Crystalized ability tells us about a person’s cognitive ability, taking into consideration the effect of past learning, education, and development on his/her individual’s thinking ability.
Coming back to the computer analogy, it tells us a bit about both the individual’s hardware (brain power) and software (the effect of learning and education on his thinking capability).
Verbal Reasoning
A common test of Crystalized Ability is called Verbal Reasoning. Verbal reasoning can be understood as the ability to comprehend and reason using concepts expressed through words. Language is the medium of thought.

The types of Cognitive Processes involved are:
  •  problem-solving around words
  • thinking about text
  •  following written instructions
  • deciphering written material
  • analysing verbal information
  • reasoning with verbal information
  • formulating conclusions from verbal information
  • language comprehension
Verbal reasoning comes into play with tasks such as:
  • A person’s ability to pin-point issues from business manuals and company reports, and logically come up with conclusions as to how these may be taken care of or eliminated.
  • A person’s ability to work on business reports, collateral, and documents
  • A person’s ability to convey and articulate any problems in the organization or its processes
  • Understanding and making decisions based on verbal or written information/the ability to work logically, accurately, and intelligently with the written word.
  • Communicating with others, reading, and interpreting reports, discussing plans with clients, or writing clear emails.

Another common test of Crystalized Ability is called Numerical Reasoning.

Numerical Reasoning
The ability to conceptualise arithmetical problems and use the four arithmetical operations to solve them. The cognitive processes generally used in numerical reasoning are:
  • Conceptualisation – accurately understanding the overall construct of the problem
  • Analysis – analysing the various elements of the problem
  • Arithmetical Functions – applying adding, subtracting, division and multiplication to solve the problem
Relevance

The cognitive processes involved with numerical reasoning apply to all job-related tasks where numbers are involved, more specifically:
  • A person’s ability to identify issues related to business processes to make a critical analysis based on numerical data
  • A person’s ability to draw logical conclusions and present logical alternatives to the processes, based on numerical data
  • A person’s ability to monitor business results and progress by going through data and figures, and to make analysis of the graphs.
  • A person’s ability to perform and communicate estimates.
  • A person’s speed of making correct analyses and evaluations.
The ability to conceptualise arithmetical problems and use the four arithmetical operations to solve them. The cognitive processes generally used in numerical reasoning are:

Specific Aptitudes
Loosely defined, an aptitude is a natural ability to do something. Generally testing for specific aptitudes is more relevant at the lower end of the job spectrum because they require more specialised thinking capabilities. As jobs advance up the job ladder, the thinking capabilities that are required tend to be more generalised.

There are broadly two types of cognitive aptitudes. Those that pertain to technical types of jobs and those that pertain to administrative/finance types of jobs. Technical aptitude tests will specifically look at the ability to visualise and manipulate objects in two and three dimensions (usually called spatial reasoning) and a person’s insight into and ability to utilise principles of physics (usually called mechanical reasoning). These thinking processes are important in a range of technically aligned jobs such as machinists, draughtsmen, CAD operators, electricians, fitters, and a host of other jobs.

Administrative or sometimes called clerical aptitude tests will specifically look at a person’s numerical ability and ability to process data quickly and accurately. They are useful when part of a broader test battery for jobs such as finance admin roles, pure admin roles, checker roles, junior level warehouse and distribution roles, junior quality roles and others.
How are these results used?
In the same way as the results of Abstract Reasoning tests. The candidate’s score is compared to a norm group and then converted to a score out of nine (stanine) which allows us to place this person on a range from below average to above average capability compare to the norm group.
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