: EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
ination and should not be allowed to intrude itself on tests
for special abilities. The most general sensory disturbances
with which the investigator will have to deal are those
relating to vision and hearing. The job specifications will
inform the examiner of the occupational demands in the
sensory field. If he is testing applicants he will not waste
his time testing those who fall short of this standard. If
he is testing employees, it might be presumed that all will
come up to the standard.
But this is a hazardous assumption. Even in some wellequipped
personnel departments the data obtained regarding
the visual acuity of applicants are inadequate. Some
industrial physicians do not record corrected vision but
measure only the acuity of the unaided eye. The information
they do record is indispensable as a precaution against
fraudulent claims for subsequent injury to eyesight. But
what the employment manager wants to know is, how
clearly the worker can see with the glasses he ordinarily
wears. He also wants to know how well the worker can
see without eye-strain, not at 20 feet, but at working distance
from his blue-print, drill press, micrometer, or drafting
board, and under conditions of illumination similar to
those prevailing on the job. If information of this character
is not already available, the investigator will ordinarily
do well to see that it is obtained. He may find that differences
in keenness of vision, hearing, touch, or muscular
sensitivity have much to do with relative achievement on the
job in question.
On one factory job where 140 young women are tending
noisy machines, about 8o are seasoned and successful operators.
In the top quarter of this group, 50% of the girls
have better than normal vision in both eyes; in the lower
quarter, only 6%. And yet on casual inspection there is
nothing to indicate that on this job more than on the great
majority of factory operations, superior vision would contribute
greatly to an experienced worker’s higher average
earnings and output.
32
