msams-667-986452 Review of Of Pups and Puzzles

Of Pups and Puzzles (1941)

job applicant screening - an amusing historical perspective

[8/10 · 21 February 2010]

Interesting short documentary about the emergence of personnel tests for screening job applicants when there was the need for massive hiring and selection for a wide variety of jobs in factories to support WWII. The film states that tests for humans were derived from psychological research with animals. An experiment showed dogs who were trained to recognize abstract symbols as precursors for food rewards, and then had varying 'emotional' reactions when they could not decipher the meaning of a novel stimulus. (thus film title, Pups and Puzzles) The film showed that if a novel stimulus is presented while humans take a personnel test, then the psychologist can determine the individual's temperament. The psychologist fired a pistol over the heads of job applicants to see if they could recover quickly from being startled and successfully conclude their math test. Certainly this method of determining 'adaptability', would not be acceptable in today's time either for research or employment testing! Personnel testing has come a long way since then! The film is crafted to be amusing for all audiences, but it is really most amusing in its historical perspective. It will be of particular interest to research psychologists and industrial/ organizational personnel specialists.