Testing the intellect in the US Army during the First World War
Keywords:
military psychology, intelligence tests, “Army Alpha”, “Group examination A”Abstract
The paper presents a detailed analysis of the organization and conduct of program intelligence testing in the United States Army during the First World War. This program represents the most vivid example of the “symbiotic interaction” between the military and psychologists and has undeniable importance for the formation of the military branches of psychology as applied psychological science. Exactly in this period, the US military psychologists first satisfied the most important state order - mass professional psychological selection in the interests of the armed forces and laid the foundation for the use of psychological knowledge to solve military tasks. Performed analysis allows to estimate all scale formation and variation of methods and tasks that were used and handled within the program of intelligence testing, to assess the contribution of each individual researcher and a set of knowledge offered by him. In addition, the analysis provides the opportunity to learn the way of development, practical testing, and statistical verification (standardization), one of the most important psychodiagnostic methods in the history of psychology - scale “Army Alpha”. This technique has become the prototype of the modern intelligence tests, and many positions remained unsurpassed today.
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