146 REPORT OF THE PSYCHOLOGY COMMITTEE 



Except for numerous delays, the Alpha examination would 

 have been administered to all members of the Students' Army- 

 Training Corps during the initial quarter, and thereafter either 

 to applicants or to students already enrolled, for assistance 

 in connection with classification and instruction. 



The work of Terman would have been of increasing prac- 

 tical value had the Students' Army Training Corps continued 

 in existence; but despite the failure to bring the tests into 

 actual use, it is clear that important service was rendered by 

 acquainting the educational committee, many additional 

 army officers, and members of upwards of five hundred edu- 

 cational institutions, with this method of mental classification. 



17. Miscellaneous Work for Various Military and Civilian 

 Agencies. — L. L. Thurstone of the Carnegie Institute of Tech- 

 nology carried on an important investigation in the selection 

 and training of telegraphers. At the outset two facts were 

 discovered which proved of far-reaching significance. First, 

 analysis of the progress of drafted men in Class la who were 

 preparing to enter the service with some knowledge of teleg- 

 raphy showed that many well-educated men did not succeed 

 in learning telegraphy as well as might have been expected 

 from their general intelligence and education. Second, the 

 converse also proved true, that some men of very modest edu- 

 cation and general ability found it easy to learn the tele- 

 graphic code. From these two facts was drawn the initial 

 assumption that ability to learn the telegraphic code is a 

 special ability. A series of tests were devised to predict the 

 presence or absence of this ability, in order that future selec- 

 tions of telegraphers might be to the best advantage of the 

 service and the men. A report on these tests will be pub- 

 lished in the Journal of Applied Psychology. 



Herbert S. Langfeld, during the summer of 1918, made an 

 official trip to France to observe from the point of view of a 

 psychologist the personnel of the Y. M. C. A. His excellent 

 opportunities to observe American soldiers in rest and leave 

 areas, in training schools, and in trenches, supplied materials 

 for a valuable report which, on his return to America, was 

 transmitted to the Psychology Committee of the National 

 Research Council. 



