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



These investigations were at all times made secondary to the conduct of examining, estab- 

 lishment of relations with camp authorities, and immediate service to the existing organizations. 

 Nevertheless, the importance of these studies to the development of this new service in the Army 

 should not be underestimated. They were necessary to assure the examiners themselves of the 

 essential soundness of their methods. Investigations could not be made rapidly enough to 

 supply answers to questions and criticisms raised by officers and inspectors of the service. 

 Requests for additional assistance were often based on the reports of studies verbally communi- 

 cated by members of the psychological staff. Conferences with commanding officers, in which 

 the results of these studies were presented, led to changes in methods of selecting candidate 

 officers and noncommissioned officers, to the reorganization of divisional units, and to the recon- 

 sideration by their superior officers of many officers and men. The importance of the reported 

 investigations for the later revision of methods is stressed in the section on methods. 



Section 9. — Work of the clerical staff. 



The necessity of an efficient and fairly extensive clerical staff to insure accurate and prompt 

 reports to the military authorities is evident. Even with the reduction in the task of scoring 

 papers brought about by the use of stencils, the work of grading separate tests, totaling scores, 

 and making up reports for company commanders, covering, perhaps, a thousand or more men 

 in one day, was no light task. 



The clerical force was selected as far as possible on the basis of their scores in examination 

 a. A and B men were preferred. The staff of enlisted men used as orderlies, scorers, stenogra- 

 phers, recording clerks, filing clerks, supply clerks, and as assistants in individual examinations 

 varied from 20 to 65 or more. The number varied mainly according to the speed of examining. 

 The statistical treatment of results, important for revision of method, was largely done by the 

 psychologists when not examining recruits. 



No single method was in use to insure the rninirnuni of error in scoring, recording, and 

 reporting results. The general principles of checking results were put into operation, and 

 from reports on errors seemed to be successfully applied. 



Full reports containing names and scores were made to company commanders, to the 

 Washington office, and were also kept on file in the office of the psychological staff in the camp. 

 Statistical and graphical summaries were made and reported to regimental and divisional 

 commanders. These are reproduced in part in the section on results (Ch. 14). 



Section 10. — Summary of camp activities. 



The discussion of the psychological examining in the fall of 1917 and the presentation 

 of the results involves two mam considerations. It is essential to remember in the following 

 presentation of statistical results and estimates of values that many new and unexpected condi- 

 tions had to be met. The foregoing account presents only the more important of these. Many 

 changes in examining procedure and in camp conditions not enumerated necessitated slight 

 modifications of the work. These though not affecting the practical aspects of the examining 

 do make it impossible to present a finished statistical summary. 



In the second place the fall work was deliberately experimental in method and in practical 

 application. We have endeavored to show the main lines of this experimentation. 



First the problem of illiteracy in its various degrees was encountered. Examinations a 

 and b, requiring an undetermined ability to read English, could not be used to measure approxi- 

 mately 20 per cent of the recruits. The methods of individual examining supplied and the 

 available standard methods, with one exception, required at least the ability to speak and under- 

 stand English. The group skill test and certain of the tests for individual examination were 

 prepared to meet this difficulty. This problem when faced in the four cantonments broke up 

 into three parts. By what means could those unable to record their real mental age by scores 

 in the examinations for literates be detected ? Was it necessary to obtain and report a literacy 

 grade for any or for all recruits? Were the methods supplied for testing the semiliterato, the 



