Intelligence Testing During World War I
The president of the American Psychological Association (APA), Robert Yerkes, during
World War I convinced the U.S. Army to use intelligence testing to match recruits with the right military job due to the need to categorize rapidly the millions of men drafted into the army. Hence, two distinct intelligence tests, as developed by Yerkes with other psychologists, were given to the draftees; Army Alpha tests for those able to read English and Army Beta tests for those illiterate in English. Subsequently, the numerical scores of the Alpha and Beta tests were translated to letters grades ranging from A to E. The A group included the high officer type, while the B group included men of less superior
abilities qualifying as sergeants, and the C and D group rank lower as privates and soldiers, and the E group’s fate most likely ended in discharge from the army due to mental inferiority. The tests were based on the premises of Yerke’s “hereditarianism” view basing intelligence as innate and solely determined by parental genes. Yerke’s testing is in contrary to his forerunner, Alfred Binet, an “environmentalist,” basing intelligence on a person’s life experiences and education along with genetic inheritance, which incidentally has been adapted into the current American culture. The results of the intelligence test indicated only 12% of the draftees scoring in the A or B range, and the rest of the test takers scoring at an average mental age of 13 years. More specifically, the high ranking officers were white and educated while the lower ranking D and E groups were Southern blacks or foreign-born whites. In brevity, Yerkes defended the tests as legitimate Cherry 2 stating low innate intelligence causes poverty to perpetuate unfavorable life circumstances. In the end, army officials often ignored the testers’ recommendations when assigning soldiers to jobs. Officials used independent judgment to assign a rank to the recruits, not the intelligence tests. However, the public felt alerted that the U.S. has a serious educational problem, and determined intelligence testing as a useful tool in evaluating learning deficiencies in youngsters. The most valuable results from the Alpha and Beta tests administration is the knowledge of the errors and flaws of intelligence tests.
Espionage was vital in the war effort of both the allied and axis powers during World War II. Espionage can take many different forms. Deception, leaking of false information, coding and encryption of information, sabotage, and sending spies in to gather intelligence are all were all used during the war and were all effective. Many of the turning points for the allied forces occurred due to various forms of espionage and deception. Depending on which side of the fence you're sitting on, espionage was either a blessing or a curse.
It shows that the Americans weren't too bothered. about the IQ scores of their recruits they just wanted as many soldiers as they could get instead of focusing on the quality of soldiers. They went for quantity. The source mentions the one. year tour of duty, which after analysing other sources, I know that this scheme was taking place.
Lewis Terman created the IQ tests that many schools used to test student’s intellect capacity. This test caused many students to only be taught how to work in factories rather than learning material that could get them into better careers.
Before answering the questions let find out what intelligence test is. It is a test consisting of a series of tasks requiring people to use various verbal and non verbal skills to measure the individual’s intellectual ability. Now that we know what an intelligence test is we can now answer the question better. Three important short comings of intelligence test that have nothing to do with intelligence are: having low motivation or high anxiety which can greatly influence the performance on the test, also IQ test may contain cultural biases in their language and or tasks that may place people of one background above people of another back ground, and members of minority groups may have little experience with this kind of test or may be uncomfortable with examiners of a different ethnic back ground than them (Comer, 2013, pp.107).
Introduction This essay will critically discuss the role that propaganda had in shaping public opinion on both sides of the conflict during the First World War. The essay will begin by defining propaganda and discussing the many forms propaganda could take in a civilian population’s day to day life. It will then look at how the countries which made up the Entente used propaganda to unite their citizens against a common enemy, being the Alliance. The essay will then look at the other side i.e. how the Alliance used propaganda to villianise the Entente. In addition it will discuss which side was more successful in utilising propaganda.
