Special talents and defects : $b Their significance for educationHollingworth, Leta Stetter
Science
Special talents and defects : $b Their significance for education
Hollingworth, Leta Stetter
Educational psychology; Educational tests and measurements; Exceptional children
Not all scales for the measurement of general intelligence are scorable
in terms of IQ. Some have been standardized in terms of “raw” points
achieved, and some in terms of percentile status. There is at present
much variety of usage in scoring, the ideal being to find _units_ of
measurement. It does not lie within the scope of this volume to treat
the problem of establishing units for the measurement of mental traits.
The general intelligence of the children to be discussed here has
usually been determined in terms of IQ, which will be comprehended from
the brief description given.
An ideal of students of mental measurement is to devise a scale which
will measure any intelligence, from the lowest to the highest existing,
after maturity, in units every one of which is equal to every other; and
to devise a scale fulfilling the same requirements for each 12-months
interval of the period of immaturity. This ideal is far from being
realized at the present time, but the future will see it achieved.
In the meantime scales for the measurement of special talents, which are
not measured by the scales for measuring general ability, are being
worked out. What these special talents are we shall now consider.
X. THE MEASUREMENT OF SPECIAL ABILITY
Although much further research is required before we can identify all
the mental functions which are incoherent with general intelligence, we
already have some knowledge of the matter, useful for the welfare of
school children. Certain abilities are shown repeatedly by different
investigators to be relatively independent. Success in music and in
representative drawing is very slightly correlated with success in other
school subjects. Spelling is far from perfectly predictable from grades
in schooling generally. Mechanics is relatively independent. Whereas
ability in reading and in arithmetic is highly, but not perfectly,
correlated with general competence.
These facts mean that from knowledge of a pupil’s general intelligence
we can make very reliable predictions as to his capacity for reading and
for arithmetic, somewhat less reliable predictions as to his aptitude
for spelling or mechanics, and that our predictions concerning his
ability to draw, sing, or play musical instruments should be given
without confidence in their reliability, if given at all.
Other kinds of performances, like the management of people, appreciation
of a joke, dancing, the management of wild or domestic animals, have not
been thoroughly studied in their relation to general intelligence,
though these and scores of others which will occur to the reader, might
be of great significance for practical psychology, if shown to be
somewhat independent talents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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