Measure Your Mind: The Mentimeter and How to Use ItTrabue, Marion Rex
Science
Measure Your Mind: The Mentimeter and How to Use It
Trabue, Marion Rex
Educational tests and measurements; Intelligence tests; Psychological tests
(6) In the early formation of training groups within a company in order
that each man might receive instruction and drill according to his
ability to profit thereby;
(7) In the early recognition of slow-thinking minds which might
otherwise be mistaken for stubborn or disobedient characters;
(8) In eliminating from the army those men whose low-grade intelligence
rendered them either a burden or a menace to the service.
In three systems of tests in use between May 1 and October 1, 1918, in
the United States Army, approximately one million three hundred thousand
men were tested.
The test first applied to all, men and officers, who could read English,
was known as the “Alpha.” This was a group test. It required only fifty
minutes and could be given to groups as large as 500. The test material
was so arranged that each of its 212 questions might be answered without
writing, merely by underlining, crossing out or checking. The papers
later were scored by means of stencils, so that nothing was left to the
personal judgment of those who did the scoring. The mental rating which
resulted therefore was wholly objective.
The “Beta” test was used for foreigners and illiterates. It could be
given to groups of from 75 to 200 and required approximately fifty
minutes. Success in the Beta test did not depend upon knowledge of
English, as the instructions were given entirely by pantomime and
demonstration. It measured general intelligence through the use of
concrete or picture material instead of the printed language. It also
was scored by stencils and yielded an objective rating.
Both the Alpha and the Beta tests were known as Group tests because of
the large number of men to whom they could be given simultaneously.
Those men who failed in the Group tests were given Individual tests in
which the instructions were given by a trained psychologist working with
one soldier at a time in a quiet private office. These Individual tests
were of two sorts: one for men who understood English, and the other for
men without education and frequently without knowledge of the English
language. The Individual tests served as a check upon the Group tests
which had preceded them. No man was recommended for discharge or for
labour battalions until after he had been individually examined by a
psychologist who spent from a half hour to an hour and a half with him,
attempting to determine whether or not the results of the Group tests
could be relied upon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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