Army Alpha

The Army Alpha is a group-administered test developed by Robert Yerkes and six others in order to evaluate the many U.S. military recruits during World War I.

Scores on the Army Alpha were used to determine a soldier's capability of serving, his job classification, and his potential for a leadership position.

[1] The important purpose of these supplementary tests was, of course, to give to those handicapped by language difficulties a real opportunity to show their ability.

In addition, two definite aims were planned in the use of all forms of testing: first, to point out the feeble-minded and those incapable of military service because of mental deficiency; and second, to find those of unusual or special ability.

If no score had meant low mentality, the first task would have been solved; but it had been shown that literacy was an important factor in the alpha test.

C. R. Atwell did a small study on the relationship of scores and errors based on the results of administration of the "Army Alpha".

Nearly 30 percent of the 1,556,011 men for whom statistics are available were found to be unable to "read and understand newspapers and write letters home", and were given a special examination prepared for illiterates, the Army Beta.

[1] The methods originally prepared for use in the Army were subjected to repeated revisions, in the light of results, for increase in reliability and military value.

Each test of examination alpha consisted of a number of parts arranged in order of difficulty low to high.

[4] Men who fail in the alpha were sent to the Army Beta in order that injustice by reason of relative unfamiliarity with English may be avoided.

Men who fail in Army Beta are referred for individual examination by means of what may appear to be the most suitable and altogether appropriate procedure among the varied methods available.

They tested arithmetic, "common sense", vocabulary, word order, number patterns, analogies, and sentence completion.

The several intelligence letter grades used in the Army, with their score-equivalents and appropriate definitions are presented here: The majority of "D−" and "E" men are below ten years in "mental age".

As World War I began to unfold, some men realized that the proper use of manpower, and more particularly of mind or brain power, would assure ultimate victory.

The "Army Alpha" was created by a group of psychologists that consisted of: Robert Yerkes, W. V. Bingham, Henry H. Goddard, T. H. Haines, Lewis Terman, Guy Montrose Whipple, F. L. Wells.

Another month was spent thoroughly testing the methods in military stations so that their value might be definitely established before they should be recommended to the Medical Department of the Army.

The results were gratifying and the methods were therefore recommended to the Surgeon General of the Army in August 1917, and promptly accepted for official trial.

Also, the committee hoped to be able to pick out exceptional types of men who could be used for special tasks that demanded a high degree of intelligence.

Robert Yerkes and his members asked the question, "How should the results of widely distributed testing of this sort be interpreted?"

As a result of these different forms of pilot tests, Robert Yerkes and the other members found decided that, "in this connection it may be emphasized again that the group examination used in the Army was interpreted entirely in terms of military need".

The test should serve as a profitable research device or as a preferred substitute for the earlier Alphas when given in the original manner.

The tentative norms are based almost entirely on school and college groups, a fact evidently to be taken into consideration if the subjects to be tested are not students."

The occupational norms were tentatively for Civilian Conservation Corps camps, job applicants to GE, police officers, student nurses, and public school teachers.

[9] "The mimeographed manual gives no data on reliability, which perhaps would be high, nor on validity, which would probably also be fairly good for the measurement of abstract intelligence or scholaptitude.

[1] Another problem that arose during its creation and administration, was that psychologist examiners had a difficult time basing a soldier's future with the Army solely on a test.

Data which have become available during the past year settle this question definitely by indicating a relatively high correlation between officers's judgments of military value and the intelligence ratings".