But while it is relatively a simple matter to devise tests that satisfactorily indicate the subject’s possession of the more obvious mental powers indicated by such tests as those last listed above, there is another class of mental tests, designed primarily to indicate or determine the possession of the more abstract qualities, the manifestation of which through the individual’s simple and ordinary actions is less obvious to the untrained observer. This is the class of tests that are designed to measure the degree in which an individual possesses such qualities as moral sense, form perception, the power to reason from cause to effect, poetic discrimination, ability to understand complicated instructions, judgment, sense of the right relationship of things and ideas. It is as important, if one is to arrive at a true measure of any individual’s mental capacity, that he be tested as to his possession of these more or less abstract qualities, as it is to determine his possession of concrete abilities. In other words, the normal mind of an intelligent adult is capable of dealing intelligently with ideas and abstractions. The mentality that does not respond with a certain degree of readiness to ideal conceptions is to that extent sub-normal. The only possible way of determining the possession of unusual or super-normal mental capacity is by means of the demonstration that its possessor grasps readily and responds unhesitatingly to the presentation of abstract concepts.
The demonstration itself must, of course, be concrete. Unless the individual possessing extraordinary mental power is able, as Kipling phrases it, to
. . . . press the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.
it is of no social consequence whatever that he may possess the mental catholicity of a Shakespeare. There is no place in the modern world for “mute, inglorious Miltons.”
Indeed, it may be questioned whether a “mute, inglorious Milton” ever existed. The world is full of people who regard themselves as “unappreciated.” Everyone is familiar with the unfortunate type that is forever seeking sympathy, constantly on the lookout for friendly shoulders on which to sob out the sad tale of the world’s harshness. Under psychological tests the preponderant majority of this type of individual is clearly demonstrated to be mentally deficient or sub-normal in some important respect. The occasional individual of normal mental capacity who fails to demonstrate that capacity by the performance of specific acts is merely mentally lazy. In other words, it may be set forth as a sound conclusion, capable of scientific proof, that mental capacity in the healthy, normal individual always finds means of expressing itself in concrete and socially useful ways, whenever its possessor actually desires so to utilize his mental powers.
In the devising and preparation of tests intended to measure the less obvious of the mental powers, a considerable degree of ingenuity and the greatest amount of scientific care and technical skill is required. To the person untrained in psychology tests designed to measure the possession of the more abstract powers frequently look childish, if not positively silly. Since it is essential, in the case of Army officers and men, to determine as nearly as it may be done by simple and easily applied tests their possession of a wide variety of mental qualities, some of the elements of the Army Alpha test appear to the concrete type of mind to be futile, if not absurd. But any comprehensive system of mental tests must include, as there have been included in the Mentimeter tests presented in this volume, a considerable proportion which do not on their face appear to be directed toward the disclosure of the ordinary and useful mental capacities. It is of vital importance, if the results of any given series are to give an adequate picture of the actual abilities and possibilities of the subject examined, that tests of this character be included among them.
Each of the possible classes of mental tests may be set to any one of an infinite number of standards. General intelligence tests, for example, may be set to the standard of the average university graduate, so that the result when applied to any individual gives a fair estimate of the subject’s intelligence as compared with that of those who have demonstrated the possession of mental capacity sufficient to complete satisfactorily a university course. Or the standard may be that of the average lawyer, the average high school pupil, the average normal child of any age or school grade, the average skilled mechanic, the average labourer, or the average child below the age of speech. And, in practice, what is measured is, after all, general intelligence.
Intelligence, as has been frequently pointed out, while it does not depend upon the individual’s ability to read and write, is so generally accompanied by the definite and intimate knowledge of the symbols which we call letters, words, and figures, and of their meaning, that in the great majority of cases in which it is desired to apply the test of intelligence this can best be done, or at least most readily be done, by the use of these familiar symbols; in other words, by tests which involve only the acts of reading and writing. If intelligence may be defined as the intellectual power of adaptation to environment, a complete test of intelligence determines the individual’s ability to recognize the situation in which he finds himself, perceive his own relation to the situation, analyze it, and arrive at a conclusion as to what he should do next; then put that conclusion into effect by means of a concrete act. Thus one may learn a great deal about an individual’s mental capacity by observing his conduct when he misses a train. But since it is not practicable to apply this method of inquiry in every case, the next best thing is to ask the question, “What would you do if you missed your train?” To ask this question of a subject is next best to seeing him in such a situation. He must exercise his sense of reality upon it, size it up and plan his reaction.
Since all life is made up of situations in which the individual places or finds himself and from which he must extricate himself, and since the broader the mental capacity, the more easily will the individual meet situations as they arise, the ideal mental test is one that presents a situation such as does or might occur in real life, and requires the subject to extricate himself, or at least to indicate his first and immediate impulse toward action should such a situation arise.