The measurement of intelligence : an explanation of and a complete guide for the use of the Stanford revision and extension of the Binet-Simon intelligence scale

Front matter

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Seen Naseteay ts age aaa : ‘ cent ae ne ne : ea : sioaaa peaet

St er ares coarse any eee,

Part I. Problems And Results Chapter I

Tue Uses or Inretiicgence Tests . .... . 8 Intelligence tests of retarded school children. Intelligence tests of the feeble-minded. Intelligence tests of delinquents. Intelligence tests of superior children. Intelligence tests as a basis for grading. Intelligence tests for vocational fitness. Other uses of intelligence tests.

CHAPTER II SourcEs OF ERROR IN JUDGING INTELLIGENCE Pe Oe

Are intelligence tests superfluous? The necessity of standards. The intelligence of retarded children usually overestimated. The intelligence of superior children usually underestimated. Other fallacies in the estimation of intelligence. Binet’s questionnaire on teachers’ methods of judging intelligence. Binet’s experiment on how teachers test intelligence.

CHAPTER II

DESCRIPTION OF THE Binet-Stmon Metruwop . . .. . 36

Essential nature of the scale. How the scale was derived. List of tests. How the scale is used. Special characteristics of the Binet-Simon method. The use of age standards. The kind of mental functions brought into play. Binet would test “general intelligence.” Binet’s conception of general intelligence. Other conceptions of intelligence. Guiding principles in choice and arrangement of tests. Some avowed limitations of the Binet tests.

Chapter IV

NATURE OF THE STANFORD REVISION AND Extension . . 51 Sources of data. Method of arriving at a revision. List of tests in the Stanford revision and extension. Summary of changes. Effects of the revision on the mental ages secured.

xiv

CONTENTS

CHAPTER V ANALYsIS OF ONE THOUSAND INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENTS

The distribution of intelligence. The validity of the intelligence quotient. Sex differences. Intelligence of the different social classes. The relation of the I Q to the quality of the child’s school work. The relation between I Q and grade progress. Correlation between I Q and the teachers’ estimates of the children’s intelligence. The validity of the individual tests.

CHAPTER VI Tue SIGNIFICANCE OF Various INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENTS

Frequency of different degrees of intelligence. Classification of intelligence quotients. Feeble-mindedness. Border-line cases. Examples of border-line deficiency. Dull normals. Average intelligence. Superior intelligence. Very superior intelligence. Examples of very superior intelligence. Genius and “near” genius. Is the I Q often misleading?

CHAPTER VII RELIABILITY OF THE Brnet-Stmon METHOD

General value of the method. Dependence of the scale’s reliability on the training of the examiner. Influence of the subject’s attitude. The influence of coaching. Reliability of repeated tests. ‘Influence of social and educational advantages.

Chapter VIII

Necessity of securing attention and effort. Quiet and seclusion. Presence of others. Getting into rapport. Keeping the child encouraged. The importance of tact. Personality of the examiner. The avoidance of fatigue. Duration of the examination. Desirable range of testing. Order of giving the tests. Coaxing to be avoided. Adhering to formula. Scoring. Recording responses. Scattering of successes. Supplementary considerations. Alterna-

. 121

CONTENTS xV tive tests. Finding mental age. The use of the intelligence quotient. How to find the! Q of adult sueioas Material for use in testing.

