TY BY PROGRESSIVE LINE TEST
PRIVATE LABORATORY, SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY]

For purposes of illustration, here is a simple form of what is known
as the "line" test for suggestibility. The subject is seated about
two feet away from and in front of a revolving drum on which is a
strip of white paper. On this strip of white paper are drawn twenty
parallel straight lines. These lines begin at varying distances from
the left-hand margin. Each of the first four lines is fifty per cent
longer than the one before it, but the remaining sixteen lines are
all of the same length.

[Sidenote: _A Test for Suggestibility_]

The examiner says to the subject, "I want to see how good your 'eye'
is. I'll show you a line, say an inch or two long, and I want you to
reproduce it right afterwards from memory. Some persons make bad
mistakes; they may make a line two inches long when I show them one
three inches long; others make one four or five inches long. Let's
see how well you can do. I shall show you the line through this
slit. Take just one look at it, then make a mark on this paper
[cross-section paper] just the distance from this left-hand margin
that the line is long. Do that with each line as it appears."

The lines are then shown one at a time, and after each is noted it
is turned out of sight. As the lines of equal length are presented,
the examiner says alternately, "Here is a longer one," "Here is a
shorter one," and so on. The extent to which these misleading
suggestions of the examiner are accepted and acted upon by the
subject in plain violation of the evidence of his senses tests in
a measure his suggestibility, his automatic, mechanical and immediate
responsiveness to the influence of others and his comparative lack
of strong resistance to such outside influences. Inability to
satisfactorily meet this and similar tests for suggestibility would
indicate an unfitness for such duties as those required by a private
secretary, who must at all times have himself well in hand and not
be easily lured into embarrassing revelations.

[Sidenote: _Selecting a Stenographer_]

You should not employ as stenographer a person whose time-reactions
indicate a slowness of auditory response or an inability to carry
in mind a long series of dictated words, or whose vocabulary is too
limited for the requirements of your business.

[Sidenote: _Tests for Auditory Acuity_]

The quickness of auditory response may be determined either by