Tests Army Intelligence People Results Alpha Beta Psychologists

During the first World War, the United States Army needed a way to assess the intelligence of "recruits" (people who had been persuaded to join the Army) so that they could provide appropriate training opportunities. A group of psychologists created two versions of the Army "Alpha" (the first letter of the Greek alphabet) and the Army "Beta" (the second letter of the Greek alphabet) tests. The Army Alpha test focused on "verbal" (related to speaking, listening, and reading) abilities. The Beta test focused on non-verbal activities and was given to people who did not perform well on the Alpha test.

The recruits performed surprisingly poorly on the exams. When the results were analyzed, people began to worry about how "feeble-minded" (intellectually weak; unable to think clearly) people were. One of the psychologists who had created the tests stated that the tests measure "innate intelligence," or the intelligence a person was born with, not the intelligence "acquired" (gotten; obtained) through education or experiences. If this were true, the results would have been alarming. However, "subsequent" (later) analyses of the exams showed that this was not true.

The results of the tests were used to determine which recruits were trained as "officers" (high-ranking members of the military). But they were also used to "draw conclusions" (make determinations or judgments) about different groups of people. For example, people used the tests results to show that groups of people were more or less intelligence based on their "race" (skin color) or "national origin" (the country one came from). Examination of the tests later discovered that they were "biased" (favorin