Army Alpha/Army Beta

The United States entered World War I late in the conflict and faced the problem of turning large numbers of often poorly educated draftees into an effective army in a short period of time. The American Psychological Association volunteered its services to the war effort, and a committee, headed by Robert Yerkes and including psychologists such as Arthur Otis and Lewis Terman, was assigned the task of developing a practical method of measuring the intellectual level of individuals in large groups. Their efforts led to the development of two tests, Army Alpha and Army Beta. Army Alpha was a written test that could be administered to large groups of recruits and that provided a rough measure of general intelligence. Army Beta, a nonverbal test designed ...