224 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX, No. 1262 



adopted and in use throughout the army 

 during the past few months differ radically 

 from those originally reeommenided. They 

 may he described summarily as follows: 



There are four principal systems or 

 stages in the examination. First comes 

 tihe procedure of segregation, by means of 

 ■which the original group, which may, if 

 examining rooms permit, include as many 

 as five hundred men, is split into two sub- 

 groups; (a) the literates, men who can 

 speak and read English fairly well, and 

 (6) the illiterates, men who are relatively 

 unfamiliar with the English language. 

 These two groups must necessarily be 

 treated somewhat differently, therefore the 

 literates are given a group examination 

 known as Alpha, which consists of eight 

 markedly different tests. This examina- 

 tion, although it requires abnost no writing 

 on the part of the subject, does demand 

 facility in using written and oral instruc- 

 tions. The illiterate group is given an ex- 

 amination known as Beta, which is in 

 effect Alpha translated into pictorial form. 

 In this examination pantomime and dem- 

 onstration supplant written and oral in- 

 structions. 



Each group examination requires ap- 

 proximately fifty minutes. Subjects wiho 

 fail in Alpha are ordinarily given oppor- 

 tunity to improve their ratings by taking 

 Beta, and subjects who fail in Beta are 

 given individual examination in order that 

 they may be more accurately and justlj'' 

 rated than in the group examination alone. 



Any particular individual may have to 

 take one, two or three of these types of 

 examination, thus for example, a man of 

 low grade literacy who happens to get 

 into examination Alpha may also have to 

 take Beta and some form of individual 

 examination. 



Examination papers for both Alpha and 

 Beta are scored rapidly by the use of 



stencils and the resulting rating is 

 promptly rep-orted to the appropriate 

 military authority. 



By means of this system of examinations 

 it is possible for an examining staff con- 

 sisting of four psychologists and a force 

 of scoring clerks to examine as many as 

 one thousand men per day. 



Every man examined by one or more of 

 the procedures described is assigned a 

 numerical rating and in addition a letter 

 grade which indicate his general intellec- 

 tual ability or mental alertness. The nu- 

 merical rating is used only for statistical 

 purposes, the letter grade for practical 

 military purposes. The latter alone is re- 

 ported ordinarily to military officers and 

 recorded on the soldier's service record 

 and qualification card. 



The letter grades which are in use are 

 defined as foUoAvs: A designates very su- 

 perior intelligence; B, superior intelli- 

 gence; C +, high average intelligence; 

 C, average intelligence ; C — , low average 

 intelligence; D, inferior intelligence; D — , 

 very inferior intelligence. The letter E 

 has been reserved for the designation of 

 men whose mental ability is seemingly in- 

 adequate for regular military duty. 



Commissioned officers usually possess and 

 obviously should possess A or B intelli- 

 gence. Many excellent non-commissioned 

 officers possess C or C + intelligence, but 

 in the main this group is composed of men 

 with C + or B ratings. The great body 

 of privates grades C. Men with D or D — 

 intelligence are usually slow to learn and 

 rai'ely gain promotion. Many of them, 

 espeea'ally the D — individuals, can not 

 be used to advantage in a military emer- 

 gency which demands rapidity of training. 

 The results of army mental testing in- 

 dicate that the majority of D — and B 

 soldiers are below ten years mental age. 

 A few fall as low as three or four years. 



