ROUTINE MANUAL FACTOR 311 



ROUTINE MANUAL FACTOR. 



Report of the Committee appointed to develop tests of the routine manual 

 factor in mechanical ability. (Dr. C. S. Myers, C.B.E., F.R.S., 

 Chairman ; Dr. G. H. Miles, Secretary ; Prof. C. Burt, Dr. F. M. 

 Earle, Dr. Ll. Wynn Jones, Prof. T. H. Pear.) 



Contents. 



I. Resume of Work carried out during Previous Years. 



A. On the Nature and Measurement of Manual Skill. 



B. On the Nature and Measurement of Mechanical Aptitude. 



II. Work carried out during the Current Year. 



A. The Further Analysis and Development of Manual Tests. 



i . Application of Test in a Factory. 



2. Improvement in the Eye-board Test. 



3. Norms of Performance. 



B. The Further Analysis and Development of Mechanical Tests. 



1. Improvements in certain of the Tests. 



2. Norms of Performance. 



III. The Further Analysis of Mechanical Tests. 



IV. Correspondence and Dissemination of Information. 

 V. Proposed Further Work. 



VI. Renewal of Grant. 



I. Resume of Work carried out during Previous Years. 



A. On the Nature and Measurement of Manual Skill. 



The results of extensive research into the nature of the factors involved in 

 assembling work have been summarised in previous reports of the Committee. 

 Among the more important conclusions were : (i) that assembling work 

 divides broadly into (a) ' mechanical ' assembling work, and (b) ' routine ' 

 assembling work ; and (ii) that ' mechanical ' assembling work involves 

 a mechanical group-factor, together with specific manual factors, whereas 

 in ' routine ' assembling work the mechanical factor is replaced by a manual 

 group-factor of fairly wide range. 



Attempts to measure the manual group-factor led to the devising of four 

 new manual tests, viz. (i) the pin board — a board 12 in. square in 

 which are inserted 84 brass pins over which the subject is required to 

 wind string in a prescribed way ; (i) the pin-stick — a 12-in. length of wood, 

 of £ in. square section, in which are inserted 40 brass pins around which 

 the subject is required to wind string with one hand while rotating the 

 stick with the other ; (iii) the eye-board — -a board 15 in. square con- 

 taining 90 eyes and 20 clips, in which the subject is required to thread 

 laces through the eyes and then clip them under the clips ; and (iv) a test 

 in which the subject, using the same board, alternately threads the lace 

 through a bead and then an eye. 



Inter-correlations of these tests and the original routine assembling 

 operations indicated the presence of the same manual group-factor in these 

 tests as was formerly observed in the routine assembling operations. 

 Statistical analysis of the inter-correlations showed the eye-board to be the 

 most highly saturated of the tests (080) and it was therefore decided to 



