Can a Black “Culture Assimilator” Increase Racial Understanding?

A programmed instruction approach to race relations training in the United States Army involved the development of the technique (culture assimilator) and its field test. In the development phase 65 black officers, 90 black enlisted men, 65 white officers, and 90 white enlisted men participated; in the field test 84 white junior grade officers and 85 black junior grade officers participated. Results indicated: (a) the sample of problems used in the assimilator represents a set of events far more familiar to black officers than the white officers; (b) blacks obtain higher scores on the assimilator (indicative of greater knowledge of the black perspective on race relations in the army) than whites; (c) significant evidence of learning of acculturative materials on the part of white officers was obtained; and (d) there was significant improvement on an independent test of intercultural understanding.