Six weeks at the Training School
The committee met at The Training School in Vineland, New Jersey, which offered rooms and up to $700 for expenses. Its members were Bingham, Goddard, Haines, Terman, Wells, Whipple and Yerkes. When it adjourned on 7 July, it had in press five forms of the group examination, the individual record blank and an examiners' guide [1].
Camp Lee, November 1917: sort the papers
An Army inspector set down the procedure at Camp Lee. Men who couldn't fill in the heading of the group form went straight to the mechanical skill test. During a recess, examiners picked out men showing "evident nervous or mental disturbance" and sent them to the neurologist. After scoring, anyone under 80 points out of 414 was rated E and called back for an individual examination [1]. Send each recruit where the procedure sent him.
Three instruments, and a performance scale of ten
The report's photographs show individual examination with the Stanford-Binet and with the performance scale [1]. The performance scale was meant for men who had failed both Alpha and Beta, and several of its ten tests came from earlier batteries [8]. Select an instrument.
How rare the individual examination was
The report's camp-by-camp account for autumn 1917 gives running totals. Each camp counted differently, so the figures are shown as reported, without being combined.
Frederic Lyman Wells
Wells was a hospital psychologist when he was called to Vineland. He was one of the group who pioneered clinical psychology in hospital settings [5], and he had already worked with tests: the Woodworth and Wells cancellation sheet is the one Otis built his 1918 Following Directions test on [9].
His 1917 book Mental Adjustments appeared the year of the committee [4]. Open Library also lists a Mental Examiners' Handbook among his works [7]; we haven't confirmed its date or edition.
References
- [1]Yerkes, R. M. (Ed.). (1921). Psychological examining in the United States Army. Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 15. Washington: Government Printing Office. Internet Archive (University of Toronto copy).archive.org
- [2]Boake, C. (2002). From the Binet–Simon to the Wechsler–Bellevue: tracing the history of intelligence testing. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 24(3). Academia.edu copy.academia.edu
- [3]Boake (2002), Table 2: Performance scales that preceded the Wechsler–Bellevue scale. Yumpu copy.yumpu.com
- [4]Wells, Frederic Lyman. The Encyclopedia Americana (1920). Wikisource.en.wikisource.org
- [5]Wells, Frederic Lyman. Encyclopedia of the History of Psychological Theories. Springer.link.springer.com
- [6]Frederic Lyman Wells (1884–1964). American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member record.amacad.org
- [7]Frederic Lyman Wells: works. Open Library.openlibrary.org
- [8]Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales: overview (History of Neurology: Intelligence Tests). ScienceDirect Topics.sciencedirect.com
- [9]Otis, A. S. (1918). An absolute point scale for the group measurement of intelligence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 9(5–6). Internet Archive.archive.org
Related historical tests
Alpha was the group test every literate recruit took first. A score under 80 of 414 at Camp Lee is what sent a man on to the individual examination.
Beta replaced words with demonstration and pictures for men who couldn't read English. The performance scale was meant for those who failed both Alpha and Beta.
The Army's official report, which reproduces the individual-examination materials and the Vineland history. Almost every figure on this page comes from it.
The Ship, Manikin, Feature Profile and picture-completion tests appear in Pintner and Paterson's 1917 series. The Army scale took them almost directly into camp.
Knox devised his cube-tapping task to test immigrants without language. It reappears in the Army Performance Scale for the same reason.
Wechsler built his performance half largely from these WWI batteries. Boake says the Army Digit Symbol test was simply duplicated in it.