Chapter 23 

 SELECTION AND TRAINING 



LEE J. CRONBACH 



University of Illinois 



AND 



W. D. NEFF 



University of Chicago 



Introduction 



It is unusually difficult to summarize in a 

 short space the present status and prospec- 

 tive problems in selection and training. So 

 much is now laio\\Ti and so much remains to 

 be known that volumes can be written about 

 purely military problems, disregarding more 

 general principles. The most that can be at- 

 tempted, therefore, is a strategic overview of 

 the topics and problems that make continued 

 research in these areas vital. 



A second difficulty is that of separating 

 fundamental theory from administrative 

 problems. What research should be done on 

 selection depends upon how undersea war- 

 fare will be organized — for example, will men 

 be screened and classified before any train- 

 ing, will officers generally come from the 

 regular Navy, will there be periodic checks 

 on shipboard for reclassification of men? 

 The procedures to be developed must always 

 be designed with relation to some practical 

 situation. For that reason, some of this 

 chapter discusses practical plans for selection 

 and training, rather than scientific theory 

 alone. 



There are few problems of selection and 

 training in undersea warfare not equalty 

 prominent in all other branches of the serv- 

 ice. How one tests men, how one trains 

 men, how one assesses misfits, and so on, 

 will be much the same, whether one is choos- 

 ing fire-control personnel for a shore battery, 

 officers for a tactical staff, or toolmakers for 



an ordnance works. The particular tests or 

 training materials will vary, but the psycho- 

 logical principles remain the same. Our 

 present theory of military selection and 

 training draws very heavily on work in pub- 

 lic schools, colleges, and industry. It is 

 essential to have a coordinated attack upon 

 basic problems, conceived to answer each 

 question in the broadest possible terms. 

 Research specific to aviation selection, sub- 

 marine selection, or rifleman selection can be 

 attacked more readily after the problems 

 conmion to all these areas have been solved. 



Selection 



Problems of Mass Processing 



Handling manpower on the scale required 

 by military processing is a problem nowhere 

 encountered in peacetime. Yet the broad 

 planning of a classification program has a 

 logic of its own that can be arrived at by 

 scientific processes. 



Principles of Placement 



Scientists evaluate a test by its "validity 

 coefficient", a number showing how well the 

 test score compares with the man's later 

 work on the job. On the basis of early ex- 

 perience and from mathematical reasoning, 

 psychologists set the rule: "A test with a 

 validity coefficient of .50 or .60 is good 

 enough for identifjang good and poor men." 

 By this rule, one could decide whether any 

 proposed aptitude test should be used in 



491 