CHAPTER IX Instructions For YEAR III 1. Pointing to partsof the body . . . ree aera 4 2. Naming familiar objects sack ee ermerere Cs 3. Enumeration of ate in pictures. . caw 8! vhs 4, Giving sex... Bote NpHo eas DRO race SR ee EO 5. Giving the family name ee ee ea 6. Repeating six to seven eriahies ae eee eee ae Alternative test: Repeating three digits. . . . . . 150 CHAPTER X INSTRUCTIONS FOR YEAR IV t;. Comparison-of lines obi 6 gs Seo kan pe Cane ish es BOE 2. Disernmination of formes). wo eee eet Be 16S S. Comntiig four pennies <4 ce 0 4 Aes Se ies eer ee &. Copywg & stare oad Se ee) eNO Ne a Oe 5. Comprehension, first degree Gi ek: ieee eh We Se a C RO 6. Repeating four digits . . (i a BOD Alternative test: Repeating pwelve ie thinteen syllables . - 160 CHAPTER XI INSTRUCTIONS FOR YEAR V 1. Comipatison of weights :. ee la we a EL @,. Naming COIGES ooh) jicar cha a a ee QO WE Ge Ph eS 3. Esthetic comparison ‘ Poe aires meray Ut heer mmaw ee 15, 4, Giving definitions in terms af U5 ian Pg ge Me tyre! vee 5. The game of patience DAE oe CIN gs eaten ig 4s gor ee 6. Three commissions ; UE OPE a. Niky oy og Blaegh 2° eee Alternative test: Giving meee Oe poe ie RRO ge Og Ee CHAPTER XII INSTRUCTIONS FoR YEAR VI 1y/ Distinguishing right-and left = ce ee TS %. Finding omissions in pictures . . . . . . « . ‘1% 8. Counting thirteen pennies . . ., . .’.s . « . 180 4. Comprehension, second degree . . . . «. . «© «© 181 xvi

CONTENTS

Naming four coins .

6. Repeating sixteen to i itece eylisiles

Alternative test: Forenoon and afternoon

CHAPTER XIII

INSTRUCTIONS FoR YEAR VII i. . Description of pictures .

. Repeating five digits

. Tying a bow-knot

. Giving differences from aemoty . Copying a diamond : Alternative test 1: Naming ie das of ine ae Alternative test 2: Repeating three digits reversed .

OS Or em O89 ww

Giving the number of fingers

CHAPTER XIV

InstRUCTIONS FoR YEAR VIII

. The ball-and-field test . 5 . Counting backwards from 20 to 1

. Comprehension, third degree

. Giving similarities, two things

. Giving definitions superior to use.

. Vocabulary (20 definitions, 3600 words)

Alternative test 1: Naming six coins Alternative test 2: Writing from dictation

CHAPTER XV

INSTRUCTIONS FoR YEAR IX

1. 3 . Arranging five weights .

. Making change

. Repeating four digits iyemed

. Using three words in a sentence . . Finding rhymes

Giving the date

Alternative test 1: Nunes the months :

Alternative test 2: Counting the value of stamps

CHAPTER XVI

INSTRUCTIONS FOR YEAR X i.

Vocabulary (30 definitions, 5400 ica

2. Detecting absurdities

. 184 . 185

. 255 . 255

> Sr Hw 69

CONTENTS XVii

. Drawing designs from memory . . 260 . Reading for eight memories . 262 . Comprehension, fourth degree . 268 . Naming sixty words ; ~ St2 Alternative test 1: Repeating Six digits : . B17

Alternative test 2: Repeating twenty to twenty-two éylinbles Q7T Alternative test 3: Healy’s Construction Puzzle A . . 278 CHAPTER XVII InstrucTIoNS FoR YEAR XII 1. Vocabulary (40 definitions, 7200 words) . SSL 2. Defining abstract words. . 281 3. The ball-and-field test (superior plan) . 286 4. Dissected sentences RS Oe gar . 286 5. Interpretation of fables score 4) Rew crrye er ane . 290 6. Repeating five digits reversed . 801 7. Interpretation of pictures . 302 8. Giving similarities, three things . 306 CHAPTER XVIII INSTRUCTIONS FoR YEAR XIV 1. Vocabulary (50 definitions, 9000 words). . . 310 2. Induction test: finding a rule i . 310 3. Giving differences between a president and a, siking . 313 4. Problem questions . . 315 5. Arithmetical reasoning .. . 319 6. Reversing hands of a clock . . 321 Alternative test: Repeating seven digits . 322 CHAPTER XIX INSTRUCTIONS FoR “AVERAGE ADULT” 1. Vocabulary (65 definitions, 11,700 words) . . . . 3% 2. Interpretation of fables (score 8) . me ipod . 324 8. Differences between abstract terms . . . . «© « « SB 4. Problem of the enclosed boxes ef 5. Repeating six digits reversed ee ge i ie Oe 6. Usingacode ... se oO Alternative test 1: enecting Grenneioht alla bles . 332 Alternative test 2: Comprehension of physical relations . . 333

