Evening star., 1926-04-25
BY REX COLLIER.

Devoid of the publicity usually at.
tendant upon such far-reaching meth
DDS in Government procedure, the
United States Civil Service Commits
sion. through a special research sec
tion established not long ago by act
Of Congress, has been inca suring the
intelligence" of Uncle Sans employees
and revising its entrance examinations
to meet the new standards.
More exactly. perhaps, the commits
sion is rebuilding its examinations so
that they more nearly will test the
qualities essential to the particular
line OF work for which the applicants
present themselves.
Back of the whole movement is a
remarkable story of conservation of
Uncle Sans dollars and hours.
BY scrapping an examining item
here and adding a new form of test
there. the commission has effected
permanent annual saving of thousands
of dollars and a striking reduction in
the time necessary for conducting it's
personnel tests.
DR.. l.. j. O'Rourke. the director OF
this program. was a member Of the
Air Service Psychological Research
Laboratory and OF the Civilian Ad
visory board of the War Plans Division
when the commissions research sec
tion was. established. He Immediately
transferred from the War Department
to take charge of the new section.
Extensive Study Made.
Before that time the commission had
been endeavoring as far as its appro-
priatiOns made II possible, to complete
an extensive study Of clerical require
ments In the Federal service, with a
view to amending or otherwise chang
ing its entrance examinations to bet
ter cover the field. The research sec
tion took up this work and COM
pleted it,
Heretofore the civil service exami-
nation had, as an intelligence require
ment. a prerequisite Of high school
education or it's equivalent. The com.
mission believed that fairness to the
applicants required the substitution
of a general intelligence test. for
after all, to use the words of the
chief examiner. "the purpose of the
requirement was to assure the pos
session by eligibles of a degree of
mental attainment sufficient to enable
them to undertake the duties of the
position ard to advance after appoint
ment to positions of higher RESPONSE
bility.'
With the founding Of the research
section in 1922, DR.. O'Rourke set out
to construct such a general intelli-
gence test. He first obtained the CO.
operation of individual Government
employees. explained frankly to them
the object in view and had groups
submit themselves for the intelli-
gence measuring process.
4f rau
embracing range of knowledge
thought to approximate that of the
specific groups to be examined, but
including a wide variation with re-
spect to degree of difficulty. The series
of items for inclusion in the tentative
test covered vocabulary, general in.
| formation, verbal relations, number
relations, opposites. sentence compile
ton. mathematical reasoning and
reading. Each series then was given
as an examination to a group of en-
ployes in the office of the Civil Service
Commission. In this way 1t was pos
sible to determine the items answered
correctly by employees of high ability,
and the ones which were dif1icuit Tor
those of lesser ability, since the rela-
tive efficiency Of the employees already
was known.
OF Increasing DifIiculty.
! A careful study Of the results in
these tests enabled the commission to
determine the relative selective values
Of the general intelligence tests thus
tried out. AS finally adopted, the ex-
animation consists of 100 questions
based on the results of the prelimi-
nary trials. A number Of such exami-
nations of equal difficulty were drawn
| up for use In succeeding tests.
The sequence of questions was SO
arranged that the test becomes more
and more difficult toward the end. so
that the approximate level Of a COM
petitor's general intelligence could be
determined by his accomplishment in
the examination, DR.. O'ROurke points
out.
The next consideration was the re-