US1878008A - Psychological testing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

P 1932- w. o. SNELLING 1,878,00

PSYCHOLOGI CAL TESTING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 4, 1928 2 Sheets-Shet 1 7-19 Ciara 65* Has. Joseph 19C 2.1-6 21.2.1123. Apr: Aiica u mates 24-11 fiepiuzs' Dertha Tianw '+76C 'l' 52 C 17.6 H95. Z4mi12 5 June. 12th 5mi1=5 Georg Fig. I 2 Fig.5.

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INVENTOR Sept. 20, 1932. w. o. SNELLING 1,878,008

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 4. 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR sorting of objects of dissimilar nature.

Patented Sept. 20, 1932 7-TEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE- WALTER O. SNELLING, OF ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING APPARATUS.

Application filed October 4, 1928. Serial no. 310,236;

My invention relates toimprovements in psychological testing apparatus and more particularly relates to means for testing and measuring those factors of human intelli gence and manual dexterity involved in the The principal object of my invention is to .provide new and improved means for accurately enabling the ability to. sort cards to befdetermined under entirely definite conditions.

Modern office procedure involves ,the frequent use of record cards of various types,

and ability to sort cards in accordance With some predetermined characteristics is an important part of the workof many employees. One of the objects'of my invention isto provide means by which the ability ofan appli cant for employment. in such work as the sorting of cards can be determined with a high degree of accuracy and with the'mini mum expenditure of labor on the part of the examiner. r

I have found that when a plurality of cards containing a series of sequential symbols, such as numbers running from one to sixty,

or letters running from Ato Z,'or the names of objects running from ape to zebra, for example, are dlsarranged or shufiled until an entirely haphazard order has been pro duced, the time and effort required to rearrange the cards in the orlglnal orderly sequence is variable,and is dependent upon the laws of chance. "For example, in shufliing a set of cards containing the letters of the alphabet from A'to Z, until all semblance of the'original sequential order hasbeen lost, and'then examining the sequence of the let ters in the thoroughly shuflied cards, it will be found that in one or two cases out of a V v thousand, 1n accordance wlthwell known laws of permutations andcombinations, the

haphazard arrangement of the cards will, from chance alone, bear a certain partial re lationship that will either notably assist or notably hinder the sorting of the cards, the order being in favor of the sorting in half of the trials, and against the sorting, in the other half of the trials. Taking the two letters M and N, for example, it will readily be seen that in onehalf of any number of'random 'arrangements, M will precede N, and thus favor the SOItiIlg of the cards, while in the other half of the number of random arrangements, N will precede M, and thus oppose ease of sorting of the cards. hat is true of these two'letters, when considered alone, is equally true of every other pair of two letters, and out of say one thousand entirely random arrangements of the letters of the alphabet, in accordance with the strict rules of permutations and combinations and wholly uninfluenced by carelessness in shuffling, there will always be found a few 4mm dom arrangements in whicha considerable number of letters will bear the same order such cards Were-disarranged from the origi; fnal orderly sequence and were reduced 'toan haphazard arrangement accordlng V entirel to the -nown' laws of permutations and com I binations, the results obtained in the testing of these applicants would not be fair, and would not truly represent the ability of the applicants to sort cards. A certain number ofapplicants, merely as a result of the works ings ofthe laws ofchance, wou ld be required tosort cards inwhich an abnormal number of the individual cards were in the hard or reversed order from their natural arrange ment in the-alphabet, and an equal number of applicants would, also as a result of the working of the laws of'ch ance, receive "cards in which-a considerablenumber of the letters were in their natural sequential arrangement as in the alphabet, or at least in-the ordero'f sequence; The letter M, for example,might not immediately precede theletter N and im-L mal shuffling in accordance with the laws of permutations and combinations, no system of sorting cards from a haphazard" arrangev ment can possibly be equally fair to a numher of applicants tested, some of the haphazard arrangements being invariably easier to sort than others, and other arrangements beingmore diiiicult to sort than the average, even though the average of the hard combinations and the easy combinations equal zero.. This hasled me to the conclusion that in testing sorting ability it is desirable to have the testing cards. arranged initially the: same foreveryapplicant, in order that no applicant may find the cards in a more favorable arrangement than another, and one of the objects of myv present invention is to enable a plurality of cards to be progressively sorted in accordance with a number of entirely different sorting arrangements, without requiring a large amount of work upon, the part of the examiner in thearranging of the cards. Although this desired end may. at first seem impossible of attainment, it can be readily ate tained by the method herein described, and a number of applicants can be tested for card sorting ability by an examiner each applicant sorting cards from a prearrangedv condition to a sequential condition with respect to some certain named sequence, without requiring any sorting of the cards by the ex aminer for the purpose of putting such cards in the required initial order.

