing. Results from 163 potential applicants who participated in a combined laboratory-field and between-subject/within-subject design study with two experimental conditions and two control conditions did not provide evidence that testing conditions affected test results.