The test booklet supplied for this test is not for the use of the candidate being examined but for the examiner to use as a guide and record of the examination. One such booklet should be used for each individual examined, in order to be certain that no test is omitted or wrongly scored and in order to have a record for comparison with future tests of the same individual or of other individuals.
Mentimeter No. 2
PICTORIAL ABSURDITIES
Nature of the Test.
One of the most popular tests in the Army Beta series was the mutilated pictures test, in which the soldiers were to draw into each picture what had been omitted. One great difficulty with this test was the tendency of intelligent men to spend far too much time trying to draw artistically the missing parts. The present test is a modification of that test, so arranged that instead of the candidate being required to draw a missing part he is only asked to make a check mark at the point where there is something that does not fit the remainder of the picture.
The test booklet is arranged with two samples on the title page to show clearly what is to be done when the candidate opens his booklet. By having these samples painted on the wall or blackboard, it would be possible to give the test to large groups of persons at once, although the directions given below are for testing one individual only at a time. Although listed as a test for non-English-speaking persons, some oral direction should accompany the motions by which the test is to be given, and English-speaking persons may be examined by this test as readily as those who speak a foreign language.
The graduation of the pictures according to their approximate difficulty makes the score in this test a real measure of the degree of absurdity which an individual can detect. The pictures themselves were chosen from as wide a field as possible in order to avoid undue advantage to persons of one type of experience rather than another. Only intelligent persons of fairly wide general experience will be able to make a perfect score in the time allowed.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The examiner and the candidate to be examined should be comfortably seated at a table with the examination booklet between them. If it is discovered that the candidate is left-handed, the examiner should sit on the left, although under ordinary circumstances the examiner should sit on the right. The blanks on the title page of the booklet should be filled out by the examiner from any records he may have of the name and age of the candidate (if persons who read and understand English are being examined, several may be tested at once and each may be asked to fill out the blanks for himself). For persons who do not understand the English language the words which are used in the following explanations will be more suggestive than informing. The chief part of the demonstration will be the motions through which the examiner goes, and therefore great care should be taken that these be as suggestive of what is wanted as the examiner can make them. To secure uniformity of procedure the routine outline below should be carefully followed.
The booklet should be opened by the examiner and the pictures exhibited for not more than twenty seconds to the candidate, the examiner pointing from one to another of the first half dozen pictures. He should then close the book and call the attention of the candidate to the picture of the rabbit on the title page. He should point to the rabbit’s ear and then point to the inappropriate ear and shake his head. This pointing to the two ears and shaking the head when pointing to the wrong type of ear may be repeated as many as three times in order to impress on the candidate that one of the ears is inappropriate. He should then take his pencil and make a check mark above the ear which is incorrect.
Mark (✓) the thing that is wrong