This experiment was designed to analyze factors which are related to performance on the Memory for Names and Faces subtest of the George Washington University Social Intelligence Test (7). One might, but probably should not, say that the memory-fornames-and-faces type of test has high face validity. The basic experimental task requires the subject to associate a name with a face. The testee is asked to memorize the names of a number of portrait photographs. Later, the testee is given a larger group of photographs and requested to identify the pictures previously studied. Most testees and not a few employment managers assume that this type of test measures a useful social skill. Many individuals who successfully deal with large numbers of people are reputed to have phenomenal memories for names and faces. Presumably the ability to say, "Hello, Mr Piccalilli, I believe we met eight years ago in the elevator at Radio City,1' serves as an egoinflating stimulus which tends to make Mr. Piccalilli more likely to buy an insurance policy or cast a vote for a particular candidate. Presumably, also, to address Mr. Piccalilli as Mr. Mustard will be taken as a direct assault upon his person, and the sale or the vote will be irretrievably lost. Tests requiring the association of a name with a face enjoy considerable popularity. Besides being included in the George Washington scale, this type of test is included in the Factored Aptitude Series (3) which is reportedly used by many industrial organizations. The manual of the latter states, "... the ability measured is broader than test content. Good memory for names and faces also means ability to recall other types of information." Performance on the memory-for-faces test is reported by the manual to be related to performance on such jobs as: agent, buyer, manager, receptionist, salesman, telephone operator, and waiter.
The memory-for-faces type of test has a long history in psychology beginning as early as 1926 (4) when it was incorporated in the first form of the George Washington University Social Intelligence Test. Successive revisions of this scale continued to include this names-and-faces subtest, as does the present form (7). One of the authors of the scale, F. A Moss, denned social intelligence as '". . . the ability to get along with people." He wrote (4, p. 26)' "One of the most important factors in social intelligence is the ability to recognize faces and remember names. The person who gets along best with others does not have to be introduced to a man three or four times before he remembers that he has met him before.'' Probably the best critical summaries of early research on the total scale and the particular subtest under consideration here are contained in the reviews by Thorndike and Stein (11) and by Jackson (2). The major inferences drawn from this early research were that the test is of dubious validity and that a meaningful criterion of social intelligence had not been definitively isolated Important questions remain to be answered concerning this type of memory test. It is not clear exactly what the test is measuring. Does it measure some aspect of social intelligence, general memory, general intelligence, or spatial ability? The sometimes reported differences between various occupational groups are not particularly convincing, since a number of factors could account for the differences.
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