Sensameter intelligence test materials and letters, including instruction papers and photographs and 25 test objects.
Test materials for Sensameter intelligence test, comprised of 4 test objects and wooden tray, photograph, printed instructions, note of meeting at GPO (1931), and a letter from its promoter, E. Haydn Brown to NIIP, 1936.
Test materials for Sensameter intelligence test, comprised of 25 test objects, including 'dextemeter' test for 'inherent manipulative power' (an accompanying sheet proposes its use for testing the inability to drive).
The Sensameter test assessed basic intelligence irrelevant of education or memory capacity. Dr E. Haydn Brown wrote a letter about it to the National Institute of Industrial Psychology (NIIP). He claimed it increased concentration skills and improved judgement. He felt the test would be valuable in ‘schools, convalescent homes, hospitals sanatoria, and mental hospitals’. The test pieces shown are made of metal, cardboard, leather and plastic. They include the ‘dextemeter’ test for 'inherent manipulative power'.
Psychological testing was used extensively during the 1900s to assess vocational and educational aptitude. The NIIP was founded by prominent British psychologist Charles Myers in 1921. He was Director of the Cambridge Psychological Laboratory. Its ambition was ‘to promote by systematic scientific methods a more effective application of human energy in occupational life’.
