EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

I36

matter  of  general  intelligence  were  the  results  of  some  of
our  occupational  and  trade  tests.  When  we  began  giving
these  tests  we  believed  in  general  intelligence  and  we  used
to  include  so-called  intelligence  tests.  However,  we  soon
found  out  that  our  idea  of  intelligence  and  the  kind  of
intelligence  required  by  a  certain  job  did  not  agree  at  all.
And  in  all  of  our  tests,  we  found  that  some  people  did
specially  well  in  one  kind  of  test  while  others  did  well  in
another  kind.
Mr.  L:  Well,  that  agrees  with  my  experience.  As  I
just  said,  we  in  the  employment  work  have  to  hire  people
on  the  basis  of  their  ability  in  one  particular  line.  We
can’t  expect  them  to  be  generally  intelligent.
Mr.  W:  But  how  about  imbeciles  and  idiots,  Mr.  Lambert? ­
  Certainly  you  could  weed  them  out  by  means  of  an
intelligence  scale.
Mr.  L:  Miss  Nelson  and  Miss  Hurlbut  can  tell  you
more  about  that  than  I  because  they  have  been  giving
tests  for  that  very  purpose.
Miss  N:  Yes,  we  used  to  think  it  very  important  to
eliminate  people  of  that  kind  and  we  gave  tests  with  that
in  mind.  But  out  of  over  six  thousand  applicants  we  have
tested  in  the  last  year,  only  three  were  morons,  as  they  are
called;  and  as  it  takes  from  an  hour  to  an  hour  and  a  half
to  give  only  a  part  of  the  intelligence-scale  tests,  we  soon
gave  up  using  them.  It  is  possible  to  detect  morons
roughly  by  almost  any  test,  and  especially  by  means  of  the
directions  which  go  with  the  test.  If  the  ordinary  tests
prove  too  much  for  them  we  can  make  use  of  the  intelligence ­
  scale.
Mr.  W:  What  became  of  the  morons  you  found?
Miss  N:  We  assigned  them  to  some  simple  machine
work  and  they  turned  out  to  be  excellent  operators.  They