CHAPTER XI

TRADE TESTS OR TESTS OF SKILL

While the determination of individual skill in the performance of a given operation is not, strictly speaking, a test of intelligence or of mental capacity, it has been established that the most accurate and speedy method of discovering the precise degree of skill possessed by any artisan is closely analogous to the scientific method of mental measurement. It has been found, moreover, that there is quite a close relation between an individual workman’s skill at his trade and the degree of mental capacity disclosed by the Mentimeter or similar scientific tests; the more intelligent the worker, the greater his skill if he has any natural aptitude for his trade.

Many persons view with skepticism the idea that a workman’s degree of skill at his trade can be determined by tests that require but a few minutes. A month, they argue, is little enough for an expert foreman to classify justly the men under him, after observing their skill with his own eyes. When it is proposed that those who apply the tests for any trade need not themselves be skilled in it and may, in fact, know nothing about it, it is no wonder that they doubt the practicality of a method so foreign to previous conceptions and practice.

Psychologists have long realized that the same methods by which mental qualities, abilities, and capacities are determined, analyzed, and measured, could be applied to the measurement of manual dexterity or the combination of manual dexterity, judgment, perception, adaptability, and patience that, taken together, make the skilled workman. For, as the reader who has perused this book thus far will long since have recognized, there is included in the foregoing list of qualities a predominance of those which come quite definitely under the classification of mental abilities or capacities. As has been previously pointed out, it is impossible to separate mental and physical powers, and psychologists do not regard the mind as a separate entity, but merely as a convenient term for the definition of certain of the higher physical powers and their manifestations. And just as a certain type of nervous (physical) organism manifests itself in the development of abilities which we are accustomed to term “intellectual” or “mental,” so the abilities which we call “physical” or “manual” are merely other manifestations of a different type of nervous organism.

The principal distinction, scientifically, between a trade test and an intelligence test, is in the purpose to be served by the test. In the intelligence test the aim is to ascertain the subject’s general _capacity_; in the trade test, to discover his present _ability_ or degree of skill in some special direction. Capacity, as has been previously pointed out, is only to be measured in terms of demonstrable ability, so that in the application of trade tests, although limited in their scope to a single class or kind of ability, there is also obtainable as a by-product a partial measure of the subject’s mental capacity.

While trade tests devised by psychologists had been demonstrated, in a number of industries, to be superior to any other method, both in picking the most skilful workers from among all applicants for positions, and in transferring workers from one department to another in large industries, it was in the classification and placement of the personnel of the Army during the war that the first really large-scale demonstration of the precision and effectiveness of scientifically devised trade tests was made. While one group of psychologists, working under the direction of the Surgeon-General’s Office, was engaged in classifying the Army personnel by means of intelligence tests the Personnel Branch of the Operations Division of the General Staff, organized and officered by trained psychologists, was undertaking the task of determining the special technical and vocational ability of the millions of men drawn into the Army through the medium of the selective draft.

This personnel organization had a multiplex duty to perform. First, it had to ascertain with precision what particular kinds of work had to be done in the preparation of an army for battle and in its transport and maintenance. This involved not only finding out just what needed to be done but translating this need into terms of trades and occupations.

For example, the Army might report that it needed a number of men capable of making all sorts of repairs to electric generators and motors. The Personnel Division proceeded to analyze the special qualifications required of electricians to enable them to meet this demand. These were listed, along with the qualifications required for every other army occupation, in a thick book entitled Trade Specifications Index. There were 239 pages in this book and in it were set forth in specific detail the exact qualifications needed by 565 different kinds of trade and technical experts. Chauffeurs, for instance, were classed as auto drivers, auto drivers with pigeon experience, motorcycle drivers with pigeon experience, plain motorcyclists, heavy auto-truck drivers, motor truck drivers, and plain chauffeurs. There were sixteen different classes of electricians, each of which required a man with special experience and knowledge. Nine different kinds of chemists were used in the Army.

It was a big job, in the first place, to determine exactly how men should be classified. After the classification had been decided upon, it then became necessary to devise simple, rapid, and accurate methods of placing every enlisted man in the Army in his proper classification, and then of so indexing three or four millions of men that any particular demand could be met. For example, one camp might ask for three farriers, nine sanitary engineers, two car carpenters, six boilermakers, and a pipe fitter. It was necessary that some system be perfected to permit of the filling of this order instantly by taking the men qualified to perform these duties out of the camps where they were undergoing military training.

