CHAPTER 13. 



CONDITIONS OF EXAMINING AND PROCEDURES ADOPTED DURING THE INITIAL EXPERIMENT. 



Section 1. — Character of groups examined. 



The four camps in which psychological examining began in the fall of 1917 were National 

 Army cantonments. The men examined were thus in large measure obtained by the opera- 

 tion of the selective service act. Several small organizations in each of these cantonments 

 were volunteer units. A nucleus of Eegular Army troops was also sent to these contonments. 

 Though the selective service act intended and produced a certain form of random selection, 

 it is necessary, nevertheless, to make it clear that the data presented are not based on a random 

 selection from the general population. The large numbers of individuals examined are liable 

 to obscure this important fact. 



Other conditions further limit the character of the groups examined. Draft boards kept 

 in deferred classes certain feeble-minded types. The proportion of men of average and superior 

 intelligence volunteering their services to the Regular Army, to officers' training camps, to 

 staff corps, to specialized branches such as gas defense, intelligence, aviation, etc., can not be 

 confidently stated. Still other war activities, together with Navy enlistments, constitute 

 factors that seriously affect the probability of obtaining a general intelligence distribution. 



With the exceptions mentioned above, the operation of the selective service act deter- 

 mined the source and nature of the cantonment population. Relatively few women were tested 

 by the use of examination a, and none is included in the summaries given. The men tested 

 were practically all of the ages of 21 to 31, inclusive. They came primarily from Class I of 

 the classes produced by the operation of the above act. Class I was composed largely of men 

 whose ages were nearer 21 than 31. The operation of the selective service act placed in this 

 class those men between the ages mentioned who carried less important social and business 

 responsibilities. In the first months of its operation there were called in the draft only those 

 who were physically qualified. There is therefore no guaranty that a social and intellectual 

 cross section of the general population is represented. 



Draft calls were based on quotas drawn from certain sections specified for each canton- 

 ment. The psychological examinations using examination a were given in Camp Devens, Ayer, 

 Mass., Camp Dix, Wrightstown, N. J., Camp Lee, Petersburg, Va., and Camp Zachary Taylor, 

 Louisville, Ky. The communities furnishing men to these camps were located near the several 

 camps. Camp Devens drew recruits from the New England States and northeastern New 

 York; Camp Dix recruited from Delaware, New Jersey, and northern New York; Camp Lee 

 drew from Virginia, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania; and Camp Taylor troops came 

 from Kentucky, Indiana, and southern Illinois. These areas provided practically all drafted 

 men in the four cantonments during the fall of 1917. (This method of drafting for certain 

 camps from within definite boundaries was not continued in later draft calls.) 



Certain special conditions of race and social condition also operate to limit the general 

 nature of the intelligence distribution. Two camps contained an exceptionally large percentage 

 of illiterates and foreign born, one a large percentage of foreign born, and the fourth a large 

 number of illiterates. It is not possible to state in full the weights that should be given to such 

 variables as educational opportunity, race, specialized training, literacy, etc., on the general 

 curve of intelligence. They undoubtedly affect the character of the groups examined in con- 

 siderable degree. 



In giving the data on organizations and units in the summary of results, the reports are 

 limited to the status of the units at the time of examination. Assignments in the early phases 

 of the training period were not permanent, and many of the soldiers were shifted from one 



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