PREFACE
Introduction
Joseph Tiffin, Ph.D., Industrial Psychologist, Purdue University (1948), first developed the Purdue Pegboard for the selection of employees for industrial jobs. Today the board has various applications. This Quick Reference Guide focuses solely on Tiffin’s original test procedures and test norms, which are presented in Tables 9-16 within Appendix A of the Purdue Pegboard Manual (PPM).
In addition to the original test, test procedures and data appear in PPM for the following applications:
• Indicating the presence and laterality of brain damage (Costa et. Al. 1963);
• Discriminating children with learning disabilities (Kane and Gill 1972);
• Assessing performance of school children with neurologically based learning disabilities (Gardner and Broman 1979);
• Assessing candidates for vocational rehabilitation (Hamm and Curtis 1980)’
• Assessing the performance of dyslexic subjects (Leslie, Davidson, and Batey 1985).
Application
The Purdue Pegboard aids in the selection and rehabilitation of employees for various types of manual labor by measuring 2 types of dexterity:
1. Gross movements of the fingers, hands, and arms
2. Fine fingertip dexterity necessary in assembly tasks
The Purdue Pegboard can be used for many testing applications, such as Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Vocational Evaluation, and Pre-employment Screening. Other applications for the test can be found by doing a bibliography search.
Physical and Occupational therapists use the Purdue Pegboard for injury rehabilitation. They use the test as a tool to obtain baseline data on a patient. They also use it to document patient progress and/or degree of disability.
Vocational Evaluators use the Purdue Pegboard to determine a subject’s ability and aptitude for certain work-related applications and for recommending placement in jobs that require manual dexterity. The Purdue Pegboard is also used to develop a specific training program that will give an individual the skills to complete a job task that requires manual dexterity.
Human Resource Directors and Temporary Staffing Agencies use the Purdue Pegboard as a pre-employment screening and selection tool. An applicant’s performance on the Purdue Pegboard can indicate their ability to perform in a job/task that requires manual dexterity. Note: It is strongly recommended that the testing organization shows a correlation between a subject’s performance on the Purdue Pegboard and a subject’s performance in the specific job task. This may be accomplished by testing subjects currently working in a specific job task who are high performers and low performers. Then test the same subjects using the Purdue Pegboard. The high performers should score higher on the Purdue Pegboard than the low performers.
ADMINISTRATION
Before administering the Purdue Pegboard Test, the test administrator is advised to carefully read this section of the manual. As with any standardized test, it is important to follow the directions very closely. If the Purdue Pegboard Test is to be used as a basis for employee selection, the test must be administered to all applicants according to the standardized test procedure. If the test is not given identically, irrelevant factors may affect test scores. In order to reduce the variability among test administrators, specific details regarding the arrangement of materials and the testing procedures are presented below.
Practice the administration of the Purdue Pegboard before conducting a test on a subject. The amount of practice needed in order to become comfortable with the testing process id dependent upon the test administrator’s previous testing experience. The test administrator should practice the Purdue Pegboard until he or she is able to perform each of the tests at an average speed for demonstration purposes. Note: The test administrator will be demonstrating to the test subject what is expected of him or her before each test.