i GIFT OF 8061 - A *N RECRUIT PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION FOR ILLITERATES AND NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING CITIZENS AND ALIENS TO BE USED BY RECRUITING OFFICERS AT GENERAL RECRUITING STATIONS PREPARED IN THE OFFICE OF THE SURGEON GENERAL, U. S. ARMY October, 1919 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1919 RECRUIT PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION FOR ILLITERATES AND NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING CITIZENS AND ALIENS TO BE USED BY RECRUITING OFFICERS AT GENERAL RECRUITING STATIONS C.YI A-T PREPARED IN THE OFFICE OF THE SURGEON GENERAL, U. S. ARMY October, 1919 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1919 WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, October 3, 1919. The following publication, entitled " Recruit Psychological Exam- ination for Illiterates and Non-English-Speaking Citizens and Aliens," is published for the information and guidance of all con- cerned. [702, A. G. O.] BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR I PEYTON C. MARCH, General, Chief of Staff. OFFICIAL : P. C. HARRIS, The Adjutant General. RECRUIT PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. The preparation of the recruit psychological examination was undertaken in May, 1919, on receipt of the following letter from The Adjutant General: Beginning May 1. 191Q>xecruiting agencies will accept for enlistment, illiterates and non-English-speaking citizens and aliens. In order that only men with sufficient intelligence to perform the duties of a private soldier may be accepted, it is desired that you prepare without delay a psychological test for applicants of the aforesaid class. This test should be " Esperanto " in character. It should be a simple test ; one that can be applied by most anyone, and one that will determine whether or not an applicant possesses the necessary degree of intelligence to permit him, with proper training and thorough instruction in English, to carry on in the Army. As soon as com- pleted, the test will be sent to this office, attention Operations Branch. A survey of the demands underlying this letter at once indicated that the Section of Psychology had no simple task to perform. Here was a demand for a special method of detecting low-grade appli- cants for enlistment whose ignorance of English makes inapplicable the ordinary methods of estimating intelligence. Speaking a foreign tongue, these applicants cannot communicate directly with the examiner except by means of a sign language. It was necessary, therefore, to adopt a method of examination which would allow the candidate for enlistment opportunity for adequate self-expression and provide the examiner with a dependable measure of the ex- aminee's reactions. Furthermore, the examination should require of the examiner little or no technical ability. It should be prepared for ngftj>{;. rpprnjt.ir>jo; stations to eliminate an inferior class of candidates before they are sent to recruit depots for enlistment after acceptance by profes- sional boards. This requirement at once eliminated the possibility of using the psychological methods which had been previously developed for the Army. These methods had been prepared for the use of experts and specially trained examiners. They also pre- supposed a well-organized staff of specialists in both administra- tive and clinical phases of mental testing. Without the assistance of such a staff, the only available methods * would be quite unwieldy for a recruiting officer. 1 The Navy has reported success in using a short psychological examination. See article entitled " Mental Examinations for Recruits " by Lieut. L. E. Bisch, U. S. Naval Medical Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 2, April, 1919. The examination described in this article requires fair language ability in the recruit, and a rather high degree of technical skill in the examiner. 143754 19 3 4 RECRUIT PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. The difficulty of meeting these requirements was further increased by the fundamental demand that the examination discriminate accu- rately between applicants having inadequate intelligence and those who have the capacity to carry on in the Army. It should reveal not only the men who are so dull that they would be utterly use- less in the Army, but also those who lack sufficient adaptability for activities as various as would be required. It should also aid in-* the exclusion of those applicants whose learning ability is too lim- / ited to attain in a reasonable time (three months 1 ) the ordinary I literacy requirements for enlistment. Thus the demand is for an \ examination, not to furnish an intelligence classification or a scale, I but to provide a simple and workable basis for a "yes" or "no!^ judgment concerning mental fitness for the Army. ' On the basis of these general demands for a preliminary segrega- tional procedure, the following specifications were adopted for guid- ance in the preparation of the recruit psychological examination: (1) It must be an individual examination, because recruit- ing officers deal with applicants individually. (2) It should be usable by anyone who can carry out simple directions. (3) Language requirements should be eliminated. (4) Neither complicated apparatus nor record blanks should be required. (5) An absolute judgment of the correctness of the exami- nee's reactions should be possible. The examination was developed by selecting a number of tests which fulfilled the specifications enumerated. Classification of re- cruits on the basis of intelligence qualifications had been successfully accomplished during The World War chiefly by means of two group and three individual examinations. Group examination Alpha and individual examinations known as the Point Scale examination and the Stanford-Binet examination were used for the classification and segregation of literate recruits arriving at camps in the draft quotas. Group examination Beta and the individual Performance Scale ex- amination were used for illiterates. These examinations provided a large number of tests from which selections could be readily made, but the requirements for the recruit examination were such that important modifications were always necessary. The initial selection of tests was made on the basis of previous experience in the use of psychological methods for rating and clas- sifying men of the draft. Further selections and adaptations were made after trying out the tests in the examination of normal school children 8, 9, and 10 years old. In June, the examination was used on a group of feeble-minded men and boys at Vinelancl, N. J., and 1 Circular No. 382, W. D., Washington, D. C., Aug. 1, 1919, Recruit Educational Centers. Note especially par. 8. KECRUIT PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. 