OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 115 



"While we were trying out our instrument for testing gun- 

 pointers it became increasingly evident that the problem of 

 picking prospective gun-pointers was regarded by most naval 

 officers with whom I came in contact as only one of a group 

 of interrelated problems of picking the most suitable men for 

 the various tasks of the Navy. This was first emphasized 

 by Lieutenant Mayo of the U. S. S. Georgia; then by Captain 

 Plunkett of the Office of Gunnery Exercises, and by Com- 

 manders Bingham and McClintic, and Lieutenant Shannon 

 of the U. S. S. Pennsylvania. 



"In view of these reiterated suggestions, and in view of 

 the wide scope of the permission granted me by the Honor- 

 able Secretary of the Navy to visit the fleet for analysis of 

 the naval tasks, I undertook to do for the plotting room what 

 I had done for gun-pointing. After observing the various 

 tasks of the plotting room, I tried to reduce them to their 

 simplest psychological terms, then to devise corresponding 

 test methods, and finally to combine them in a single form or 

 blank that would disclose at a glance, without elaborate com- 

 putation, the relative fitness of the several recruits for plot- 

 ting room service. 



"The tests finally recommended were: the ability to re- 

 peat clearly by telephone a series of ordinary commands that 

 were received by telephone, the ability to remember and re- 

 peat numerals, to read a circular scale, to read a plotting 

 scale and to lay off distances to scale, together with neatness 

 and accuracy in drawing and subdividing simple geometrical 

 figures. All these data, except the telephone test were ar- 

 ranged on a single blank which could be estimated at a glance 

 as good, medium, and poor. 



"It proved impracticable to follow the history of this test, 

 to work up the correlations between test and performance, 

 or to modify the test according to experience. I was informed 

 later that the tests, substantially as originally submitted, 

 were adopted throughout the Atlantic Fleet for the selection 

 of men for the plotting room, and that they were saving a 

 great deal of time and trouble. 



"A plan was submitted at the same time for a more ex- 



