EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
The cooperation of the foremen was first secured. Due 
to these precautions, not a single hitch or unpleasant in 
cident occurred during the entire experiment. On the 
contrary, the men took a very lively interest in the matter 
and discussed it freely not only among themselves but 
with the experimenter as well. The intelligent grasp of 
the problem which some of the men displayed was so 
surprising that it was thought worth while to jot down 
snatches of their conversation. 
“What’s the good of them ‘physicological’ tests any 
way?” asked one man. It was explained to him that the 
experiment was being conducted to discover whether 
there was any agreement between certain of the tests and 
the efficiency of the men as assemblers. 
“What if they don’t show up that way?” asked the man. 
“Then we throw them aside,” was the reply. 
“And if they do show up?” 
“Then we’ll turn them over to the employment office 
to give to new men whose ability we know nothing 
about.” 
“That’s not physicology, that’s common sense,” said 
this man. And another of the group looked wise and re 
marked : 
“Sounds good to me.” 
At another time one of a group of men who were dis 
cussing the tests with the experimenter asked: 
“What do you think of this for a test? You know that 
the men on this job have to know something about filing- 
Well, suppose you have a man applying for this work who 
claims experience as a filer. Suppose you lay four files in 
front of him and ask him to do a piece of fine filing and 
he picks up a bastard file to do it with. Or you ask him 
to do a piece of rough filing and he picks up a fine file*