OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 9^ 



to medical officers; (7) for utilization In connection with the 

 organization of special training groups so that each group 

 might be Instructed or drilled in accordance with its mental 

 capacity, thus avoiding the delay Incident to dull or awkward 

 individuals and enabling the especially able men to proceed 

 rapidly and ultimately to take special forms of training in 

 preparation for promotion or other forms of responsibility. 



The judgment of the army concerning the practical value 

 of this work has been very clearly indicated by reports of com- 

 manding officers. On completion of the official trial of methods 

 in four cantonments, approximately seventy-five per cent, of 

 the regimental and company commanders who were more or 

 less familiar with the psychological ratings and their proposed 

 applications expressed their approval of this new line of ser- 

 vice and the opinion that It should be continued, extended, 

 and its military usefulness increased. As the organization 

 of the service was gradually perfected and the officers of the 

 line and the Medical Corps became acquainted with its actual 

 and possible values to them, the proportion of favorable opin- 

 ion tended to Increase. 



The psychological service was so organized in each large 

 training camp that a staff of four officers of the Sanitary 

 Corps, six enlisted men, also trained in military psychology, 

 and thirty to forty privates temporarily assigned for service 

 as scorers, clerks, and orderlies, could, when necessary, exam- 

 ine and report on from one to two thousand recruits per day. 

 During one month the total number of psychological exami- 

 nations in the camps approached three hundred thousand. 



The results of psychological examining in the army have 

 two particularly important bearings. Their primary signif- 

 icance Is In connection with the development and improve- 

 ment of methods of mental measurement which are appli- 

 cable alike to industrial, educational, military, and other 

 practical situations. Equally important, however, with the 

 advance in the development of methods, are the scientific 

 results of this extensive mental survey. 



The most important single achievement of the group of 

 psychologists which developed the methods for army mental 