XViii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XX

INSTRUCTIONS FOR “‘SUPERIOR ADULT”

. Vocabulary (75 definitions, 13,500 a . Binet’s paper-cutting test :

. Repeating eight digits . . . . . . Repeating thought of passage - . Repeating seven digits reversed . _cngenuity test) 6 Sanne), Mek wry

D> oO & OH

MIND ew ik Ta an ee eh pe e e e e e e

. 349

FIGURES AND DIAGRAMS

. Distribution of Mental Ages of 62 Normal Adults . . . 55 . Distribution of I Q’s of 905 Unselected Children, 5-14 Years of he 66 . Median I Q of 457 Boys and 448 Girls, for the Ages 5-14 Years . 69 . Diamond drawn by R. W.; Age 13-10; Mental Age 7-6. . . 8%

Writing from Dictation. R. M., Age 15; Mental Age9 . .

. Diamond drawn by A. W.

. Drawing Designs from Memory. H. o is : Mental Aue: $s

. Ball and Field Test. S. F.. Age 17; Mental Agell-6 . . . 88 . Writing from Dictation. C. P., Age 10-2; Mental Age 7-11. . 90 . Ball and Field Test. M. P., Age 14; Mental Age 10-8 . . . 91 . Ball and Field Test. R. G., Age 13-5; Mental Age 10-6 et ag BS . Ball and Field Test. E. B., Age 7-9;1Q130 ... . 98 . Ball and Field Test. F. McA., Age 10-8; Mental Age 14-6 . . . 100 . Drawing Designs from Memory. E. M., Age 6-11; Mental Age 10,

. Ball and Field Test. I. M., Age 14-2; Mental Age9 . . . 84 F 85

PQ 26 eos go? ee ee

. Ball and Field Test. B. F,, Age 7 -8:; Mental shee 12-4; .1.Q 160 . 102 . Healy and Fernald Construction Puzzle pee. ecg tg, eae ake

PART I PROBLEMS AND RESULTS nee ies eee pe eae %

Chapter I The Uses Of Intelligence Tests

Intelligence tests of retarded school children. Numerous studies of the age-grade progress of school children have afforded convincing evidence of the magnitude and seriousness of the retardation problem. Statistics collected in hundreds of cities in the United States show that between a third and a half of the school children fail to progress through the grades at the expected rate; that from 10 to 15 per cent are retarded two years or more; and that from 5 to 8 per cent are retarded at least three years. More than 10 per cent of the $400,000,000 annually expended in the United States for school instruction is devoted to re-teaching children what they have already been taught but have failed to learn.

The first efforts at reform which resulted from these findings were based on the supposition that the evils which had been discovered could be remedied by the individualizing of instruction, by improved methods of promotion, by increased attention to children’s health, and by other reforms in school administration. Although reforms along these lines have been productive of much good, they have nevertheless been in a measure disappointing. The trouble was, they were too often based upon the assumption that under the right conditions all children would be equally, or almost equally, capable of making satisfactory school progress. Psychological studies of school children by means of standardized intelligence tests have shown that this supposition is not in accord with the facts. It has been found that children do not fall into two well-defined groups, ' the “ feeble-minded ” and the “ normal.’ Instead, there are many grades of intelligence, ranging from idiocy on the one hand to genius on the other. Among those classed as normal, vast individual differences have been found to exist in original mental endowment, differences which affect profoundly the capacity to profit from school instruction.