The whole system had as its basis a card for each soldier, on which, by a simple system of marginal numbers, punch holes, and coloured index tags the record of each man’s precise ability was kept. Every man, as he was inducted into the service, was required first to make a preliminary, rough classification of himself—that is to say, he recorded himself as a tailor, a blacksmith, or a milk wagon driver. But the Trade Specifications Index was as precise in its detail as a dictionary. It was, in fact, a collection of definitions of what was meant by occupational titles which had vague or various meanings in different parts of the country. Thus, a man might have classified himself as a tailor who, if called upon to make a uniform, would have been unable to do so. Tailoring had to be subdivided, from simple pressing and repairing up to expert fitting. One might be a good coat maker while another had never worked on anything but trousers.

So there was devised a system of trade and occupational tests to which every man claiming skill at a trade was subjected, and which determined, as nearly as it is humanly possible to do, exactly the degree and kind of vocational skill possessed by every man in the Army.

When the problem of formulating tests was analyzed, it was seen that certain requirements were fundamental. Trade tests to be absolutely satisfactory,

1. Must differentiate between the various grades of skill;

2. Must produce uniform results in various places and in the hands of individuals of widely different characteristics;

3. Must consume the least amount of time and energy consistent with the best results.

Now it must be recognized that trades useful in the Army are of many kinds and of widely differing requirements. Trade ability in any one of them, however, means about the same thing. It means that the workman is not simply the possessor of a single item of information, nor simply able to execute one particular movement required by the trade, but that he has many items of information more or less systematized together with the ability to execute various movements not only singly but in combinations.

While there are all degrees of trade ability among the members of any trade, it is convenient to classify them in a few main groups. Ordinarily the terms Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, and Journeyman Expert (or Expert) are employed. The Novice is a man who has no trade ability whatever, or at least none that could not be paralleled by practically any intelligent man. The Apprentice has acquired some of the elements of the trade but is not sufficiently skilled to be entrusted with an important task. The Journeyman is qualified to perform almost any work done by members of the trade. The Expert can perform quickly and with superior skill any work done by men in the trade.

It is sometimes desirable that the Trade test should differentiate between the skill of different members of the same group, for instance, of the journeyman group. It is essential that it should differentiate between the journeyman and the apprentice and the apprentice and the novice. Trade tests devised to make this classification are of three kinds: oral, picture, and performance.

The oral tests are most generally used because they are of low cost and they may be applied to a large number of men in a comparatively short time and without much equipment. They are satisfactory in determining the presence or absence of trade ability and in many instances determine the degree of ability with such accuracy that no other tests are required.

As a preliminary to the preparation of a trade test, there is required a thorough inquiry into the conditions of the trade. This inquiry has a threefold purpose:

1. To determine the feasibility of a test in this field. Does the trade actually exist as a recognized trade? It was found, for example, that the trade of gunsmith was not a recognized trade, though there were gun repairers.

2. To determine the elements which require and permit of testing. In other words, can men be graded in it according to degrees of skill? In some trades it was found that the trade required simply the performance of a single set of operations and there were no gradations among the members of the trade.

3. To determine the kinds of tests that can be used. Some trades, such as truck driving and typewriting, are mainly matters of skill, and for them performance tests are better than oral tests. Other trades, such as interior wiring and power-plant operation, are mainly matters of knowledge. For these trades oral and picture tests are best.

After having discovered by inquiry that the trade is a recognized trade and can be tested, information is collected from all available sources. In the Army’s preparation of trade tests experts in the trade, trade union officials, the literature of the trade, trade school authorities, employers, and the like were consulted. In this way it was discovered what are the elements of the trade and what constitutes proficiency in it.

As a result of this collection of information it was possible to compile a number of questions, usually from forty to sixty, each of which called for an answer that showed knowledge of the trade. Experience in the formulation of such questions has shown that a good question meets the following requirements:

1. It must be in the language of the trade.

2. It must be a unit, complete in itself and requiring no further explanation.

3. It must not be a chance question that could be answered by a good guess. The extreme example would be a question calling for the answer “yes” or “no.”