5 the results were compared with ratings of industrial, social, and educational capacity which were furnished by the authorities of the New Jersey Training School. The data obtained at Vineland indi- cated that the selection of tests was especially effective in segregat- ing the men rated low in industrial and social efficiency. A further trial of the examination was made at Camp Upton after a group of illiterates and foreigners had been sent there for instruc- tion and training in the Recruit Educational Center. This group included men of various degrees of literacy and various abilities in the use of English. The commander of a company, together with his noncommissioned officers in charge of the training of recruits, pre- pared military ratings of the recruits according to their promise as soldiers. These ratings were made by means of a scale prepared jointly by the company commander and his noncommissioned officers. The scale consisted of a list of five men with the recruit at the top rated A, because he showed, in their combined judgment, more prom- ise of making a good soldier than any other man in the company. The recruit with least promise of all men in the company was placed at the bottom of the scale with a rating of E. Intermediate steps in the scale were similarly established. The noncommissioned officers then took this scale and rated each of the other men in the company by comparisons with the five men of the scale. All of the work in connection with making the scale and rating the men was carefully done and supervised. Each military rating thus represents a com- posite judgment of the noncommissioned officers concerning the abil- ity of -a recruit in their company to become a good soldier. Since the recruits had been in the educational center only a few weeks, it was impossible for the noncommissioned officers to be abso- lutely sure of a man's potential value as a soldier. The judgment of the noncommissioned officers was obviously affected by the fact that the recruits with previous military training stood out with greater promise than the men with no experience in the Army. The results obtained from this military rating of the recruits were compared with the scores made by the same men in the recruit psychological examination. These comparisons indicated that, with a single exception, the men who showed promise of making good soldiers earned more than 20 points in the psychological examina- tion. The men rated " E," i. e., those who in the judgment of the noncommissioned officers would never make good soldiers, were not able to score more than 17 points at the most. These facts indicated that the examination would fulfill its function of separating the mentally fit from those unfit to perform the duties required of soldiers. On the basis of the data obtained at Vineland and Camp Upton, four tests were selected and adapted for use as the recruit psycholog- 6 RECRUIT PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. ical examination. These tests are known as form board, cube analy- sis, picture completion, and spot pattern. To inform the applicant what is expected of him without the use of language there are four demonstration problems for each test. The demonstration problems are immediately followed by ten test problems and the applicant's reaction to these furnishes a basis for a numerical score. A short de- scription of these tests follows : I. FORM BOARD. The form board is probably best known to the laity as the cut-up puzzle. As used in this series, it is a modification of earlier and similar tests which are well known and widely used. The apparatus used here consists of a sheet of cardboard in which there has been cut a hole 4| inches square. There are also 21 pieces of cardboard of various geometrical forms. The hole may be filled by different com- binations of these pieces which fit together to make a square 4J inches on a side. The examiner demonstrates this test by picking up and indicating a combination of pieces which will fill the square and then solves the problem himself, being'* sure that the applicant watches and under- stands what is going on. He then selects another series of pieces and indicates by gestures that the applicant is to fit them into the square. If the man is unsuccessful after about a minute the examiner dem- onstrates this problem also. This procedure is repeated with two more preliminary problems. The subject is always given a chance to solve the problem himself, but is shown how to do it if he is un- successful. The test problems are presented in exactly the same way as the last three demonstration problems, but no help is given the subject if he fails. Figure 1 shows one of the test problems with the pieces correctly placed in the square. II. CUBE ANALYSIS. This is a modification of test 2 of group examination Beta, the examination given to men of the draft who were deficient in reading and writing English. The apparatus of this test consists of 14 pho- tographic reproductions of rows and piles of cubes as shown in figure 2. In all of the problems, except two of the demonstrations, some of the cubes are hidden from view. Not more than 10 cubes occur in any problem in order that the examinee may indicate the number of cubes by holding up fingers if he does not know the name of the number in English. At the outset, the examiner indicates the first demonstration prob- lem, counts the number of cubes, and shows this number on his RECRUIT PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. fingers. If the subject does not get the idea, further demonstration is made by building a model with actual cubes. In the second dem- onstration problem, the examiner indicates to the subject that he is to