We are beginning to realize that the school must take into account, more seriously than it has yet done, the existence and significance of these differences in endowment. Instead of wasting energy in the vain attempt to hold mentally slow and defective children up to a level of progress which is normal to the average child, it will be wiser to take account of the inequalities of children in original endowment and to differentiate the course of study in such a way that each child will be allowed to progress at the rate which is normal to him, whether that rate be rapid or slow.

While we cannot hold all children to the same standard of school progress, we can at least prevent the kind of re- | tardation which involves failure and the repetition of a_ school grade. It is well enough recognized that children do not enter with very much zest upon school work in which they have once failed. Failure crushes self-confidence and destroys the spirit of work. It is a sad fact that a large proportion of children in the schools are acquiring the habit of failure. The remedy, of course, is to measure out the work for each child in proportion to his mental ability.

Before an engineer constructs a railroad bridge or trestle, he studies the materials to be used, and learns by means of tests exactly the amount of strain per unit of size his materials will be able to withstand. He does not work empirically, and count upon patching up the mistakes which may later appear under the stress of actual use. The educational engineer should emulate this example. Tests and forethought must take the place of failure and patchwork. Our efforts have been too long directed by “trial and error.” It is time to leave off guessing and to acquire a scientific knowledge of the material with which we have to deal. When instruction must be repeated, it means that the school, as well as the pupil, has failed.

Every child who fails in his school work or is in danger of failing should be given a mental examination. The examination takes less than one hour, and the result will contribute more to a real understanding of the case than anything else that could be done. It is necessary to determine whether a given child is unsuccessful in school because of poor native ability, or because of poor instruction, lack of interest, or some other removable cause.

It is not sufficient to establish any number of special classes, if they are to be made the dumping-ground for all kinds of troublesome cases — the feeble-minded, the physically defective, the merely backward, the truants, the incorrigibles, etc. Without scientific diagnosis and _ classification of these children the educational work of the special class must blunder along in the dark. In such diagnosis and classification our main reliance must always be in mental tests, properly used and properly interpreted.

Intelligence tests of the feeble-minded. Thus far intelligence tests have found their chief application in the identification and grading of the feeble-minded. Their value for this purpose is twofold. In the first place, it is necessary to ascertain the degree of defect before it is possible to decide intelligently upon either the content or the method of instruction suited to the training of the backward child. In the second place, intelligence tests are rapidly extending our conception of “ feeble-mindedness ” to include milder degrees of defect than have generally been associated with this term. The earlier methods of diagnosis caused a majority of the higher grade defectives to be overlooked. Previous to the development of psychological methods the low-grade moron was about as high a type of defective as most physicians or even psychologists were able to identify as feeble-minded.

Wherever intelligence tests have been made in any considerable number in the schools, they have shown that not far from 2 per cent of the children enrolled have a grade of intelligence which, however long they live, will never develop beyond the level which is normal to the average child of 11 or 12 years. The large majority of these belong to the moron grade; that is, their mental development will stop somewhere between the 7-year and 12-year level of intelligence, more often between 9 and 12.

The more we learn about such children, the clearer it becomes that they must be looked upon as real defectives. They may be able to drag along to the fourth, fifth, or sixth grades, but even by the age of 16 or 18 years they are never able to cope successfully with the more abstract and difficult parts of the common-school course of study. They may master a certain amount of rote learning, such as that involved in reading and in the manipulation of number combinations, but they cannot be taught to meet new conditions effectively or to think, reason, and judge as normal persons do.

It is safe to predict that in the near future intelligence tests will bring tens of thousands of these high-grade defectives under the surveillance and protection of society.

USES OF INTELLIGENCE TESTS vi

This will ultimately result in curtailing the reproduction of feeble-mindedness and in the elimination of an enormous amount of crime, pauperism, and industrial inefficiency. It is hardly necessary to emphasize that the high-grade cases, of the type now so frequently overlooked, are precisely the ones whose guardianship it is most important for the State to assume.