4. It must be as short as possible and must be capable of being answered by a very short answer.

5. It must not be ambiguous; the meaning must be unmistakable.

After the large number of questions originally formulated has been sifted down by application of the requirements stated above and others of less importance they are used in a preliminary sampling on a number of artisans engaged in the trade, usually from nine to twelve, whose answers indicate the merits of the different questions and their grades, from easy to difficult. In this sampling, tradesmen from different shops or plants are tried in order to guard against specialized methods or modes of expression confined to a single locality. At least two examiners worked on each set of questions at this stage, in the Army’s work, to get the benefit of more than one point of view for revision.

This preliminary sampling affords a means of checking on the following points:

1. Is the test applicable to trade conditions?

2. Does the test represent good trade practice?

3. In what way can parts be profitably modified, supplemented, or eliminated?

4. Does the test represent the whole range of the trade, from the novice to the expert?

5. Is it a representative sampling of the whole range of trade processes?

In the light of the answers to these questions, the test is revised during this sampling process and is then ready to be formulated. This formulation consists of limiting the questions to a small enough number to be handled in a short space of time and to a wide enough range to represent every possible degree of trade skill. The questions are tabulated and are then ready to be used in the final sampling process.

Final sampling is made by testing twenty men who are known to be typical representatives of each group (novice, apprentice, journeyman, expert). Among the novices tested are some highly intelligent and mature men of good general knowledge but no trade ability. Three testing stations were used in the Army’s work: one in Cleveland, one in Newark, and one in Pittsburgh, in order to get the benefit of wide geographical distribution. Examinations were given to men whose record in the trade was already known and who were tested as nearly as possible in the same manner as men in the camps.

The results of this final sampling are turned over to experts who make a careful study of the results and of the answers to each question. This enables them to determine the relative value of each individual question and the selection that makes a proper balance.

If a trade test is good, a known expert, when tested, is able to answer all, or nearly all, the questions correctly; a journeyman is able to answer the majority; an apprentice a smaller part, and a novice practically none. This does not mean that each question should be answered correctly by all the experts, a majority of the journeymen, some apprentices but no novices. There are a few questions which show this general result. A graphic curve when plotted for such a question is almost a straight line.

Other types of questions, however, are more common. Some show a distinct line of cleavage between the novice and the apprentice. Novices fail, but apprentices, journeymen, and experts alike answer correctly. There are likewise questions that are answered correctly by nearly all journeymen and experts but only a few apprentices, and questions that only an expert can answer correctly.

Each type of question has its value in a good test. The main requirement is that the tendency of the curve should be upward; a question which is answered correctly by more journeymen than experts or more apprentices than journeymen is undesirable and is at once discarded. A proper balance is made of the others.

One task still remains; namely, that of calibrating the test. As each question is allowed four points, it becomes necessary to determine how many points should indicate an expert, how many a journeyman, etc. Obviously the way to do this is to note how many points were scored by the known experts and the known journeymen when they were tested. Ordinarily the expert scores higher than the journeyman and the journeyman higher than the apprentice. It frequently happens that a few journeymen score as high as the lowest of the experts and a few apprentices as high as the lowest of the journeymen. There are consequently certain overlappings between the classes. In calibrating, the object is to draw the dividing line between classes so that the overlapping shall be as small as possible.

When these dividing lines, or _critical scores_ as they are usually called, are established, the test is ready for editing, printing, and distribution to camps.

Picture tests are made in practically the same way as oral tests. The peculiar characteristic of picture tests is that the questions making up the tests relate to illustrations of trade tools and appliances.

The performance tests are now being used in many trades for those who make a satisfactory showing in the oral or picture tests. These performance tests are devised by conference with experts in the trade. They consist of some apparently simple tasks that can be performed quickly and with a small amount of apparatus but that nevertheless indicate clearly the degree of skill of the performer. As a result of experience the following have been drawn up as the requirements for a good performance test:

1. It should require the smallest possible quantity of tools and materials and these should be capable of standardization;

2. A journeyman should not require more than 45 minutes to perform it;

3. It should be typical of the work required;

4. The operations should be exact so that a correct standard form of product is always obtainable. Performance tests undergo much the same processes of sampling as do the oral and picture tests and they are calibrated in the same way. The principle followed here, as elsewhere, is that the value of a test lies not in its theoretical exactness but in its proved ability to pick out and classify correctly men of all degrees of skill within the trade. If the test does classify men in the groups in which they are known to belong, then it can be relied upon to classify correctly men about whom nothing is known in advance.

