Description of Diagrams illustrating the use of experimental Tests of Mental Capacities.
1. "Experimental Tests of General Intelligence."
A List of twelve tests applied to two schools at Oxford. The first two columns of figures indicate the "reliability" or self-consistency of the tests as compared with that of examinations and master's general impression. The second two columns give the correlations of the results of the tests with the children's "general intelligence." It will be seen that several of the tests of higher mental processes are as reliable as the scholastic tests at present in vogue, and that they correlate quite as highly with intelligence. Further experiments show that while examinations and master's estimates measure knowledge and skill acquired by memory and training, the tests seems to provide measurements rather of innate capacities; and that children of superior parentage (e.g. the preparatory school boys) are themselves superior at tests, which show an appreciable positive correlation with intelligence (i.e. all except tests of touch and weight). The tests thus provide an experimental demonstration of the inheritance of mental ability and a means of measuring the same. (References:—Burt, Experimental Tests of General Intelligence, British Journal of Psychology, Vol. III., Pts. 1 and 2.) Burt, Inheritance of Mental Characteristics, Eugenics Review, 1912, July.
2. Sex-differences in mental tests.
A list of experimental tests applied to children of both sexes with a view to measuring their innate capacities for performing mental processes of different levels of complexity. The amount of divergence between the sexes, is indicated by the column in red. It will be seen that the sex-differences become smaller, the higher the level tested. There is some evidence to show that these differences are the result of inheritance and are not the result of difference of tradition or environment. (References: Burt and Moore, the Mental Differences between the sexes. Journal of Experimental Pedagogy, 1912, June. Burt, Inheritance of Mental Characteristics, Eugenics Review, 1912, July.)
Exhibit by Dr. George Papillault.