Intelligence tests of delinquents. One of the most important facts brought to light by the use of intelligence - tests is the frequent association of delinquency and mental deficiency. Although it has long been recognized that the proportion of feeble-mindedness among offenders is rather large, the real amount has, until recently, been underestimated even by the most competent students of criminology.

The criminologists have been accustomed to give more attention tothe physical than tothe mental correlates of crime. Thus, Lombroso and his followers subjected thousands of criminals to observation and measurement with regard to such physical traits as size and shape of the skull, bilateral asymmetries, anomalies of the ear, eye, nose, palate, teeth, hands, fingers, hair, dermal sensitivity, etc. The search was for physical “stigmata”’ characteristic of the “criminal type.”

Although such studies performed an important service in creating a scientific interest in criminology, the theories of Lombroso have been wholly discredited by the results of intelligence tests. Such tests have demonstrated, beyond any possibility of doubt, that the most important trait of © at least 25 per cent of our criminals is mental weakness. The physical abnormalities which have been found sc common among prisoners are not the stigmata of criminality, but the physical accompaniments of feeble-mindedness. They have no diagnostic significance except in so far as they are indications of mental deficiency. Without exception, every study which has been made of the intelligence level of delinquents has furnished convincing testimony as to the close relation existing between mental weakness and moral abnormality. Some of these findings are as follows: —

Miss Renz tested 100 girls of the Ohio State Reformatory and reported 36 per cent as certainly feeble-minded. In every one of these cases the commitment papers had given the pronouncement “intellect sound.”

Under the direction of Dr. Goddard the Binet tests were given to 100 juvenile court cases, chosen at random, in Newark, New Jersey. Nearly half were classified as feeble-minded. One boy 17 years old had 9-year intelligence; another of 1514 had 8-year intelligence.

Of 56 delinquent girls 14 to 20 years of age tested by Hill and Goddard, almost half belonged either to the 9- or the 10-year level of intelligence.

Dr. G. G. Fernald’s tests of 100 prisoners at the Massachusetts State Reformatory showed that at least 25 per cent were feeble-minded. s

Of 1186 girls tested by Miss Dewson at the State Industrial School for Girls at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 28 per cent were found to have subnormal intelligence.

Dr. Katherine Bement Davis’s report on 1000 cases entered in the Bedford Home for Women, New York, stated that there was no doubt but that at least 157 were feeble-minded. Recently there has been established at this institution one of the most important research laboratories of the kind in the United States, with a trained psychologist, Dr. Mabel Fernald, in charge.

Of 564 prostitutes investigated by Dr. Anna Dwyer in connection with the Municipal Court of Chicago, only 3 per cent had gone beyond the fifth grade in school. Mental tests were not made, but from the data given it is reasonably certain that half or more were feeble-minded.

Tests, by Dr. George Ordahl and Dr. Louise Ellison Ordahl, of cases in the Geneva School for Girls, Geneva, [linois, showed that, on a conservative basis of classification, at least 18 per cent were feeble-minded. At the Joliet Prison, Illinois, the same authors found 50 per cent of the female prisoners feeble-minded, and 26 per cent of the male prisoners. At the St. Charles School for Boys 26 per cent were feeble-minded.

Tests, by Dr. J. Harold Williams, of 150 delinquents in the Whittier State School for Boys, Whittier, California, gave 28 per cent feeble-minded and 25 per cent at or near the border-line. About 300 other juvenile delinquents tested by Mr. Williams gave approximately the same figures. As a result of these findings a research laboratory has been established at the Whittier School, with Dr. Williams in charge. In the girls’ division of the Whittier School, Dr. Grace Fernald collected a large amount of psychological data on more than 100 delinquent girls. The findings of this investigation agree closely with those of Dr. Williams for the boys.

