The New York herald., 1921-02-27
Picking Men by Psychology

TRADE TESTS BY J. Crosby Chap
man. Henry Holt & Co.
Trade Tests' is the first compre-
hensive treatise on what the Govern
ment accomplished during the war in
the field Of vocational guidance. The
author is j. Crosby Chapman. the
psychologist and personnel expert, who
during the war served in the tests and
standards section of the War Depart
ment as consulting expert Except for
special article or two and War De-
partment pamphlets nothing has been
written on this subject before.
The United States during the war
was confronted by the problem OF sup
plyingNthe army with thousands OF
skilled workmen. expert in their diff
ferent trades. How to select these
from the vast number OF recruits,
select them quickly and In manner
that would assure the commander
of their regiments OF their fitness and
reliability was The problem OF the War
Department.
The army problem differed from the
problem OF large manufacturers, be-
cause in the army there could be no
trial week to serve as q test, and,
furthermore. there could not be spared
men trained In the different trades 10
do the examining. The examining had
to be done by persons ignorant OF the
trades In which they were conducting
examinations.
The objects Of he committee on
classification Of personnel. which was
set the task OF evolving a system Of
examination. were the following: "1)
The methods must be applicable TO all
trades: (2) the methods must be such
that they car be employed by an
intelligent examiner who has no per-
sonal knowledge Of the trade; t3) the
methods must yield a rating Of man
which IS independent of the examiners
Individual Judgment: in other words.
the test must be objective and not
subjective: (4) the methods must be
rapid and In most cases must not
require the use Of tools or apparatus.
All these objects were accomplished
by corps of experts, among whom
the author selects for special mention
such men as DR.. Z. l.. Thorndike, Col.
Walter Dill Scott and DR. w. v. Bing-
ham. all of whom are eminent In the
domain Of psychology.
Essentially, the trade test is
measuring rod which can be used with
out trade knowledge on the part OF
the examiner for rating in objective
quantitative terms the degree of trade
ability possessed by the person under
examination" declares the author.
The idea of measuring such hu-
man trait as trade ability by an OBJ
jective scale is of such recent date
that it calls for some discussion.
The distinction between the subjective
scale which expresses ability in terms
of excellent, good, poor, bad.' and the
objective scale which expresses ability
in terms that are constant in value
and universally understood cannot be
too clearly made. In the cast of a
perfectly objective scale all competent
persons agree while in the case OF n
perfectly subjective scale. all compe-
tent persons disagree. save by chance"
In order to obtain such a test ex-
aminers In vocational schools and large
employers of skilled labor were con,
suited from both of which classes
valuable ideas were taken. As a
matter of fact. a considerable body
of manufacturers cooperated with the
War Department in the making Of
the tests.
Standards Of perfection hn the diff