CHAPTER 2. 



TINOFFICIAL TRIAL OF METHODS. 



After adjournment of tho committee on methods, July 7, 1919, arrangements were made, 

 in accordance with plans described on page 9 of this report, for trial of the methods under 

 military conditions. The results at the four military stations were worked over by a statistical 

 unit under Thorndike's direction and reported upon by him at a conference of the committee 

 on methods held at Columbia University on August 15. This chapter records the more 

 significant results of the preofficial trial. 



Approximately 4,000 examinations were made by the group method, including 3,000 

 soldiers, 759 men in the Brooklyn Mosquito Fleet, and 372 individuals in institutions for the 

 feeble-minded. So far as they were used for statistical purposes, these tests were distributed 

 as follows: Regular Army reorganization camp, Syracuse, N. Y., 738; Regular Army and 

 National Guard, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Ind., 898; National Guard camp, 

 Nashville, Term., 734; Naval Training Base No. 6, Brooklyn, N. Y., 759; institutions for mental 

 defectives, 372; total, 3,501. Illiterates were not excluded. 



Section 1 . — Group examination a. 



Tests 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, and 9 were scored "number right" (the number of correct items) ; tests 

 3, 6, 7 and 10 were scored "right minus wrong" (the number of correct items less the number 

 of wrong items). This plan had been tentatively formulated by the committee after the Vine- 

 land experiment with 400 subjects. Total scores were found by counting each way from a 

 tentative median (counted as zero) and summing the values — a method which yields both 

 positive and negative scores. It was believed that different tests would be of different impor- 

 tance in making up the total score, and that, therefore, before summing up the scores of the 

 separate tests, these scores should be multiplied by proper weights. The weighting keys, 

 tabulated herewith, show the weighted score corresponding to any actual gross score. 



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