At the State Reformatory, Jeffersonville, Indiana, Dr. von Klein-Schmid, in an unusually thorough psychological study of 1000 young adult prisoners, finds the proportion of feeble-mindedness not far from 50 per cent.

But it is needless to multiply statistics. Those given are but samples. Tests are at present being made in most of the progressive prisons, reform schools, and juvenile courts throughout the country, and while there are minor discrepancies in regard to the actual percentage who are feeble-minded, there is no investigator who denies the fearful role played by mental deficiency in the production of vice, crime, and delinquency.!

Heredity studies of “ degenerate’ families have confirmed, in a striking way, the testimony secured by intelligence tests. Among the best known of such families are the “ Kallikaks,” the “Jukes,” the “ Hill Folk,” the * Nams,” the “‘ Zeros,” and the “ Ishmaelites.”’

The Kallikak family. Martin Kallikak was a youthful soldier in the Revolutionary War. At a tavern frequented by the militia he met a feeble-minded girl, by whom he became the father of a feeble-minded son. In 1912 there were 480 known direct descendants of this temporary union. It is known that 86 of these were

1 See References at end of volume.

illegitimates, that 33 were sexually immoral, that 24 were confirmed alcoholics, and that 8 kept houses of ill-fame. The explanation of so much immorality will be obvious when it is stated that of the 480 descendants, 143 were known to be feeble-minded, and that many of the others were of questionable mentality.

A few years after returning from the war this same Martin Kallikak married a respectable girl of good family. From this union 496 individuals have been traced in direct descent, and in this branch of the family there were no illegitimate children, no immoral women, and only one man who was sexually loose. There were no criminals, no keepers of houses of ill-fame, and only two confirmed alcoholics. Again the explanation is clear when it is stated that this branch of the family did not contain a single feeble-minded individual. It was made up of doctors, lawyers, judges, educators, traders, and landholders.!

The Hill Folk. The Hill Folk are a New England family of which 709 persons have been traced. Of the married women, 24 per cent had given birth to illegitimate offspring, and 10 per cent were prostitutes. Criminal tendencies were clearly shown in 24 members of the family, while alcoholism was still more common. The proportion of feeble-minded was 48 per cent. It was estimated that the Hill Folk have in the last sixty years cost the State of Massachusetts, in charitable relief, care of feeble-minded, epileptic, and insane, conviction and punishment for crime, prostitution, pauperism, etc., at least $500,000.?

The Nam family and the Jukes give equally dark pictures as regards criminality, licentiousness, and alcoholism, and although feeble-mindedness was not as fully investigated in these families as in the Kallikaks and the Hill Folk, the evidence is strong that it was a leading trait. The 784 Nams who were traced included 187 alcoholics, 232 women and 199 men known to be licentious, and 40 who became prisoners. It is estimated that the Nams have already cost the State nearly $1,500,000.

Of 540 Jukes, practically one fifth were born out of wedlock, 37 were known to be syphilitic, 53 had been in the poorhouse, 76

1H. H. Goddard: The Kallikak Family. (1914.) 141 pp.

2 Danielson and Davenport: The Hill Folk. Eugenics Record Office, Memoir No. 1. 1912. 56 pp.

3 Estabrook and Davenport: The Nam Family. Eugenics Record Office. Memoir No. 2. (1912). 85 pp.

had been sentenced to prison, and of 229 women of marriageable age 128 were prostitutes. The economic damage inflicted upon the State of New York by the Jukes in seventy-five years was estimated at more than $1,300,000, to say nothing of diseases and other evil influences which they helped to spread.!

But why do the feeble-minded tend so strongly to become delinquent? The answer may be stated in simple terms. Morality depends upon two things: (a) the ability to foresee and to weigh the possible consequences for self and others of different kinds of behavior; and (6) upon the willingness and capacity to exercise self-restraint. That there are many intelligent criminals is due to the fact that (a) may exist without (6). On the other hand, (b) presupposes (a). In other words, not all criminals are feeble-minded, but all feeble-minded are at least potential criminals. That every feeble-minded woman is a potential prostitute would hardly be disputed by any one. Moral judgment, like business judgment, social judgment, or any other kind of higher thought process, is a function of intelligence. Morality cannot flower and fruit if intelligence remains infantile.

