102 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1179 



letter addressed to it by the council, has re- 

 sponded most promptly and heartily with 

 offers of personal service. 



At a meeting held in Philadelphia, April 21, 

 the council of the Americaa Psychological 

 Association, in addition to approving and 

 urging the appointment of a committee on 

 psychology for the ISTational Eesearch Council, 

 authorized the organization of twelve commit- 

 tees to deal with various important aspects of 

 the relations of psychology to the war. 



The list of committees with their personnel, 

 so far as at present announced, follows, to- 

 gether with brief comment on the status of 

 their work: 



COMMITTEES 



Committee on psychological literature re- 

 lating to military affairs. It is the function 

 of this committee to prepare bibliographies 

 and abstracts of important psychological mil- 

 itary contributions for the immediate use of 

 committees, individual investigators and for 

 publication. Chairman, Madison Bentley, 

 University of Illinois. 



Dr. Bentley already has rendered valuable 

 service to several of the committees. 



Committee on the psychological examining 

 of recruits. The first task of this committee 

 is the preparation and standardization of 

 methods and the demonstration of their serv- 

 iceableness. Chairman, Robert M. Terkes, 

 Harvard University, W. V. Bingham, Henry 

 H. Goddard, Thomas H. Haines, Lewis M. Ter- 

 man, F. L. Wells, G. M. Whipple. 



This committee has prepared a method of 

 group examining, and also varied methods of 

 individual examining. The work, covering a 

 period of four weeks, was generously financed 

 by the Committee on Provision for the Feeble- 

 minded. The methods are now (July 25) 

 being tested in three army camps and one 

 naval station. The expense of this initial 

 trial, which is made primarily for the further 

 development and perfecting of the methods, 

 is met by an appropriation of twenty-five 

 hundred dollars made by the Committee on 

 Furnishing Hospital Units for Nervous and 

 Mental Disorders to the United States govern- 

 ment. At the present writing, the surgeon 

 general of the Army awaits lists of psychol- 



ogists who are both adequately prepared and 

 willing to serve as psychological examiners. 



It is the conviction of the committee that 

 the psychological examiner, by applying 

 specially prepared and adapted methods to 

 recruits in the camps, should obtain measure- 

 ments valuable alike to line ofiicers, to gen- 

 eral medical officers, and to the special officers 

 in charge of the psychiatric hospital units. 



It is assumed that the work of psychologists, 

 although not strictly medical in character, but 

 instead vocational, educational and social, 

 will supplement that of the medical examiner 

 by supplying him with information otherwise 

 not available. Further, the psychologist may 

 aid the psychiatrist by detecting and referring 

 to him those individuals for whom careful 

 psychiatric examination is obviously desirable. 



Committee on the selection of men for 

 tasks requiring special skill. This includes 

 the selection and promotion of officers, as well 

 as choice of men for varied kinds of skilled 

 service. Chairman, Edward L. Thorndike, 

 Columbia University, J. C. Chapman, T. L. 

 Kelley, W. D. Scott. 



A method of selecting officers devised by 

 Dr. Scott is now in use in many of the 

 Officers Training Camps. 



Committee on psychological problems of 

 aviation, including examination of aviation 

 recruits. Chairman, H. E. Burtt, Harvard 

 University, W. R. Miles, L. T. Troland. 



Work looking toward the development and 

 thorough testing of methods for the selection 

 of aviation recruits has been authorized by 

 the Government and already is in progress in 

 at least one of the institutions where the re- 

 cruits are being trained. 



Committee on the psychological problems 

 of incapacity, especially those of shock, re- 

 education and vocational training. Chair- 

 man, S. I. Franz, Government Hospital for 

 the Insane, K. S. Lashley, J. B. Watson. 



The task proposed for this committee is a 

 large and difficult one and the chairman plans 

 to organize, in intimate relations with various 

 military activities and agencies, a committee 

 which shall be competent to deal with the 

 varied scientific problems of incapacity. 



Dr. Franz has himself developed methods for 



