PROCESSES OF THE MIND.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 October 1921, Page 10

PROCESSES OF THE MIND.

MEASURING INTELLIGENCE.

NEW SYSTEM EXFIAINED

ASTONISHING RESULTS.

“Up to the present we know less .about the capacity of our pupils than a good horse-trainer knows about his trotters,” said Dr. J. W. Mcllwraith, in the course of a lecture on the measuring of human intelligence delivered recently at a meeting of thM Auckland Institute.

“That may-be explains, in part,” he continued, “why New Zealand is willing to spend more on racing than on education, and may be why Ellerslie racecourse is a thing of beauty and of joy forever, and half the city schools are abominations in the sight of God and man.”

In the course of an intensely interesting lecture. Dr. Mcllwraith explained the method of measuring intelligence now adopted in America, and outlined the various uses to which it could be applied in education, commerce, industry, war and for the general benefit of the race.

He said that, although during the past 50 years efforts had been made to measure the intelligence, it was Jeft to Alfred Binet, in co-operation with his friend, Dr. Simon, to elaborate a test that not only did not fail to separate the normal from the feebleminded, but also had the additional merits of determining at what stage in its mental development a child had arrived and the height of the final stage. Such was the celebrated Binet-Simon system. SYSTEM OF TESTS. “Binet recognised that intelligence is many sided,” continued the lecturer, “seen in ]iis tests lie approaches it from many angles. His questions are simple, so as to avoid the effects of education; for it is now recognised that education affects the intelligence no more than it affects the color of the eyes. Hitfierto it has been found impossible to entirely eliminate the effects of instruction. Binet’s tests therefore include questions such as are designed to test the child’s imagination, its power of detecting absurdities, of combining fragments of a picture, of interpreting fables r of meeting novel situations, of number-mastery, of finding similarities or differences, and of defining abstract terms. American investigators have improved Binet’s tests and it is now possible in about three-quarters of an hour to detect how old a child is mentally, and further, how much further mentally that child will develop. So far as can be determined, intelligence increases rapidly till the age of eight, and finally ceases to increase at 16. At 16 the individual has a complete set of mental tools. Thus, if at the age of five, a child has a mental age of only four (that is, a mental development equal to that of 70 per cent., of children aged four), then his mental development or intelligence quotient is said to be four-fifths, or 80 per cent. Now lie will carry this intelligence quotient of 80 all through his life. At the age of 10 his normal age will be eight, at 15 it will be 12, and as his mind ceases developing at 16, he will never have a higher degree of intelligence than a normal 13-year old boy. AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT. The lecturer explained that with this measuring scale investigators had made wonderful discoveries, and had proved the fallacy of the expression, “Genius will out,” for by their means much genius had been brought into the open for special treatment. Thus there were arising in America schools specially devoted to brilliant children destined to become leaders of the nation in society, in industry, in the arts and professions. Hence also a classification in the schools of children according to their mental age, all children of the same mental age being in the same class. Many high schools, colleges and engineering schools were following the same course, admitting only those whose intelligence quotient was above a certain point. There also followed a gradual abandonment, of the present class system and a devising of a syllabus of instruction that would fit varying types of mind. GRADING OF SOLDIERS. Other tests had been devised more especially adapted to adults. With these the business man could test his • employees, and, rejecting those not worth training, and selecting others of j high intellectual capacity for intensive instruction. With another of high in-! I tellectual capacity for intensive instruction. Wtih another test 1,700,000 re-i I cruits in the American Army were sorted in different grades, some were sent home as absolutely dangerous to others; some were fit only for camp jqbs, while the others were arranged according to their capacity for jobs of ever-in-ereas-ing coniplex'ity.

These tests had further revealed that intelligence alone would not guarantee success. Intelligence is absolutely essential to success, but it must be accompanied by certain ('motion traits and such attributes as industry and persistence. If tests revealed the presence of high intelligence in a pupil whose educational achievements were low, then the problem arose whether training could supply him with the necessary propelling power. For intelligence might be compared to. a shell—its effectiveness depended very largely upon the charge that propelled it.

The relation of intellect to criminality was shown by diagrams and graphs. The lecturer said that the feeble-minded supplied America with only two per cent, of the population but with 25 per cent, of the criminals. Morality depended on the ability to foresee results and the power of restraint. This restraint, however, was of necessity kicking where the intellectual capacity for foreseeing the results of actions was wanting. Such feebleminded people needed special attention and care to a better degree than was now possible.