Abstract: The ability to identify criteria (ATIC) is defined as a person’s ability to correctly identify the performance criteria in an evaluative situation. There are two ways of measuring ATIC currently, candidates self-report and rater scoring. Many researches have found that ATIC has a positive effect on candidates’ performance, it explains the selection’s criterion validity and influences the construct validity. When the criteria is exposed to candidates, the selection’s transparency is enhanced and the impact of ATIC’s individual differences is removed, resulting in the decrease of the selection’s criterion validity, while the effect on candidates’ performance and the construct validity is uncertain. Future research should frame ATIC in the broader literature, improve its measurement, and explore ATIC’s role in other selections and the effect of changing ATIC on personnel selections.

Key words: the ability to identify criteria, personnel selection, validy of the selection