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
In almost every industrial enterprise, clerical work of some kind or
another is necessary, and a problem of universal interest has developed
around the selection of clerks. The time required to “break in” new
employees runs from two weeks to two months, according to the nature of
the routine, and this process invariably is very expensive. By means of
standardized mental tests the whole process may be greatly simplified.
In an experiment recently reported tests were given to fifty-two men and
women engaged in clerical and near-clerical work. An aggregate number of
440 tests was given. The manager of the department had made a study of
these people and had attempted to rate them as to their actual ability.
The tests were classified under the head of tests for _technique_ and
tests for _intelligence_. By _technique_ is meant the speed and accuracy
shown by clerks in sorting tickets and papers, posting and adding
columns of figures, indexing and filing, and in other routine clerical
operations. The term _intelligence_ is interpreted to designate the
facility and success with which a clerk could master new tasks and
follow directions about new work assigned from time to time. The clerk’s
_technique_ was indicated by steadiness, arithmetic, card sorting, and
substitution-of-letters tests. The _intelligence_ tests included a
“hard-directions” test and an “abstract-relations” test, similar to
those given in the Mentimeter in this volume.
When all the tests had been given the results were computed and
tabulated so as to bring out the following points: (1) the rank of each
individual with reference to all the rest; (2) the relation of each of
four groups to each other; (3) the relation between technique and
intelligence. The results were then submitted to the office head, who
compared them with his records and with his own opinion of the relative
merits of the various individuals. This comparison showed a very marked
agreement between the testimony of the tests and the rankings of the
office manager.
The results of these tests so impressed the office manager that he
decided to give them to all incoming clerks. One of the first candidates
to be examined was a young woman who had recently been interviewed by
one of the office heads. The candidate was so unprepossessing in
appearance that in spite of signs testifying to her intelligence, the
office head was in doubt as to the advisability of hiring her. The
psychological tests were applied. When this was done the young woman did
remarkably well in every test. She was then hired, and proved herself so
ready and capable that it was decided to train her for the work of an
office assistant. In six weeks she had mastered the routine of four
different kinds of work. This was a striking instance in which the
testimony of the tests belied the testimony of observation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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