CHAPTER II

THE APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS

The intelligent reader has by this time begun to see for himself some of the possibilities opened up by the use of scientific mental tests, and to perceive their applicability in a wide diversity of fields. In later chapters specific examples of such applications are given in detail, and suggestions offered for still other uses of the tests which are contained in this book.

The usefulness of all mental tests, whether those which are offered in this volume under the general title of “The Mentimeter,” or others that may be set up with equal scientific precision, depends upon, or at least is greatly enhanced by, the most complete understanding of the underlying principles on the part of the person who undertakes to apply them. The purpose of this and the next three succeeding chapters is to make these principles so plain that by the time the reader has reached the tests themselves he will have a perfectly clear understanding, not only of _what_ the Mentimeter tests are but of _why_ they have been put into the form in which he finds them, and of _how_ their use will enable him to gauge human intelligence and capacity with a greater degree of accuracy than he has found possible by other means. If, perchance, psychologists find in this volume much that is to them elementary, it should be kept in mind that it is only through the widest possible spread of sound understanding of psychological principles that the wider application of them in the ordinary walks of life can be brought about. That, the authors take it, is the great end toward which scientific psychologists are aiming, and that is the aim of this book.

The general purpose of psychological tests is to determine how individuals compare with one another in mental capacity, or with standards based upon the capacities of individuals known to possess certain qualities. Thus, it may be desirable, as it frequently is, to determine the relative abilities of the individuals of a certain group, like a school or college class, clerks employed in a similar form of work, a number of applicants for a certain position for which only the most capable among the candidates is desired, or the soldiers of a particular company or regiment. What is required here is a method of grading these individuals with reference to one another, by means of tests which need not necessarily have any relation to any external standard of mental perfection.

The process here is as if one were to be told to pick out of all the automobiles in a garage the best one, the next best, and so on, classifying these particular cars and no others _with relation to one another_ and not with respect to any standards of automobile perfection introduced from outside. None of the cars might be perfect; perhaps the best one of the lot has leaky piston-rings and none of them will climb a 10 per cent. grade on high gear. It is a comparatively easy matter, however, to devise a few simple tests that will grade a dozen or fifty automobiles in regard to their relative ability to climb hills, carry loads, and perform the other services expected of an automobile. The one that will climb hills the best may not also be the one that will carry the heaviest load or travel the most miles on a gallon of gasolene, but out of such a series of group tests any one interested can readily determine which of all the automobiles in the group is the best general purpose car, which the poorest, and about where the others grade with reference to these two extremes.

That is about the process that a man engaged in the automobile trucking business would use in determining which one of the cars he has available is best adapted for a particular piece of hauling that is to be done. He wants to know which of his cars he can rely upon for any one of many different sorts of service, but he particularly wants to know all the time which of them are worth spending money on for repairs and improvements and general overhauling and which are either so poorly constructed in the first place or so hopelessly out of repair that it is cheaper to scrap them than to spend any more money on trying to make them fit for service.

_In other words, the automobile owner needs to know which of his cars, however poor its present ability, has such inherent qualities as to justify the belief that it can be made more efficient by proper attention and reasonable expenditure of money._

Now, that is precisely what the employer of workers, the commander of soldiers, the teacher of a class or any one else charged with responsibility for the performance of any sort of tasks by any group of human beings, wants to know about the individuals under his direction. He should know or be able to determine readily not alone what each of the individuals can actually do and which ones can do particular tasks better than the others, but it is important for him to know the relative _capacities_ of the entire group, so that he can determine, as in the case of the automobiles which have been used as an illustration, which of them are most worth spending time and effort upon in the expectation that they will learn to do even more difficult tasks, and which of them are so hopelessly incapable that nothing is to be expected of them except the simplest routine performances.

Now, the man who operates a fleet of automobile trucks does not stop when he has made a comparison of the vehicles in his garage with one another, but is constantly comparing the performance of each with standards established by other cars, machines of different makes, and with new machines. There exists, and he is constantly conscious of its existence, an ideal standard of performance for automobiles to which his cars must conform as nearly as possible if their service is to be satisfactory.

So, in measuring human capacity, it is not enough to compare the individuals of a group with one another, though this is essential and for some purposes temporarily sufficient; there are available standards based upon the actual achievements of individuals of known capacity by which the mental powers of any and all individuals may be gauged. It will readily be seen that the employer of a number of persons—engaged, let us say, in some specific mechanical or clerical operation—needs to know not only whether some of these are capable of being trained to do better work and some so incapable of further training that it would be cheaper to discharge them and fill their places with more intelligent persons, but also to know how any particular group of employees compares in average intelligence and how each one of the group compares in individual intelligence with the average or higher-than-average capacity of those outside of his own particular business establishment who are engaged in similar work.

