In general, all correlations between an individual's divergence from the common type or average of his age for one arithmetical function, and his divergences from the average for any other arithmetical function, are positive. The correlation due to original capacity more than counterbalances the effects that robbing Peter to pay Paul may have.
Speed and accuracy are thus positively correlated. The individuals who do the most work in ten minutes will be above the average in a test of accuracy. The common notion that speed is opposed to accuracy is correct when it means that the same person will tend to make more errors if he works at too rapid a rate; but it is entirely wrong when it means that the kind of person who works more rapidly than the average person is likely to be less accurate than the average person.
Interest in arithmetic and ability at arithmetic are probably correlated positively in the sense that the pupil who has more interest than other pupils of his age tends in the long run to have more ability than they. They are certainly correlated in the sense that the pupil who 'likes' arithmetic better than geography or history tends to have relatively more ability in arithmetic, or, in other words, that the pupil who is more gifted at arithmetic than at drawing or English tends also to like it better than he likes these. These correlations are high.
It is correct then to think of mathematical ability as, in a sense, a unitary ability of which any one individual may have much or little, most individuals possessing a moderate amount of it. This is consistent, however, with the occasional appearance of individuals possessed of very great talents for this or that particular feature of mathematical ability and equally notable deficiencies in other features.
Finally it may be noted that ability in arithmetic, though occasionally found in men otherwise very stupid, is usually associated with superior intelligence in dealing with ideas and symbols of all sorts, and is one of the best early indications thereof.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The following and later problems are taken from actual textbooks or courses of study or state examinations; to avoid invidious comparisons, they are not exact quotations, but are equivalents in principle and form, as stated in the preface.
[2] The work of Mitchell has not been published, but the author has had the privilege of examining it.
[3] The form of Test 6 quoted here is that given by Courtis ['11-'12, p. 20]. This differs a little from the other series of Test 6, shown on pages 43 and 44.
[4] Eight or ten times in all, not eight or ten times for each fact of the tables.