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
From his search through the literature pertaining to arithmetical
prodigies, Mitchell concluded that he could not find sufficient data
from which to generalize concerning heredity. This conclusion is no
doubt justified. We must wait upon modern studies, in order to gain
knowledge of the extent to which such tendencies may be inherited. We
may note, however, that many relatives, gifted in some way, are reported
among the lightning calculators of history. Diamandi’s mother “had an
excellent memory for all sorts of things,” and a brother and a sister
out of a family of fourteen siblings shared his aptitude for mental
arithmetic; the family history of the Bidders has been referred to
already; Safford’s father and mother were both teachers; Gauss had a
maternal uncle of known mechanical and mathematical talent; Mitchell’s
younger brother could play chess blindfolded. Of the two children, D and
R, herein described, both have many adult relatives who are or were
writers, money makers, inventors, or organizers. Of this generation, D
is an only child, but he has several cousins. Of these, three who have
been measured show IQ’s of 150, 156, and 157, respectively. R’s only
brother has an IQ of 150, and of his two cousins, both girls, the only
one yet measured has an IQ of 170. These are suggestive fragments of
facts concerning family resemblances.
Cobb has made a quantitative study of resemblance between parents and
children, in the various fundamental processes, using five of Courtis’
standard tests. She finds that the coefficient of correlation between
child and like parent is .60, between child and unlike parent, .01,
between child and mid-parent, .49. By “mid-parent” is meant the ability
that falls midway between the abilities of the two parents. Twenty
persons were studied in eight families. No sex differences were noted. A
child of either sex may resemble either parent, and not all children of
the same family do resemble the same parent. Cobb concludes that the
likeness found is due to heredity.
In the matter of sex differences, it is notable that of all the
lightning calculators recorded only one, and she of minor importance,
was of the female sex. It is possible that this difference may be due to
native sex differences in the inheritance of endowment. It is much more
probably due, however, to those differential pressures—social,
educational, and economic—which cast up to public notice more deviates
of all kinds among the male sex. During the periods from which the
records of lightning calculators have been gathered, this differential
pressure was much more forceful than it is now. Because of the
differential action upon the sexes of social pressures, it is never
possible to make valid comparisons of the sexes in respect to mental
deviation, unless the sampling has been rigidly made in some manner
absolutely indifferent to selection, and unless the measurements have
been objectively taken.
XI. IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION
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