Documents Relating to the Kent-Shakow Group Tests
name: label: author
content: Shakow, David
label: author
content: Kent, Grace Helen
notes: label: Description
content: This number covers material relating the K-S (Kent-Shakow) Group Test. This collection is significant because it illustrates and explains differences between individual tests (which a proctor would give to one person and thus often included an oral component/physical objects) and group tests, which were often paper and pencil tests and could be easily proctored to a group of people. The documents are grouped into two index numbers:
label: Description
content: MA.316371.28.01 - Documents include a chart entitled “Worcester Series Norms (Feb, 1st 1929)”; directions for the K-S Symbol Digit Test; a blank form that included symbols (handwritten in the upper right hand corner are notes that say K-8, Symbol Digit); examples of the K-S Hard Distinction test, K-S Information test, K-S Similarities test, K-S arithmetic test, the K-S Easy Directions test, and the K-S Essential Properties test. There are also tests that ask the test taker to mark the one word in each line that is incorrect and tests that ask the test taker to select the item in the list that is not like the others. Other tests include the Kent opposite test, sentence completion test, and tests about number sequences. The folder also contains some duplicate tests, and various answer keys. There are a few miscellaneous documents including an index card with a chart entitled “arithmetic test, with weighted values,” an oral absurdities test, and figures printed on graph paper. Many of the documents included handwritten notes.
label: Description
content: MA.316371.02 -The collection contains handwritten notes on white lined paper that records names, ages, and (occasionally) the scores. It also includes a test that asks the test taker to underline the word to make the sentence correct and a test that asks the test taker to write the opposite of each word.
label: Description
content: Moreover, there is a six page document by Grace H. Kent and David Shakow entitled “Group Tests for Clinical Studies.” The document provides information on the development of group tests, their benefits and drawbacks, and a list of ten desirable features of tests, and the different tests that could be developed (these included information; opposites; similarity; essential difference; essential property; comparative usefulness; arithmetical reasoning; number series, completion; and finally number series, cross-out). This document contains some minor handwritten edits/corrections.
label: Description
content: There is also a scrap of paper that acknowledges the importance of context for calculating the norms for specific tests (“Of course I never expect that the autogenous norms would have much meaning outside of the institution from which they are derived.”)
label: Description
content: A separate document, entitled “Printed-Page Tests for Clinical Use,” contains much of the same information as the “Group Tests for Clinical Studies.” However, there are important differences, including a case study of two young men to illustrate “the wide difference which may be found in the reactions of a given subject to different tests.” This also contains handwritten notes/edits, and it is possible that this was an earlier draft of “Group Tests for Clinical Studies” document.
label: Description
content: One of the highlights of this collection is a series of correspondence between Shakow and the C.H. Stoelting Company, which specialized in Psychological and Physiological apparatus and supplies. The documents suggest that Shakow was upset by the manner in which the company manufactured Worcester boards, which Shakow felt were not ready for publication, specifically because of the “use of norms.” The correspondence also includes examples of the test (presumably the ones Shakow felt were not precise in terms of their norms), information from C.H. Stoelting Company about the ideal testing conditions for proctoring the exam, and finally the initial correspondence between Shakow and the C.H. Stoeling Company where he outlines his instructions for printing the test.
label: Description
content: This collection also includes some miscellaneous papers. These include general directors for proctoring the speed test, the sentence competition test, the opposites test, the oral questions, the symbol-digit test, and the word building test. There is also a chart that compares scores on the Shirley Edition and the 1928 edition. Another sheet describes sample items for the test. Yet another sheet describes instructions for administering the group test. Finally, a paper provides a handwritten chart that appears to record norms.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Psychology
label: Subject
content: Psychological Tests
label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of David Shakow
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.316371.028
label: catalog number
content: 316371.028
label: accession number
content: 316371
objectType: label: Object Name
content: psychological test
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 22 cm x 28 cm; 8 21/32 in x 11 1/32 in