SELECTING  GIRLS  AS  ASSEMBLERS

59

■well  in  the  tests  were  doing  excellent  work  as  assemblers
a nd  were  making  over  three  dollars  a  day.  “They  are
far  better  than  some  boys  we  tried  on  that  work  before,”
remarked  the  foreman,  “and  all  but  one  of  them  stands
U P  to  her  work.”
The  standing  of  the  girls  in  the  test  for  the  perception
of  odd  shapes  and  sizes  and  their  standing  in  the  opinions
°f  their  superiors  agreed  in  every  case  but  two.  Expressed ­
  in  terms  of  correlation,  the  agreement  was  plus
•l' 1 -  In  the  other  tests  the  agreement  was  not  so  marked,
but  nevertheless  there  was  a  positive  and  significant  correspondence. ­
  The  correlation  for  the  combined  manual
dexterity  tests  was  .52,  while  that  for  the  hand  dynamometer ­

  was  .34.
The  impersonal  but  nevertheless  easily  interpreted  results ­
  of  these  tests  may  be  illustrated  by  the  following  instances: ­
  One  girl’s  record  in  the  test  for  the  perception  of
°dd  shapes  and  sizes  showed  that  she  had  been  very  slow
an d  made  frequent  mistakes.  On  her  record  card  this
showed  simply  as  5?  51587—4  (meaning  test  number  fiftyooo,
  done  in  eighty-seven  seconds  with  four  mistakes),
the  writer,  although  he  had  not  given  these  tests  and
knew  nothing  about  the  girls  in  question,  remarked  to
the  foreman:
This  girl’s  record  shows  that  she  had  a  very  poor  idea
°f  where  the  parts  belonged.”
"That’s  exactly  how  her  work  was,”  quickly  responded
the  foreman.
Hut  on  the  basis  of  these  tests,”—indicating  the  girl’s
mcord  in  the  tests  for  manual  dexterity—  “  she  seems  to
had  pretty  nimble  fingers.”
Yes,”  countered  the  foreman,  “but  her  mind  wasn’t
aj  fast  as  her  hands.”