9°

EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

In  order  to  minimize  the  results  of  unfamiliarity  with  the
machine,  the  tests  finally  chosen  were  confined  to  the
universal  keyboard  and  all  catches  were  avoided.  Moreover, ­
  those  errors  in  the  copy  of  the  typist  which  were
apparently  due  to  novelty,  such  as  the  striking  of  an  “i”
for  an  “o”,  were  not  counted  against  the  applicant  as
heavily  as  other  mistakes,  such  as  omitting  a  word  or  a
punctuation  mark.
Another  test  chosen  to  give  to  typists  was  a  spelling
test.  The  first  step  in  devising  this  test  was  to  select
representative  letters  and  forms  from  the  correspondence
of  the  company.  These  samples  were  then  gone  over  and
those  words  which  were  most  frequently  misspelled  were
selected  and  made  up  into  a  series  for  test  purposes.  A
number  of  the  words,  purposely  misspelled  in  characteristic ­
  fashion,  were  mingled  with  words  correctly  spelled,
and  the  applicant  was  asked  to  check  off  those  which  were
incorrectly  spelled.  The  written  method  was  chosen  because ­
  it  is  much  quicker  and  more  comprehensive  than
the  oral  method.  However,  it  frequently  happens  that
an  individual  is  unable  to  spell  a  word  correctly  or  recognize ­
  its  correct  spelling  until  he  writes  it  down.  In  order
to  meet  this  condition,  those  words  incorrectly  spelled
on  the  test  sheet  which  were  not  checked  by  the  subject,
and  those  correctly  spelled  which  were  checked,  were  read
aloud  to  the  subject  and  she  was  requested  to  write  them
down  correctly.  In  this  way,  the  possibilities  of  error
were  greatly  reduced.  It  may  be  said  that  a  typist  does
not  necessarily  have  to  be  a  good  speller  because  she  has
the  words  before  her.  This  assertion  does  not  take  into
consideration  the  mental  mechanism  which  copying  involves. ­
  Copying  is  more  than  a  merely  photographic
process.  It  involves  learning  and  memory.  An  individual