count the number of cubes. If he is unsuccessful this problem is also demonstrated by use of the actual cubes in building a model. Two other preliminary problems are given in the same way. The test problems are exactly like those used in the demonstration, but 15 FIG. 1. Form board, problem 5. no help is given in case the applicant's count is incorrect. The ac- tual cubes are never used in the test problems. III. PICTURE COMPLETION. The picture completion test has also been adapted from group ex- amination Beta and is a further modification of the missing parts test which is used in the sixth year of the Stanford-Binet examination. Three of the Stanford-Binet pictures are used together with eleven others, some of which were used in test 6 of group examination Beta RECRUIT PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. and some of which are new. As used in the recruit psychological examination, the test consists of a number of pictures from each of which some essential part is missing. There are, for instance, a watch without one of the hands and a pistol without the trigger. The picture of a hand with one finger missing is used for the first demonstration because the incom- pleteness of the picture is very ap- parent. The examiner directs the attention of the applicant to the picture and points out the missing part. He then presents a second picture for demonstration and in- dicates that this time the man is to show what is missing. In case the man does not succeed in a few seconds he is shown the missing part by the examiner. Two other preliminary problems are presented in the same way. The test problems are presented exactly like the pre- liminary problems except that no help is given if the subject is not success- ful or if he indicates that a wrong part is missing. IV. SPOT PATTERN. This is a simplified form of test 8, group examination Beta. The basis of the ma- terials used in this test is a rectangle, 6 by 4J inches, which is di- vided into twelve 11- inch squares. Differ- ent arrangements of crosses one or none within a square appear in each of 14 of the rectangular patterns. These are called the exposure patterns. There is one similar rec- tangle, without a cross in any square, which is called the blank chart. In conducting the test, an exposure pattern is shown tem- porarily to the subject, the blank chart meanwhile being com- FIG. 2. Cube analysis problems. RECRUIT PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. 9 pletely covered up, and then removed from his view. Simultane- ously with the removal of the exposure pattern the blank chart is uncovered. The problem for the subject is to point out on the blank chart each square which contained a cross in the exposure pattern. In the first demonstration problem, an exposure pattern contain- ing a simple combination of crosses is exposed so that both sub- ject and examiner can see it for about 10 seconds. The exposure pat- tern is then concealed and the examiner points to the spaces in the blank chart where the crosses should be. A second exposure pattern is then presented for 5 seconds, after which the examiner allows the man to indicate the squares of the blank chart in which there should be crosses. If he fails to indicate the right squares the man is shown the exposure pattern again. Two more preliminary problems are presented in the same way. Figure 3 shows the exposure pattern used in one of the problems. The test problems are presented just like the preliminary problems except that a second exposure is never made and help of any kind is never given. Throughout the four tests of this examination the subject is credited with one point for each correct solution of a test problem. The examiner uses any convenient system for keeping count of the correct solutions, but he avoids doing anything that tends to distract the attention of the candidate. Since there are 10 test problems in each of the four tests, the maximum number of points that can be earned in the examination is 40. It is hardly possible to state on the basis of the preliminary data what score a man should make in order to be considered mentally fit for the Army. The number of cases examined in the preliminary trials of the examination are too few to furnish a reliable criterion. All of the recruits a>t Camp Upton whose military ratings indicate that they will sjat5ceed in the Army made scores above 20, which is half the number of possible points. Only one recruit with a score below 20 had a military rating which, indicated that he had a chance of succeeding as a soldier, but this man had received military train- ing prior to his admission to the Recruit Educational Center. Pres- ent data, therefore, indicate that the minimum score for passing the recruit psychological examination should be 20 points. It is probable that this score will admit some applicants to the re- cruit depots for professional examinations who should have been elim- inated at the recruiting office, yet it is deemed preferable to set the minimum score low enough at the outset to make complete profes- sional reports available on a dependable number of the border-line cases. Should the dividing line be placed too high, the professional data on the border-line cases would not become available, since the applicants would never reach the recruit depots. For practical reasons, it has been necessary to put this examination into use before final revision and complete standardization could 10 RECRUIT PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION. be made. Only a few recruits of the type for which the examination is prepared had arrived at the Recruit Educational Center at Camp Upton when the tests were originally selected for trial. This group was too small to furnish dependable data on the basis of which finished tests could be prepared. At the same time, there was imme- x X X X FIG. 3. Exposure pattern for spot pattern test. diate need for the best psychological examination that could be of- fered. Psychologists must follow up the use of this examination, not only to determine precisely the passing score which should be required, but also to refine and revise the tests in the light of accu- mulating data. o UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 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