PRETRAINING CORRELATES OF TRAINFIRE MARKSMANSHIP
Abstract
Entering USMA cadets of the Class of 1967 were studied to determine whether prior weapons experience, intelligence, or their parents' or their own attitudes toward weapons influenced their subsequent rifle firing scores in a 'Trainfire' marksmanship course. On a questionnaire administered shortly after arrival at West Point, 59 per cent reported they had fired at least 250 shots previously, and 40% had a prior course of instruction. Virtually all (98%) expressed a liking for weapons, and 73% reported they expected to fire in the upper half of their class. Most (82%) reported their fathers as either in favor of, or not objecting to, their use of firearms, and 43% reported their fathers had bought them weapons. Mothers were less encouraging than fathers regarding owning and using firearms; however, 71% of the subjects described their mothers as either encouraging or not objecting to their learning to fire weapons. A cadet's expressed confidence in his firing ability was found to be a limited, yet the best, single predictor of his range firing scores. Although items concerning prior firing experience, and items concerning cadet and parental attitudes toward weapons, were also correlated with the criteria of range firing scores, they did not add substantially to the predictive ability of the confidence item. The correlations of experience with range scores were lower than in previously reported studies. Intelligence, which was correlated with marksmanship scores of Army basic trainees, was not found to be an effective predictor in this cadet population.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0622293
Entities
People
- Carl G. Lauterbach
- David P. Vielhaber