Did you know that the US Army played a crucial role in the development of modern psychological assessments?

During the tumultuous period of World War I, the U.S. Army faced an urgent need for a more systematic approach to classify and assign military recruits effectively. To address this challenge, the Army sought the expertise of renowned psychologist Robert Yerkes. Born in 1876, Yerkes was a distinguished graduate of Harvard University, where he later became a professor in the burgeoning field of psychology. In 1917, he took on the role of President of the American Psychological Society, inspiring his colleagues to leverage their expertise in service of the wartime effort by developing and implementing intelligence assessments for incoming soldiers.

Yerkes convened a group of prominent psychometricians to create what would become a groundbreaking army mental test. From May to July 1917, he collaborated with notable figures, including Henry Goddard and other esteemed colleagues at Goddard's Training School in Vineland, New Jersey. Their labor resulted in an evaluation system that transformed recruitment practices. At the heart of this system was the Army Alpha test, an assessment composed of eight verbal evaluations. These tasks were designed to probe the cognitive abilities of both average and high-functioning recruits through a series of language-based challenges, examining their reasoning, comprehension, and problem-solving skills.

Understanding that not all recruits were proficient in English or had the benefit of a formal education, the Army developed the Beta test as an alternative means of assessment. This test focused on nonverbal tasks, allowing illiterate individuals and non-English speakers to be evaluated more fairly and accurately. By integrating both the Alpha and Beta tests, the Army attempted to effectively measure individuals for their potential, irrespective of their linguistic background. This dual-testing strategy marked a significant milestone in the evolution of psychological testing and classification, laying a robust foundation for both recruitment strategies, and assessment, in general, for years to come. Cognitive testing still utilizes the constructs of verbal vs nonverbal problem solving.

But as with many other parts of our psychology history, it’s important to also know that while the Alpha and Beta were an important step along the way of developing modern assessment tools, they were not without their flaws…

Many of the items, particularly on the Alpha language test, had questions framed in a biased way, which disadvantaged recruits from lower-class or less educated backgrounds, particularly immigrants. Administration was not always consistent. Some individuals that should have been administered the Beta test were given the Alpha test, and even when they scored poorly, were not given the chance to show what they were capable of. The tests also produced results that showed lower average scores for African Americans, leading to the false conclusion that they were less intelligent than white Americans. Some of the skeletons in our psychological closet are that tests like these (and many still in use today), separate and classify individuals into groups, which can contribute to an us vs. them mentality. Consider the phrase “mentally retarded,” now considered to be a wildly inappropriate and derogatory phrase. It started as a clinical term simply meaning a slow thinker. The term we use to classify our slower thinkers has changed over the years to be as inclusive or strength-based as possible. But historically, the separation of ourselves into categories fed into the (discredited) theory of eugenics (that we should selectively breed to create a “better” population). Those of us that do testing really need to remember our roots so that we celebrate our milestones, recognize some of our errors, and do not fall victim to the mistakes of our predecessors. Like with any tool, we need to use our powers for good.