- In the drawings forming part of this ap- V plication Figure 1 represents one card of a setprepared in accordance with my present invention. Figure 2 represents another card from the same set from which the card represented in Figure 1 is taken. Figure 3 represents still another card, from the. same set from which thecard represented in Figure 1 and Figure 2 are taken. These cards are shown diagrammatically, and with the omission of all letters and markings that are with} out significance in connection with the present invention, the purpose of the drawings being-to show only such markings as will enable the principle underlyingm-y present invention to be understood. Figure e'and Figure 5 represent cards number 12 andnumber 47 respectively, from a set of sixty cards of a slightly dilferent type than the cards shown in Figure 1, Figure 2 'andFigur'eB;

is no fir'edarran'gement upon the card for any particular symbol and therefore any particular symbol may occur in any one of the seven positions upon the card 1 occupied by the markings shown. This pack of thirty cards may be arranged in the order of the numbers shown at theupper left hand corner of the card, or may be arranged in the order of the left hand number of the hyphenated pair, or

may be arranged in the order of the right hand number of the hyphenated pair, or may be arranged alphabetically by the first letter of the boys name, the first letter of the 'girls name, etc. If an applicant receives the cardsarranged numerically in ascending order of the card number as shown in the upper left hand corner of the card, and then rearranges the cards successively in the order of the first number of the hyphenated pair, the second number of the hyphenated pair, etcauntil as a final act of sorting the cards are rearranged numerically in ascendingforder of the card number'as shown on the upper left hand corner of the card,,a perfectly definite task has been performed. Accordingly, the time required by any applicant to sort and resort the cards, in the manner indicated, may be used as an accurate measurement of card sorting ability, as distinguished from the less accuratemeasurement of card sorting ability at;- tained by the rearrangement of cards from haphazard or shufl'led arrangement as ordinarily used. 7 I

Figure 4; and Figure 5 represent two cards taken atrandom from a packer deck of sixty cards, of somewhat more convenient form thanthe cards represented by Figure 1, F igure 2, and Figure 3. 1 These cards are preferably of the standard 3 x 5 size used in card index files, and are divided by a horizontal central doubleline into arr-upper and lower half, eachiof which may contain related symbols, to be used either separately ortogether.

Thus, for example, a set of sixty cards may 7 be rearranged 'in accordance with any desired symbol shown on the top .half'of the card, or any desired symbol shown on the bottom half of the card, or if desired the central double line may be ignored,- for the purpose of introducing a new variable, and related symbols, such as the name of a city, or a temperature or a date, maybe taken from either the topjhalf, of the card or the bottom half of the card. In all cases, however, an alpha: betical or a numerical or some .other definite standard-of sorting is employed, sothatthe task of sorting isentirely definite.

Figure 6 and Figure 7 show a novelmeans that may be employed to simplify the work of the examiner or checker, in making sure that the personbeing examined actually corre'ctly performs each of the sorting operations. In Figure 6 a'pack of sixty cards is shown, .the cards having been arranged in ascending order of the first number of. the hyphenated pair, which in Figure 6 will be found on the third line below the double line, in the first long square at the left hand side of the card. After the cards have once been properly so sorted, with'a figure 1 before the hyphen on the top card, and a figure before the hyphen on the bottom card, and,

