The Army Beta 1917 is the non-verbal complement of the Army Alpha—a group-administered test developed by Robert Yerkes and six other committee members to evaluate some 1.5 million military recruits in the United States during World War I.
[2] This test assessed the ability of army recruits to trace the path of a maze.
To conduct the test, the administrator has a demonstrator trace a maze in front of the recruits slowly with a crayon.
While they take the test, the demonstrator attempts to rush the army recruits, and after two minutes, tells them to stop.
To administer this, the administrator points to a three-cube model on the blackboard and has the army recruits count how many cubes there are.
If recruits give the wrong response, the administrator points to the two numbers again, and tells them the right answer.
To administer this test, the administrator shows the demonstrator a picture of a hand with a missing finger and says, "Fix it."
An E grade recommended the subject for rejection, discharge, development battalion, or service organization.
All men deemed satisfactory for regular military duty were graded D− or higher.
[2] The table below lists several intelligence letter grades the Army used, with their score-equivalents and appropriate definitions.
[3] After the war, Yerkes wrote Psychological Examining in the United States army, which was published in 1921.
[4] In the 1920s, columnist Walter Lippman was a prominent critic of intelligence tests, including the Army Alpha and Army Beta, arguing that they were insufficient for testing the real diversity of human intelligence.
Lippman also raised the issue of whether intelligence was gained through nature or life experiences.