THE PERFORMANCE OF ADULT MALES ON THE MINNESOTA PAPER FORM BOARD TEST AND THE O'ROURKE MECHAN- ICAL APTITUDE TEST BERT HANMAX WPA Education Program, California State Department of Education A S an aid in selecting men for national defense training classes, the WPA Education Program of Northern California has been administering mechanical tests to WPA workers in the San Francisco Bay Area since June, 1941 The Minnesota Paper Form Board Test, Series AA, and the O'Rourke Mechanical Aptitude Test, Form C, were the two mechanical tests used As a consequence of this test- ing, it is doubtful that the published norms of the Revised Minnesota Paper Form Board Test are typical of adult males Both tests were given to a total of 785 men, in groups of 20-25, at one two-hour sitting, allowing time for rest periods Their ages ranged from 20-65 years, tending to cluster around 39-43, and their education from no formal schooling to the equivalent of a Ph D degree, clustering around 8-9 years of schooling. The computed percentile scores for the present study are shown in Table 1, while the published norms for the two tests may be compared with those of the present study in Table 2 Since the obtained distribution corresponds well to the norms of the O'Rourke Mechanical Aptitude Test based on 70,000 cases, it appears that the present sample of 785 adult males is adequate and also that the caliber of the men is com- parable With this equivalence and with the compared norms for the Minnesota test not corresponding, a question arises as to the adequacy of the published norms for the Revised Minne- 809 810 BERT HANMAN TABLE 1 Prrcentile Scores for "7So Aduli Males on the Minnesota Paper Form Board Test and tlu O'Eourke Mechanical Aptitude lest Percentile rank 99 95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 so 25 20 15 10 5 1 Scores on Minnesota Paper Form Board Test (Possible score 64) 53 45 40 38 36 34 33 31 28 26 24 23 21 20 18 13 13 10 7 3 0 Scores on O 'Rourke Mechanical Aptitude Test (Possible score 342) 331 304 280 268 252 240 230 221 208 198 188 176 165 152 139 127 112 97 78 53 11 TABLE 2 Comparison of the Published Norms for Adult Males with the Norms for the Present Study on the Minnesota Paper Form Board Test and the O'Uour\c Mechanical Aptitude Test Minnesota Paper O 'Rourke Mechanical Form Board Test Aptitude Test (Possible score 64) (Possible score-342) Q 3 Median Q i Number Published norms 36 31 23 of cases 76 Present study 34 24 15 785 Published norms 2415 189 5 137 0 70,000 Present study 240 0 188.0 127 0 785 MECHANICAL APTITfDE TEST 8 1 1 sota Paper Form Board Test This mav he due in part to the small size of the Minnesota sample a.s veil as to its poor repre- sentation of adult males On the other hand, it is conceivable that both O'Rourke's population and the present one are in- ferior to unseleeted males of this ace raime