Object Details
maker
United States Army. Medical Department. Division of Psychology
Description
During World War I, the U.S. Army needed to sort out the thousands of recruits arriving at training camps. Psychologists claimed that their young science offered an objective, efficient way to classify men, weeding out the mentally unfit. Intelligence tests available at the time had been designed for children, given individually, and in many cases were unstandardized. No one knew precisely what they measured or how these measurements related to military performance. Nonetheless, over 1,700,000 American soldiers took intelligence tests during the war.
Group Examination Alpha was for men who could read English. It tested the ability to follow oral directions, arithmetic, vocabulary, pattern recognition, general information, and “common sense.”
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1918
ID Number
1990.0334.01
catalog number
1990.0334.01
accession number
1990.0334
Object Name
psychological test
Physical Description
paper (overall material)
Measurements
overall: .1 cm x 21.3 cm x 28 cm; 1/32 in x 8 3/8 in x 11 1/32 in
place made
United States: District of Columbia, Washington
owner, prior
United States: Pennsylvania, Lower Merion Township, Bryn Mawr
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Health & Medicine
Military
Science & Mathematics
Modern Medicine and the Great War
Data Source
National Museum of American History
related event
World War I
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1213725