All of us in early childhood lacked moral responsibility. We were as rank egoists as any criminal. Respect for the feelings, the property rights, or any other kind of rights, of others had to be laboriously acquired under the whip of discipline. But by degrees we learned that only when instincts are curbed, and conduct is made to conform to principles established formally or accepted tacitly by our neighbors, does this become a livable world for any of us. Without the intelligence to generalize the particular, to foresee distant consequences of present acts, to weigh these foreseen consequences in the nice balance of imagina-

1 R. L. Dugdale: The Jukes. (Fourth edition, 1910.) 120 pp. G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

tion, morality cannot be learned. When the adult body, with its adult instincts, is coupled with the undeveloped intelligence and weak inhibitory powers of a 10-year-old child, the only possible outcome, except in those cases where constant guardianship is exercised by relatives or friends, is some form of delinquency.

Considering the tremendous cost of vice and crime, which in all probability amounts to not less than $500,000,000 per year in the United States alone, it is evident that psychological testing has found here one of its richest applications. Before offenders can be subjected to rational treatment a mental diagnosis is necessary, and while intelligence tests do not constitute a complete psychological diagnosis, they are, nevertheless, its most indispensable part.

Intelligence tests of superior children. The number of children with very superior ability is approximately as great as the number of feeble-minded. The future welfare of the country hinges, in no small degree, upon the right education of these superior children. Whether civilization moves on and up depends most on the advances made by creative thinkers and leaders in science, politics, art, morality, and religion. Moderate ability can follow, or imitate, but genius must show the way.

Through the leveling influences of the educational lockstep such children at present are often lost in the masses. It is a rare child who is able to break this lockstep by extra promotions. Taking the country over, the ratio of “ accelerates ” to “ retardates ”’ in the school is approximately 1 to 10. Through the handicapping influences of poverty, social neglect, physical defects, or educational maladjustments, many potential leaders in science, art, government, and industry are denied the opportunity of a normal development. The use we have made of exceptional ability

reminds one of the primitive methods of surface mining.

It is necessary to explore the nation’s hidden resources of intelligence. The common saying that “ genius will out ” is one of those dangerous half-truths with which too many people rest content.

Psychological tests show that children of superior ability are very likely to be misunderstood in school. The writer has tested more than a hundred children who were as much above average intelligence as moron defectives are below. The large majority of these were found located below the school grade warranted by their intellectual level. One third had failed to reap any advantage whatever, in terms of promotion, from their very superior intelligence. Even genius languishes when kept over-long at tasks that are too easy.

Our data show that teachers sometimes fail entirely to recognize exceptional superiority in a pupil, and that the degree of such superiority is rarely estimated with anything like the accuracy which is possible to the psychologist after a@ one-hour examination. B. F., for example, was a little over 714 years old when tested. He was in the third grade, and was therefore thought by his teacher to be accelerated in school. This boy’s intelligence, however, was found to be above the 12-year level. There is no doubt that his mental ability would have enabled him, with a few months of individual instruction, to carry fifth or even sixth-grade work as easily as third, and without injury to body or mind. Nevertheless, the teacher and both the parents of this child had found nothing remarkable about him. In reality he belongs to a grade of genius not found oftener than once in several thousand cases.

Another illustration is that of a boy of 10% years who tested at the “average adult” level. He was doing superior work in the sixth grade, but according to the testimony of the teacher had “ no unusual ability.”” It was ascertained from the parents that this boy, at an age when most children are reading fairy stories, had a passion for standard medical literature and textbooks in physical science. Yet, after more than a year of daily contact with this young genius (who is a relative of Meyerbeer, the composer), the ‘teacher had discovered no symptoms of unusual ability.!