Yerkes Flashcards
What is the challenge in defining intelligence according to psychologists?
Psychologists have found it difficult and will probably never reach an agreement about what it is
What was the original purpose of Binet’s intelligence tests?
To identify French schoolchildren who might require special education
What does IQ stand for?
Intelligence quotient
How is IQ calculated?
Mental age (MA) divided by chronological age (CA)
Who conducted the intelligence testing of US Army recruits during World War I?
Yerkes
What was Yerkes’s goal in developing mental tests for the army?
To identify the most able recruits for positions of greater responsibility
What were the types of questions used in the Army Alpha test?
Analogies
How many recruits were tested by Yerkes and his team?
1.75 million
What were the two forms of intelligence tests used in the army?
Army Alpha (written) and Army Beta (picture-based)
Who took the Army Beta test?
Recruits who failed the Alpha test or could not read
What happened to recruits who failed the Beta test?
They were supposed to be tested individually
How were recruits graded by psychologists?
From A to E
What did a grade of D indicate?
That the men were rarely suited for tasks requiring social skill and could not read or understand written instructions
What was one outcome of the army intelligence tests after World War I?
They became widely used by schools and businesses for employee selection
Who studied the army test results and drew conclusions about different groups?
Boring
What was the average mental age of white Americans according to Boring’s study?
13
How were European immigrants categorized in Boring’s study?
As ‘morons
What was the average mental age of Negroes according to Boring’s study?
10.41
What conclusion was drawn about intelligence based on the army data?
That different cultural/racial groups differed in intelligence and that lower IQ was inherited
What observation suggested that learning
not innate intelligence
What were the primary criticisms of the army intelligence tests?
They lacked validity and reliability
What was a significant concern about the acceptance of the test results?
That people believed the results without questioning the methodology
