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Document Type

Thesis

Date of this Version

1-1936

Citation

Thesis (M.A.)—University of Nebraska—Lincoln, 1936. Department of Educational Psychology and Measurements.

Comments

Copyright 1936, the author. Used by permission.

Abstract

The aim of this investigation has been to find, if possible, prognostic tests by means of which we may discover the qualities essential to typists and other keyboard operators and to determine whether the Aptitude Machine devised by Dr. Charles Fordyce can be used as a means of determining aptitudes in the use of the typewriter, comptometer, and other similar machines.The scope of this investigation was limited to the students in the Senior High School of University City, Missouri, St. Louis County.

Our findings indicate that mental and clerical tests measure qualities and aptitudes so remotely related to those demanded in typing as to be of little value, if any value, to the instructor of typing, but the correlation between the scores in the aptitude testing apparatus and the achievement scores made at the close of a semester of practice in typing is sufficiently high to give evidence that this measuring device may serve as a valuable instrument in foreshadowing typewriting ability.We therefore recommend its use among instructors of typewriting.

The two tests given on the aptitude testing machine, the one with controlled rhythm and the other with the rhythm at the student’s own rate, indicate that the one with the controlled rhythm is decidedly better as a prognostic measure.

Since the modern typewriter, particularly the noiseless variety, requires such a delicate touch, and since the aptitude testing apparatus, devised by Dr. Fordyce, demands such a vigorous stroke, we recommend that this apparatus be so modified that its keys may respond more nearly as do those in the modern typewriter.

Advisor: Charles Fordyce

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