This is a matter of dollars and cents to the employer. If he can obtain a standard that is universal or nearly so, that tells him, in fact, what all of the employers in his line of business have found to be the average or the limits of mental capacity possessed by workers of a particular class, then he is in a position to determine whether he is getting equally good service for the wages which he pays as is obtained by other employers requiring similar service.

To illustrate concretely: in an office employing twenty stenographers on correspondence, it is not only necessary for the employer to know which of these stenographers is the most competent and which the least and whether the less competent are incapable merely because they are beginners or because they lack the necessary mental capacity ever to become competent. He should also be able to measure the mental capacity of the entire group by some standard based upon the performance of thousands and tens of thousands of stenographers of known degrees of ability. He may discover that the most competent of his entire staff is only as capable as the average of good stenographers everywhere. Obviously, his business is handicapped by having a stenographic force which is inferior in capacity and, consequently, in accuracy, speed, and other essential requirements, to the average of stenographic office staffs in business generally. Once this has been determined, the intelligent employer will proceed to replace the stenographers who are incapable of improvement, as indicated by the tests applied, with stenographers who respond to the standard tests with a score well above the average.

So, too, with the teacher. It is comparatively easy for the teacher to classify his or her pupils into bright, stupid, and mediocre, through observation alone. What is more important, however, is to determine several things about each pupil which observation alone does not tell. Are the stupid ones really stupid or merely inattentive? Have they the necessary mental capacity to perform the assigned work of the class or are they simply lazy? Few teachers can answer this question; none with any degree of accuracy without the application of scientific tests of mental capacity. Are the bright children really bright by comparison with other children of the same age and school grade or do they merely shine by contrast with the dull members of the class? This question can by no means be answered accurately except by the application of mental capacity tests. In another chapter some of the concrete applications of mental tests in education are described at length. The point to be emphasized here is that the measurement of the mental capacities of any group should be based upon standards that will not only determine the relative capacities of the members of the group but will, at the same time, compare them all with standards that reflect the known average and maximum capacities of all others of similar age and environment.

The purpose of these tests might be summed up somewhat as follows:

_To measure, by comparison with the group average or with very carefully determined standards, some of the infinite number of qualities and abilities, the possession of which by the individual renders him more or less susceptible to education and training or more or less capable of successfully performing certain actions requiring conscious direction from the mind._

It requires no special argument to point out how a general application of tests that disclose actual mental capacities might profoundly affect our judgment of men of all classes and walks of life. Were it possible to ticket and catalogue the whole human race in accordance with the capacity of each individual as disclosed under properly devised psychological tests, we would no longer permit the superficial absence of polish and taste to blind us to the inherent powers and capacities of the self-made man, nor, on the other hand, would we be so ready to assume that the well-dressed, fluent talker, no matter how prepossessing in appearance and manner, was necessarily able and worthy of confidence. Likewise, once such a classification became universal, it is conceivable that many business men and others who are prone to criticize the universities and their products would be more tolerant of the recent graduate, whose mental capacity is in no wise reflected by the particular variety of contents with which his mind has been filled in college.

Besides the application of scientific mental tests as already indicated, in business and industry and in education, by the employer or the teacher, there is another and important use to which standardized tests, based upon determined capacities of groups and individuals of known ability, may be put. This is the use of such tests by the individual upon himself for the purpose of determining his own mental capacity in a particular direction or of a particular kind as compared with the mental capacity of others. The man or woman bent on self-improvement or advancement may thus, within certain limits, assess by the application of standardized tests his or her own mental quality and capacity.

Again it is unnecessary to point out the advantage to the young man or young woman endeavouring to decide upon a career or to determine what particular course of study to pursue or line of business to enter, in being enabled to obtain an accurate gauge of his or her own qualities, powers, and limitations. Taste and inclination are no safe guides to life unless there is coupled with them inherent capacity for the competent exercise of the faculties which make the gratification of one’s individual tastes and inclinations possible. Thus it may be that the individual’s inclinations and tastes run strongly toward music, toward art in any of its various forms, but that physical and mental inhibitions, the presence or absence of which may be readily determined, make it impossible for the possessor of such tastes to hope to be able to perform creditably the acts which a successful artist or musician must perform.

Properly devised and applied psychological tests may conceivably disclose the existence of mental powers and capacities unsuspected or neglected because overshadowed by strong inclinations in other directions; early knowledge of the possession of such capacities may easily direct their possessors into fields in which they can thrive and prosper and achieve far greater happiness and contentment than would ever be possible through a lifetime of striving to do that for which they are not fitted by inheritance.