Test Army Alpha and Army Beta: what they are and what they were designed for

When the First World War broke out, the United States urgently needed a good army to ensure victory.

But the question was not so easy, because not everyone could handle the weapons or organize the missions. Capable people were needed, and before sending them to the battlefield it was necessary to know their capabilities.

It is because of that Yerkes and Terman's group designed two tests, the Alpha Army and the Beta Army, to find out which soldiers were worth and which were not, as well as whether there were some who could stand out as leaders. Let's take a closer look at them below.

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What are the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests?

The Army Alpha and Army Beta tests are some questionnaires that were developed for the United States Army during the First World War. They were introduced for the first time in 1917 due to the need to develop a systematic tool to assess the intelligence and emotional adjustment of soldiers.

The Alpha test evaluated, in its beginnings, verbal and numerical ability and the ability to follow instructions, in addition to taking into account the knowledge and information that the soldiers had before entering training rows. These scores were useful to know if the soldiers were capable of serving their country., in addition to selecting them to perform different functions within the army, such as being platoon leaders.

The Beta test was an adaptation to the Alpha, since the researchers found the fact that in the United States of At the beginning of the last century, not everyone was literate, in addition to a significant immigration coming to North America.

Story

Army Alpha and Army Beta will based on the first intelligence tests, in the style of those of Alfred Binet. When the First World War began, the American army became aware of the need to select good soldiers to ensure victory.

The Army Alpha was created by Robert Yerkes' group, along with his colleagues W. V. Bingham, Henry H. Goddard, T. H. Haines, Lewis Terman, G. M. Whipple, F. L. Wells. These experts in measuring psychological constructs, especially intelligence met in 1917 and began to design a standardized and rapid method to assess the capabilities of recruits.

The intent of these questionnaires was to segregate those who were mentally incompetentIn the words of the researchers themselves, in addition to classifying the soldiers according to their mental capacities and choosing them for specialized positions.

Army Alpha

At the time of administering the Army Alpha, since it could only be completed by people who did not have reading problems and had a native level of English, illiterates were separated from those who knew read.

The time in which the Army Alpha responded was approximately 40 to 50 minutes, and it was administered in a group way, with about 100 to 200 men in each group.

Structure of the Alpha Army

The Army Alpha is divided into 8 tests. The recruits had to answer the tests as quickly as possible, and these consisted of tests of arithmetic, “common sense,” vocabulary, word ordering, number patterns, analogies, and completion phrases. Below we will briefly see what these tests were.

1. Description of the recruits

This first test consists of checking if the recruits are able to give basic information about them, such as first and last name, age, place of birth, race, and highest academic title.

2. Arithmetic problems

20 arithmetic problems of increasing difficulty are presented, including addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.

3. Common sense

Questions are asked in which three alternative answers are given. The questions have to do with aspects related to the general North American culture. An example of a question would be.

Why are pencils more used than pens?

1. Because they are brightly colored.
2. Because they are cheaper.
3. Because they are not that heavy.

4. Vocabulary

This test consisted of evaluating vocabulary, having to indicate if two words are the same or the opposite. For example: "dry" and "wet" opposite or synonymous?

5. Words in order

Very simple sentences are presented and recruits must indicate whether, syntactically speaking, they are in the correct order. They were very basic sentences, but equally, in the cases that were in the correct order, they made some sense. For example, strong lions (true, meaningful) and eating well gold silver are (false, meaningless).

6. Determine number patterns

Series of numbers are presented and recruits must indicate which numbers would be next. For example: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,… (9, 10)

7. Analogies

The participant must complete an analogy using the words that are presented as alternative answers.

• Pistol is to knife what shooting is to ...
• Run, cuts, hat, bird. Answer: cuts.

8. Complete sentences

Sentences must be completed, which refer to aspects of common culture. For example:

• America was discovered by ...
• Drake, Hudson, Colon, Balboa. Answer: Columbus.

