This paper was presented at the Symposium on Interest Measurement, sponsored by Center for Interest Measurement Research, University of Minnesota on May 19-22, 1966. It describes the history, starting in 1942, of the development phases of the Academic Interest Measures (AIM). The original attempt of the test was to assess level of interest in a number of areas relevant for adolescents rather than to measure the extent to which adolescents possessed adult interests. In 1964 a study indicated that substantial external validity existed; a more complete investigation was underway at the time of this presentation in which AIM will be administered to eleventh-grade students at a random sample of U.S. schools along with a scholastic aptitude measure and a questionnaire. The students will be followed over time.