with all the intermediatecards sequentially arranged in accordance with ascending values of the number on the left hand side of the hyphen, a diagonal line is drawn across one edgeof the card, as shown diagrammatically on the upper edge of the pack as represented byFigure 6. Figure? shows the same pack or deck of SiXty cards, when rearranged in accordance with the lastnumber of the hyphenated pair, a similar di agonal line having been drawn across the top edge of the deck,asrearranged in this second sequential manner. t will be evident that when the-cards are arranged sequentially in accordance with ascending orders of the first number of the hyphenated pair, a readily visible diagonal line will appear across the left half'of the top edge of the deck, while when the cards have been arranged so as to be sequentially in order of ascending values of the second number of the hyphenated pair, the diagonal line on the lefthand side of the top edge of the card will be broken up into a series'of dots and short dashes due to proximityof one or more dots, while the right hand edge of the card will show a clearly defined diagonal line,

when the rearrangement of the cards by the second number of the hyphenated pair has been completed. By providing corresponding diagonal lines on the sides and bottom edge of the cards, a series of readily distinguishable guidesare available, each corresponding to some definite arrangement of the cards. Practical tests have indicated that even one card out of its proper arrangement can be readily detected by the examiner, thusvindicating any error or errors'in the sorting operation, but as the marks thus made use of by the examiner appear upon the edge of the card only, and are so small to be substantially indistinguishable when any single card is exam1ned, apart from other cards, thls edge marking is of no assistance to the person taking the test, but enables the examiner by simple inspection of the edge of the deck to determine the completeness with which the cards have been sorted in accordance with any given sequence, and to detect any error that may have been made in such sorting operation. 7

In the practice of my present invention I prefer to employ a series of from sixty to three hundred cards, each card containing a number of; symbols, each symbol forming part of a sequence or series. For simplicity, I will take as an examplea set of twentysix cards, as this number-represents a convenient number-of cards to clearly show the principles of the present invention. Each of the cards may convenientlyv be first given a number, thefirst card being marked number 1, the second card being marked number 2, the third card being markednumber 3, and so on in order, the last card being marked number 26. Upon the completion of the marking of the numbers upon the twentysix cards, they will form a sequence of twenty-six numbers from one to twenty-six. The cards should next be shuffled repeatedly, until they are, arranged in an entirely haphazard manner, with respect to the numbers first marked upon them, and when they have been disarranged to a desired condition of disorderly sequence of numbers, the cards are stacked,and upon the topcard is written a girls name beginning with the letter A, such as Alice, for example, and upon the next card fromthe top is written a girls name beginning with the letter B, such as Bertha, for example, the third card is similarly marked with the name Clara, the fourth card with the name Daisy, etc. When all of the twenty-six-cards have been thus marked, thecards will represent a number sequence, when orderly'arranged from figure 1 to figure 26, and a name sequence, when arranged alphas betically by girls names, but there will be nosimple relationship between the one sequenceand the other. T he cards should now be again shuffled thoroughly, and after stackf ing should be marked with a third sequence, which for convenience we will assume to be a set of dates. The first card might be marked January 3, 1900, and the next card could be marked February 14, 1900, and so on through the entire twenty-six cards, each one being marked with a different date, and the entire series being hereinafter called the date sequence. T he cards should then 7 be again shuflled,stacked, and each card should then be given a symbol of a fourth sequence. This fourth sequence can conveniently be geographical names, the first card being, for example, markedAustria, the second card being marked Brazil, and the last card being marked Zanzibar. Any desired number of additional sequential series may be given to the cards, as for example, boys namesfrom Adam toZachariah, the names of chemicalelements fromaluminum to zirconium,v

the names of animals from ape to zebra, etc., the number of-such sequences that can be used being practically unlimited, and the cards of each sequence being entirely haphazard with respect to the arrangement of the symbols on the cards of any other sequence. 1

In employing a set of twenty-six cards made in accordance with my present invention, the cards are first arranged in orderly sequence from one to twenty-six, and are handed to the subject to be tested 7 while so arranged. The subject is first told to arrange the cards alphabetically, ac cording to the names of boys, and the time required to so arrange the cards is noted by the. examiner. It will be observed that in the very act of sorting the cards according to an alphabetical arrangement of boys names, the cards are necessarily rearranged as to every other sequence upon them, .and as the cards start from a fixed initial arrangement toa fixed final arrangement, the work involved is exactly the same for every subject tested. Upon the subject of examination completing the rearrangement of the cards in the order of boys names alphabetically in order, the time required for this step is again taken, and the subject is re quested to rearrange the cards according to the date upon each card,the earliest date, to come first, and-each date to follow in date order. Again the time required is determined, and upon the completion of that 9 step the cards are again sorted by the subject in accordance with the orderly arrange ment of the next sequence. The final step in the testing is of course to-have the applicant arrange the cards in numerical order i by the card numbers that were first given to the cards.

