teaching experience,, By contrast, the selection and training 

 groups assembled by Division 6 were composed of psychologists, 

 educators, physicists and engineers, nearly all of whom had 

 had special training and experience in academic or industrial 

 selection and training work. Psychologists directed the 

 selection research and to a large extent the general programs 

 of training assistance to Navy activities , Physicists and 

 engineers were responsible for the design of s;/nthetic trainers 

 and for assistance in maintenance instruction. Men with teach- 

 ing experience in electronics were used for field work. Other 

 teachers with less technical background were used in the 

 writing of instruction books and in the preparation of training 

 aids r 



Selection Program, 



The first meeting of the Committee on Selection and Train- 

 ing with representatives of the Navy was held on 4 December 

 1941, only three days before Pearl Harbor, At that meeting the 

 Navy representatives explained the urgent need for the develop- 

 ment of methods whereby better qualified students could be 

 selected for the sound operator courses given at the West Coast 

 Sound School at San Diego and the Fleet Sound School at Key 

 West, Florida, Thus sonar operator' selection was the top 

 priority project, Later, the selection program was expanded 

 to include the selection of maintenance men and still later 

 of sonar officers „ 



Following the 4 December meeting, members of the committee 

 visited both sound schools and made a preliminary analysis of 

 the sonar operator's job, A number of standard aptitude tests 

 were tried out experimentally on sonar operator classes enter- 

 ing the schools. On the basis of the results achieved, the 

 members of the committee on 2 January 1942 were able to recom- 

 mend a tentative selection scheme which was put into effect at 

 Naval training centers in April, 1942„ 



Collateral research was devoted to the development of a 

 system for the selection of sonar maintenance men. These men 

 were chosen from the graduates of the sonar operator course 

 and the problem was to pick the graduates who were most likely 

 to be successful in maintenance work. 



At each of the sound schools an elementary sonar main- 

 tenance course of ten weeks was given* In the summer of 1942 

 a study of the problem of improving selection methods for 

 maintenance men was begun by the Division 6 training group. 



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