THE MEASUREMENT AND UTILIZATION 

 OF BRAIN POWER IN THE ARMY 



BY 



R. M. YERKES 



Chief, Section of Psychology, Office of the 

 Surgeon-General 



History of Psychological Service. The psychologists 

 of America, of whom upward of two hundred served in 

 the Army or Navy, have rendered conspicuously impor- 

 tant assistance to the government in organizing an efficient 

 fighting machine. Chief among the civilian agencies re- 

 sponsible for the development of this new and unexpect- 

 edly significant variety of service are the American Psy- 

 chological Association and the Psychology Committee of 

 the National Research Council. Nearly a score of com- 

 mittees or subcommittees of these organizations functioned 

 during the military emergency. 



Within the Army three principal groups of psycholo- 

 gists appear: one attached to the Office of the Adjutant 

 General of the Army (specifically known as the Commit- 

 tee on Classification of Personnel in the Army), another 

 in the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army (known 

 as the Division of Psychology of the Medical Depart- 

 ment), and a third in the Division of Military Aeronautics 

 (the Psychological Section of the Medical Research 

 Board). Although the several tasks of these groups of 

 psychologists differed markedly, the primary purpose of 

 each was the increase of military efficiency through im- 



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