"When tested in accordance with the above procedure, each applicant'receives the cards in exactly the'same condition asevery other I applicant, and in each step of sorting disarranges the cards'with respect to the next succeeding sequence. Upon completing the sorting of the cards according to each of the v sorting operations required the cards again 7 present invention, I will take the sorting of a set of twenty-six cards, of which the cards shown in Figure 1, Figure 2 and Figure 3 may be considered as illustrative and as representing three cards taken from a set of twentysix. It will be noted that the positions occupied by'the various symbols is not the same on the different cards, with the exception of the sequential number of the card, which for convenience should always be placed in the same position upon each card, this position being preferably at the extremeright hand end of the top line of each card. The position upon the cards of the boys name, the girls name, the date, the distance, the'temperature, etc. should preferably be a random arrangement determined by chance. As additional variables the type used in printing the names in certain sequences, the color of ink used in printing symbols, etc. may all be changed to introduce new factors of variation.

Given such a set of cards arranged initially in sequential order according to card numbers, each subject under examination is required to successively sort the cards in accordance with each of the series of sequence and is finally required to rearrange the cards in sequential order according to card numrangements according to the laws of'permuta-v tions and combinations are "avoided. Thus, by my invention, the two difiiculties which have been inseparably connected with all previous methods of testing sorting ability are obviated, and by the use of cards as herein described the sorting ability of the different subjects can be accurately, simply andquick- 1y determined, without any elements of chance that might either favor or oppose the subject being present. v i

It will be evident that many modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the disclosure asherein made. By employing different colors in the forming of the individual symbols upon the cards as here'- in described, or by employing different sizes and styles of type in the printing of the symbols, either as individual symbols or as series of symbols, a vast number of sorting arrangements becomes possible, and a single pack of cards may be used for testing sorting ability ranging from such simple tasks as bringing together all cards bearing red markings, blue markings, etc., to such complicated tasks as the sorting of chemical elements in accordance with their atomic number, or the arranging of cities in accordance with. their geographical location as a secondary factor of alphabetical order, and other like tasks involving a high order of intellectual ability. invention is not limited to the type of'cards as herein illustrated, as these cards have been shown for purpose of example only, and with the object of more fully explaining the principle of my invention.

I claim:

1. A pack of psychological testing cards comprising a plurality of cards each bearing a plurality of symbols each of which forms a part of an independent sequential series of such nature that the arranging of the cards in sequential order of the symbols of any such series corresponds to the shuttling of the cards with respect to the disarrangement of the symbols of another series.

2. A pack of psychological testing cards comprising a plurality of cards each bearing a plurality of symbols each of which forms a part of an independent sequential series of such nature that the arranging of the cards in sequential order of the symbols of any such series corresponds to the shuffling of the cards with respect to the disarrangement of the symbols of every other series.

3. A pack of psychological testing cards comprising a plurality of cards each bearing a plurality of face symbols each of which forms a part of an independent sequential series of such nature that the arranging of the cards in sequential order of the symbols of any such series corresponds to the shuffling of the cards with respect to the disarrangement of the symbols of another series, and a plurality of edge symbols, each edge symbol corresponding to some face symbol of a related series.

4. A pack of psychological testing cards comprising a plurality of cards each bearing a plurality of face symbols each of which forms a part of an independent sequential series of such nature that the arranging of the cards in sequential order of the symbols of any such series corresponds to the shuffling of the cards with respect to the disarrangement of the symbols of every other series, and a plurality of edge symbols, each edge symbol corresponding to some face symbol of a related series. 7

V In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name this 3rd day of October, 1928.

WALTER O. SNELLING.

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