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
As we have already said, most of the functions performed by human beings
are very complex, and capable of analysis. To read, understand, and
execute a page of any musical composition is a very complicated
performance. The attempt to measure special ability has been the attempt
first to scale total performance in the function, and second to scale
performance in the various coördinating functions contributing to total
result. Thus in the case of musical talent, Seashore has found by
analysis a large number of contributing factors, and has actually
devised scales of measurement for five of these subsidiary functions.
Measurement more or less adequate can now be made of ability to read,
spell, draw, write, put mechanical contrivances together, and calculate.
This list does not by any means exhaust the possibilities of measurement
in particular functions at present, but exemplifies them. Slowly we are
approaching the point of being in position to tell not only how a child
stands in general intelligence, but also to indicate his status in
regard to special abilities. The “picture” of the total relationship
among a person’s abilities is called a psychograph.
XI. THE PSYCHOGRAPHIC PICTURE OF INDIVIDUALITY
A psychograph may consist merely of numerical statements of the
individual’s standing in various mental capacities respectively; or it
may be presented in the form of a graph drawn from the figures. No
standard graph has been agreed upon. Sometimes the method is to present
points of deviation from a horizontal line representing the typical
performance; sometimes to present the deviations from a vertical line,
representing the typical; sometimes to present deviations along the
spokes of a “wheel,” the typical being taken as a circumference drawn
midway between the center and the perimeter of the circle.
[Illustration:
FIG. 3.—The psychograph of a school boy, showing his standing in
various mental functions; illustrating use of the horizontal line to
denote typical performance. The scores are in terms of mental age.
(From Hollingworth’s _Judging Human Character_. Reproduced by
courtesy of D. Appleton and Company.)
]
Figure 3 is an illustration of the first mentioned mode of presentation.
It shows the status of a school boy in various mental functions
measured. This boy is 18 years old. In interpreting the psychograph,
which is platted in terms of mental age, it must be borne in mind that
many of the capacities here included are matured by the age of 16 years.
The individual is not, therefore, subnormal with regard to them. This
case illustrates some of the difficulties of treating adolescents and
adults in terms of mental age.
[Illustration:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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