The Army General Classification Test (AGCT) has a long history that runs parallel with research and means for attempting the assessment of
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the a ...
or
other abilities.
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
created the need for this type of testing and provided a large body of test subjects. The early emphasis (World War I) was on determining the level of
literacy
Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...
(
Alpha test) amongst a heterogeneous group. Illiterates were given
another
Another or variant may refer to:
* anOther or Another Magazine, culture and fashion magazine
* ''Another'' (novel), a Japanese horror novel
** ''Another'' (film), a Japanese 2012 live-action film based on the novel
* Another River, a river in th ...
test (Army Beta); some enrollees were interviewed. Subsequent testing targeted
aptitude
An aptitude is a component of a competence to do a certain kind of work at a certain level. Outstanding aptitude can be considered "talent". Aptitude is inborn potential to perform certain kinds of activities, whether physical or mental, and ...
in order to better fill
roles, such as those provided by officers who obtained commissions from other than the
United States military academies
The United States service academies, also known as the United States military academies, are federal academies for the undergraduate education and training of commissioned officers for the United States Armed Forces.
There are five U.S. servi ...
, or to meet the need for increasingly complicated skills that came along with technological progress, especially after World War II.
As with other measurement attempts, the AGCT ran into controversy during the era of the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. Yet, the requirement did not abate, leading to improvements in the application and use of the standard testing methodology.
The modern variant of this test is the
Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is a multiple choice test, administered by the United States Military Entrance Processing Command, used to determine qualification for enlistment in the United States Armed Forces. It is o ...
(ASVAB) that was first administered in 1960.
Many high
IQ societies, such as
Mensa
Mensa may refer to:
* Mensa International, an organization for people with a high intelligence quotient (IQ)
* Mensa (name), a name and list of people with the given name or surname
* Mensa (constellation), a constellation in the southern sky
* Men ...
and
Intertel
Intertel (previously the International Legion of Intelligence) is a high-IQ society founded in 1966, that is open to those who have scored at or above the 99th percentile (top 1%) on one of various standardized tests of intelligence. It has bee ...
, can map their entrance requirements to early AGCT scores.
The AGCT was of interest to researchers due to the broad nature of the testee domain (1.75 million men took the original test). The
Triple Nine Society
The Triple Nine Society (TNS) is an international high IQ society for adults whose score on a standardized test demonstrates an IQ at or above the 99.9th percentile of the human population. The society recognizes scores from over 20 different ...
accepts a minimum qualifying score of 157 (raw) for membership in its ranks, but only if the test was taken prior to 1976. Also, the TNS accepts a minimum qualifying score of 74 from the similar Naval General Classification Test (NGCT), but only from the years 1954–1977. Intertel accepts a score of 145 on the ACGT or GT.
[
A composite score derived from elements of the Army ASVAB is called "General Technical", usually abbreviated "GT", and if you scored 136 or higher before prior to 1980 Mensa will accept the result as proof of being in the 98th percentile.
]
The Army Alpha and Beta Intelligence Tests
Intelligence testing plays a very important role in how school psychologists and special educators evaluate and assess children for placement in special education programs. Many Educational systems in the modern society use the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) is an individually administered intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16. The Fifth Edition (WISC-V; Wechsler, 2014) is the most recent version.
The WISC-V takes 45 to 65 minu ...
to assess the intellectual functioning of children. However, just because intelligence testing is a phenomenon in the education world, the creation of intelligence testing was not intended for educational use. Rather, the first intelligence tests were created during World War I to screen the thousands of soldiers being recruited by the United States Military.
Robert Yerkes
Robert Mearns Yerkes (; May 26, 1876 – February 3, 1956) was an American psychologist, ethologist, eugenicist and primatologist best known for his work in intelligence testing and in the field of comparative psychology.
Yerkes was a pioneer ...
and a committee of six representatives developed two intelligence tests; the Army Alpha test and the Army Beta test to help the United States Military screen incoming soldiers for "intellectual deficiencies, psychopathic tendencies, nervous intangibility, and inadequate self-control". The Alpha test was a verbal test for literate recruits and was divided into eight test categories, which included: following oral directions, arithmetical problems, practical judgments, synonyms and antonyms, disarranged sentences, number series completion, analogies and information, whereas the Beta test was a nonverbal test used for testing illiterate or non-English speaking recruits. The Beta test did not require those being tested to use written language, but rather the examinees completed tasks by using visual aids. The Beta Intelligence test was divided into seven subtests, which included: "Test 1- assessed the ability of army recruits to trace the path of a maze; Test 2- assessed the ability of cube analysis; Test 3-assessed the ability of pattern analysis using an X-O series; Test 4- assessed the ability of coding digits with symbols; Test 5- assessed the ability of number checking; Test 6-assessed the ability of pictorial completion; and Test 7- assessed the ability of geometrical construction".
Overall, the Army Alpha and the Army Beta tests were designed to find the mental age of military recruits and to assess incoming recruits for success in the US Military by testing one's ability to understand language, to perform reasoning with semantic and quantitative relationships, to make practical judgments, to infer rules and regulations, and to recall general information. The Army Alpha and the Army Beta tests were heavily criticized for being biased and for not predicting the actual success of incoming soldiers. Nevertheless, Robert Yerkes's innovations in standardized testing and the use of psychometrics
Psychometrics is a field of study within psychology concerned with the theory and technique of measurement. Psychometrics generally refers to specialized fields within psychology and education devoted to testing, measurement, assessment, and ...
to calculate those standardized tests are still seen in intelligence testing today.[
]
Criticism
*'' The Mismeasure of Man'' by Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould s ...
References
Further reading
* {{citation , last=Tuddenham , first=Read D. , title=Soldier intelligence in World Wars I and II , journal=American Psychologist , volume=3 , number=2 , pages=54–56 , date=1948 , doi=10.1037/h0054962 , pmid=18911933
Entrance examinations
Military education and training in the United States
Intelligence tests