SJTs as Measures of General Domain Knowledge for Multimedia Formats: Do Actions Speak Louder Than Words?

Lievens and Motowidlo ( 2016 ) present a case for situational judgment tests (SJTs) to be conceptualized as measures of general domain knowledge, which the authors define as knowledge of the effectiveness of general domains such as integrity, conscientiousness, and prosocial behaviors in different jobs. This argument comes from work rooted in the use of SJTs as measures of implicit trait policies (Motowidlo & Beier, 2010 ; Motowidlo, Hooper, & Jackson, 2006 ), measured with a format described as a “single response SJT” (Kell, Motowidlo, Martin, Stotts, & Moreno, 2014 ; Motowidlo, Crook, Kell, & Naemi, 2009 ). Given evidence that SJTs can be used as measures of general domain knowledge, the focal article concludes with a suggestion that general knowledge can be measured not only by traditional text-based or paper-and-pencil SJTs but also through varying alternate formats, including multimedia SJTs and interactive SJTs.