(4) In forming organizations of superior mental strength where such superiority was demanded by the nature of the work to be performed;
(5) In selecting suitable men for various army duties or for special training in colleges or technical schools;
(6) In the early formation of training groups within a company in order that each man might receive instruction and drill according to his ability to profit thereby;
(7) In the early recognition of slow-thinking minds which might otherwise be mistaken for stubborn or disobedient characters;
(8) In eliminating from the army those men whose low-grade intelligence rendered them either a burden or a menace to the service.
In three systems of tests in use between May 1 and October 1, 1918, in the United States Army, approximately one million three hundred thousand men were tested.
The test first applied to all, men and officers, who could read English, was known as the “Alpha.” This was a group test. It required only fifty minutes and could be given to groups as large as 500. The test material was so arranged that each of its 212 questions might be answered without writing, merely by underlining, crossing out or checking. The papers later were scored by means of stencils, so that nothing was left to the personal judgment of those who did the scoring. The mental rating which resulted therefore was wholly objective.
The “Beta” test was used for foreigners and illiterates. It could be given to groups of from 75 to 200 and required approximately fifty minutes. Success in the Beta test did not depend upon knowledge of English, as the instructions were given entirely by pantomime and demonstration. It measured general intelligence through the use of concrete or picture material instead of the printed language. It also was scored by stencils and yielded an objective rating.
Both the Alpha and the Beta tests were known as Group tests because of the large number of men to whom they could be given simultaneously. Those men who failed in the Group tests were given Individual tests in which the instructions were given by a trained psychologist working with one soldier at a time in a quiet private office. These Individual tests were of two sorts: one for men who understood English, and the other for men without education and frequently without knowledge of the English language. The Individual tests served as a check upon the Group tests which had preceded them. No man was recommended for discharge or for labour battalions until after he had been individually examined by a psychologist who spent from a half hour to an hour and a half with him, attempting to determine whether or not the results of the Group tests could be relied upon.
To determine the relative intelligence of five hundred men in fifty minutes by a method so completely objective that no part of the resulting classification is based on the individual judgment or opinion of either the examiner or any of the men themselves is certainly a practical application of psychological science. Simple as the Alpha test was, its practical working out and reduction to an exact scientific formula was the work of hundreds of highly trained minds for many months. In its concrete application it looks like a children’s game, but the results are so reliable as to be almost uncanny in the precision with which they tally with the conclusions reached in the same cases as a result of long and intimate observation.