348 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. [Vol. xv, 



This great difference may have been due in part to the fact that men of the lower degrees 

 of literacy did not comprehend what they were called upon to do, because of the elimination 

 from the instructions of the preliminary demonstration series used by Thorndike. 1 Camp Dix 

 reported marked decrease in the number of zero scores when a blackboard demonstration, 

 involving properly marked sample words, preceded the actual test. However, a new modifica- 

 tion of the Thorndike test by Kelley, which retained the trial series, was little more successful 

 than the first modification. 



Success in the test implies ability to hold in mind four different tasks. The test is there- 

 fore one which by nature is too much of an intelligence test. Reduction of the task to the 

 single one of "writing the letter A under every word that means an animal," greatly reduced the 

 percentage of zero scores. This simplification of the task, added to the blackboard demonstra- 

 tion, reduced the percentage of zero scores to 13.5 per cent in a typical group. Less than 5 per 

 cent of those making zero scores in this case secured a grade as high as C in examination a. The 

 major objection to the test was, however, purely practical. It required at least 10 minutes of 

 the examining hour and the services of three orderlies for a group of 100 men to pass out literacy 

 blanks, give the examination, collect the papers, make immediate segregation of individuals, 

 and to send the illiterates from the room. Thereafter, to make possible a report of literacy, it 

 required the services of two of the orderlies during the remainder of the hour to score and grade 

 the literacy papers. 



Kelley's literacy test. — These latter objections apply in particular to another modification of 

 the Thorndike test, which was arranged by T. L. Kelley under the direction of Thorndike. 

 This was intended to make good the faults of the earlier modification. It contained 60 instead 

 of 20 items, and was preceded by a demonstrations, serie The form of test and the directions 

 are presented on pages 280 and 281 of Part I. It was tried out at Camps Lee, Dix, and Devens. 

 It proved even more time-consuming and cumbersome than the original modification and gave no 

 promise of greater practical advantage. One examiner who gave it strictly according to directions 

 reported that it took 45 minutes and created much confusion in the examining room. Its 

 standard also was too high. In one group of 330 men 146 would, by the instructions, have 

 been excluded from examination a. This test was, therefore, not used after the preliminary trials. 



Segregation test. — At several of the camps it was concluded that a means of merely segre- 

 gating groups (not a means of measuring the grade of literacy of individuals) might be all that 

 was required. Thus at Camp Dix a dictation test was developed and used during a large part 

 of the fall examining. The subjects were given slips of paper and were told, first to write their 

 names, and then to write on a slip of paper the sentence " We are in the army." Thirty seconds 

 were allowed for writing the name and 45 seconds for writing the sentence. Orderlies then 

 inspected the slips scoring the individual "literate" or "illiterate." Those who wrote the 

 sentence legibly with even approximately correct or phonetic spelling were held for examina- 

 tion a. Two orderlies were able to divide a group of 100 into two appropriate groups in about 

 six minutes. It is reported in a study of 433 cases that 9.5 per cent failed the test. Of those 

 who failed 2 per cent received a grade as high as C; of those who succeeded about 25 per cent 

 received grades as low as E and 17 per cent grades as low as D in examination a. 



At Camp Deven3 anothor simple test for segregation was tried with a few groups. A card- 

 board screen was provided, in which was cut an oblong horizontal opening, and upon winch were 

 drawn simple figures: a ship, a shoe, a flag, a face, etc., with the directions, "With your finger 



touch the .' ' The sentence was completed by an appropriate wora which appeared in 



the horizontal opening at the will of the examiner, who rotated a cardboard disk behind the 

 screen. The examinees passed in single file and were directed to examination a or to the Sten- 

 quist, according as they obeyed instructions or not. The method proved rapid but unreliable. 

 Some men of low-grade literacy read the instructions aloud without apparently grasping the 

 idea that they were really to obey them. Others simply imitated those who preceded them in 

 fine without apparently reading the instructions at all. The method was abandoned without 

 further attempt to improve it. 



' Op. cit. 15, pp. 211,219. 