The method which the Army pursued is adaptable for any private enterprise. The work done under the direction of the Army General Staff in analyzing the essentials of nearly seven hundred trades and subdivisions of trades and in preparing tests for a large proportion of these was pioneer work, the results of which, in the shape of the tests themselves, while not issued for general distribution, are available as a time-saving guide to those who are interested in the building and application of trade tests.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A INTELLIGENCE RATINGS IN THE ARMY

Reprinted from The Personnel Manual

(Vol. II of The Personnel System of the United States Army)

_Purpose of the Intelligence Tests._—Under the direction of the Division of Psychology, Medical Department, and in accordance with provisions of General Order No. 74, mental tests are given all recruits during the two-weeks detention period. These tests provide an immediate and reasonably dependable classification of the men according to _general intelligence_. Their specific purposes are to aid:—

(1) In the discovery of men whose superior intelligence suggests their consideration for advancement;

(2) In the prompt selection and assignment to Development Battalions of men who are so inferior mentally that they are suited only for selected assignments;

(3) In forming organizations of uniform mental strength where such uniformity is desired;

(4) In forming organizations of superior mental strength where such superiority is demanded by the nature of the work to be performed;

(5) In selecting suitable men for various army duties or for special training in colleges or technical schools;

(6) In the early formation of training groups within a company in order that each man may receive instruction and drill according to his ability to profit thereby;

(7) In the early recognition of slow-thinking minds which might otherwise be mistaken for stubborn or disobedient characters;

(8) In eliminating from the army those men whose low-grade intelligence renders them either a burden or a menace to the service.

_Nature of the Tests._—The tests were prepared by a special committee of the American Psychological Association. Before being ordered into general use they were thoroughly tried out in four National Army Cantonments, and from time to time have undergone revision to increase their practical usefulness. Between May 1 and October 1, 1918, approximately one million three hundred thousand men were tested.

Three systems of test are now in use:—

(1) _Alpha._ This is a group test for men who read and write English. It requires only fifty minutes, and can be given to groups as large as 500. The test material is so arranged that each of its 212 questions may be answered without writing, merely by underlining, crossing out, or checking. The papers are later scored by means of stencils, so that nothing is left to the personal judgment of those who do the scoring. The mental rating which results is therefore wholly objective.

(2) _Beta._ This is a group test for foreigners and illiterates. It may be given to groups of from 75 to 300 and requires approximately fifty minutes. Success in Beta does not depend upon knowledge of English, as the instructions are given entirely by pantomime and demonstration. Like Alpha, it measures general intelligence, but does so through the use of concrete or picture material instead of by the use of printed language. It is also scored by stencils and yields an objective rating.

(3) _Individual Tests._ Three forms of individual tests are used: The Yerkes-Bridges Point Scale, the Stanford-Binet Scale, and the Performance Scale. An individual test requires from fifteen to thirty minutes. The instructions for the Performance Scale are given by means of gestures and demonstration, and a high score may be earned in it by an intelligent recruit who does not know a word of English.

All enlisted men are given either Alpha or Beta according to their degree of literacy. Those who fail in Alpha are given Beta, and those who fail to pass Test Beta are given an individual test.

As a result of the tests, each man is rated as A, B, C+, C, C−, D, D− or E. The letter ratings are reported to the Interviewing Section of the Personnel Office, and are there copied on the Qualification Cards (in the square marked Intelligence). The Psychological Report, after the grades have been copied on the Qualification Cards, is forwarded from the Interviewing Section to the Mustering Section of the Personnel Office, where each soldier’s letter rating is copied on the second page of his Service Record. A copy of the Psychological Report is also sent by the Psychological Examiner to the Company Commander, who uses it in the organization of his company. In some camps the entering of Intelligence Grades on Service Records has been left to company commanders, but accuracy and uniformity is secured by having these grades entered in the Mustering Section of the Personnel Office when the Service Records are being started.

The psychological staff in a camp is ordinarily able to test 2,000 men per day and to report the ratings to the Personnel Office within 24 hours. Personnel Adjutants will coöperate in arranging the schedule of psychological examinations so as to secure from them maximum value (See