The retest consistency of Army Alpha after thirty years

Abstract

A sample of 127 males who had originally taken Army Alpha, Form 6, as freshmen in 1919 were retested on the same form in 1950. Retest coefficients ranged from .30 to .69 for the eight subtests; total score retest coefficient was .77. These coefficients are compared with corrected odd-even coefficients based on the 1919 scores. "… since the range of talent in a college population largely composed of graduates is surely restricted and since… [a previous study]… suggests that the thirty-year age increment did affect individuals differentially… . If a conclusion is warranted, it would seem to be that personnel decisions posited upon the long-term consistency of results obtained from our better intellective tests are reasonably well-founded." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)