General intelligence tends to relate to various degrees with each other (Cohen 2012). An example of this is that if an individual is good in math, they may also be good in spelling. In this weeks reading we reviewed several different models of measurement of intelligence. In regard to these theories and general intelligence (g), the theories are various but have commonality and overlap. The Spearman's two-factor theory is if a test has high correlation with other test than the measurement of g is highly saturated (Cohen, 2012). The greater the importance of g on a test, the better the test is believed to predict intelligence
the Germans, but in the end they had a lot of soldiers at the front
Similar to Sternberg, Binet came to the conclusion that intelligence is the sum of mental processes (Flangan, Harrison, 2005). He developed the first intelligence test in order to categorize how much children benefitted from school education. The Binet-Simon scale, keeping in mind that Binet believed in intelligence consisting of different components, thus included language component, auditory processing, learning and memory, as well as judgement and problem solving (Kamin, 1974). The results were supposed to identify the student’s mental age. Lewis Terman introduced the Binet-Simon test to America and adapted it to sort army recruits in World War I (Comer et al., 2013). The Stanford-Binet test, developed by Terman in 1916, aimed to be an improved version that was able to measure mental age more appropriately (Kamin, 1974). He was convinced that intelligence is the ability to form concepts and to think abstract (Comer et al., 2013). The Stanford-Binet test has been described by Maud Minton to be superior to other intelligence tests of that time because it was very precise, it had detailed guidelines, it measured the IQ which became the standard marking system (Flangan, Harrison,
During World War II, Jews in concentration camps were always experimented on, for torture or research. Many Jews and prisoners have faced many horrific experiences during World War II. Either by being separated from relatives, beaten or killed in concentration camps, or being experimented on. So now here’s a list of worst Nazi experiments.
Traditional theories of intelligence do not account for the ambiguity of classes such as philosophy or for the wide range of interests a child can have. For example, contemporary theories such as Sternberg’s Theory of Intelligence and Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences both account for more than the general intelligence accounted for in traditional intelligence theories. According to Robert Sternberg’s Successful (Triarchic) Theory of Intelligence, are Hector’s difficulties in philosophy indicative of future difficulties in the business world? According to Sternberg’s Theory of Intelligence, Hector’s difficulty in philosophy will not negatively affect his future. Sternberg would instead focus on elements of successful intelligence like Hector’s involvement and contribution as an individual, as opposed to relying on intelligence measured by tests.
In this world, there are many different individuals who are not only different in demographics but also different neurologically. Due to an immense amount of people it is important to first understand each individual, in order, to better understand them and to help them when it comes to certain areas such as education, the work force, and etc…. For this reason psychologists have aimed to further understand individuals through the use of psychological assessments. This paper aims to examine a particular assessment tool, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (Fifth Edition), which measures both intelligence and cognitive abilities (Roid, 2003). This assessment is usually administered by psychologists and the scores are most often used to determine placement in academics and services allotted to children and adolescents (despite their compatibility for adults) (Wilson & Gilmore, 2012). Furthermore before the investigation dives into the particulars of the test, such as its strengths and weakness’, it is best to first learn more about the intelligence scales general characteristics.
Can intelligence be measured? Does an IQ test actually measure a person’s intelligence? Does a high score indicate a genius? Does a low score indicate stupidity or merely ignorance? These questions have been asked over and over again by psychiatrists and scientists alike, but to date there are no clear answers. These questions cannot be answered without first defining what is meant by the term intelligence. Once intelligence has been defined then it should be easy to answer these questions; however, multiple definitions of the word tend to lead to further confusion.
On the ‘nature’ side of the debate is the psychometric approach, considered to be the most dominant in the study of intelligence, which “inspired the most research and attracted the most attention” (Neisser et al. 1996, p. 77). It argues that there is one general (‘g’) factor which accounts for intelligence. In the 1880s, Francis Galton conducted many tests (measuring reaction times to cognitive tasks), (Boundless 2013), in order to scientifically measure intelligence. These tests were linked to the eugenic breeding programme, which aimed to eliminate biologically inferior people from society. Galton believed that as intelligence was inherited, social class or position were significant indicators of intelligence. If an individual was of high social standing, they would be more intelligent than those of a lower position. However he failed to show any consistency across the tests for this hypothesis, weakening his theory that social class correlated with intelligence. Nevertheless, his creation of the intelligence test led many to continue to develop...
High-stakes testing is for the cookie cutter student not the unique individual student. High stakes testing was started in 1905 by French psychologist Alfred Binet. He began developing a standardized test of intelligence which was named Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test. During World War I, standardized testing was standard practice, it was how U.S. servicemen jobs were divided and assigned. Years passed and the first test to come into play was the SAT, it was founded in 1926 as the Scholastic Aptitude Test by the College Board. Years passed again in 1959 and to compete against the SATs, the ACT (American College Testing) were created. The test was made up of questions that geared students to a course of study by asking about their interests. In addition to math, reading and English skills, the ACT assesses students on their knowledge of scientific facts and principles. These tests have become just geared toward college as the decades went by. Decades past and new tests came were created, in 1980 the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS), 1984 the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS), 1991 the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills
Visser, B. A., Ashton, M. C., & Vernon, P. A. (2006). g and the measurement of multiple intelligences: A response to Gardner. Intelligence, 34(5), 507-510.