Army Beta

The Army Beta of 1917 is a complement to the Army Alpha, used as a non-verbal alternative. This questionnaire was used to assess people who were illiterate, had no school education, or did not know English. This questionnaire has been considered as the archetype of modern cognitive skills tests, such as the WISC and the WAIS.

This test was administered in a time between 50 and 60 minutes, and was administered in groups, as in the case of Army Alpha. Unlike the Army Alpha, the Beta was administered in smaller groups, such as 60 people, since being illiterate subjects those who they had to complete it was necessary to make sure that everyone understood the instructions given orally by the administrator of the proof.

The main objective of this test was to be able to evaluate those people who presented some type of problem with regard to reading and speaking skills. Thus, despite having barriers in oral and written language, it was possible to evaluate skills that initially did not seem to have to do with language skills and could be helpful on the battlefield.

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Army Beta structure

The Army Beta was divided into seven tests, which we will describe very briefly below.

1. Labyrinth

Participants they have to connect the entrance and exit of a maze with a line that is drawn on one of the cards that is administered to them.

2. Cubes

On the cards they had some figures made with cubes and they had to indicate how many cubes there were.

3. X and O

The administrator draws an X and an O on a blackboard, asking the subjects to do series of the type X-O-X-O ...

4. Encode numbers

There are ten symbols that are each assigned to numbers from 0 to 9. Subjects they must indicate, under each symbol, to which number it corresponds.

5. Different numbers

This test measures the ability to see if they notice the differences by giving them two lines filled with numbers, and see if they are the same numbers or not.

For example:

• 2345132…. 2345132 They have to mark that they are the same.
• 4765847… ..4765947 They have to mark that they are different.

6. Complete a drawing

They are presented with drawings of everyday objects, such as a face, a hand or a violin, which have some blank or incomplete part. Recruits must complete the figure.

7. Build geometric shapes

To the subjects They are given cards that are used to make geometric figures that are represented in the files that are administered

What were these tests for?

Both questionnaires Their objective was not only to know the abilities of the soldiers and, thus, to be able to classify them according to where they could be most useful. They also had the objective of finding people who had some type of intellectual disability, who at that time were known as “feeble-minded,” and thus prevent a person who simply could not perform any beneficial role for the military from ending up in rows.

However, the group that developed these tests were aware that getting a low score on a questionnaire was not synonymous with intellectual disability, something that was seen when they began to apply Army Alpha and saw that people who presented cognitive abilities to With the naked eye, they did not perform high on tests because they either did not understand them due to language barriers or because they did not they could read.

Equally, getting low scores in the Army Beta did not necessarily imply that the person evaluated had an intellectual disability, something that the creators of the questionnaires were aware of and, to ensure that they are not no soldier was wasted, every effort was made to make sure he could be found one use.

Notably America at the beginning of the last century was in dire need of lives that could be sacrificed on the battlefield. No person was officially reported as "mentally weak" until an extensive individual psychological interview had been carried out to confirm this hypothesis.

Controversy

The use of questionnaires and other intelligence tests to make important decisions about people has always been a highly controversial aspect of measuring capabilities cognitive. Many psychologists who trained in the development of the test had an overly extreme view on the inheritance of intelligence traits and other behavioral aspects, in addition to being very supportive of eugenics.

Yerkes and his colleagues, using Army Alpha and Army Beta on non-white or non-American people, used it as a justification against immigration and racial miscegenation, ensuring that that there were inferior ethnic groups and races, and that the excessive immigration that the United States was receiving at the time were something that could harm the IQ of America. The psychologists who conducted these questionnaires, after the end of World War I, contributed to the legislation of anti-immigration laws.

What's more, in Army Alpha there is a clear cultural bias, especially in the common culture test. It does not measure intelligence, it measures the knowledge expected of an average white American. Given the differences between whites and blacks at that time, in terms of rights and opportunities educational attainment, it was to be expected that blacks would perform lower in that age. proof.

Bibliographic references:

• Waters, B. K. (1997). Army alpha to CAT-ASVAB: Fourscore years of military personnel selection and classification testing. In R. F. Dillon (Ed.), Handbook on testing (pp. 187-203). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. AND. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 262-274.