Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-01-03
BRAIN TESTS OF THE SEXES.
Girls Surpass in Visual Memory. Rate
 of Perception, 6ensitiveness to Pain.

mine as far as possible the mental difference between the boys of
 Columbia college and the girls of
 Barnard. The tests also take up the
 differences between freshmen and
 seniors, to show the exact amount in
 mental ability that comes with resi- dence in college.
 According to the tests made the women surpass the men in visual
 memory, rate of perception and sen
 sitiveness to pain, while in auditory
 memory, speed of movement, and
 time of association the men are su-
 perior. In regard to fatigue, percep-
 tion of weight and logical memory
 the Barnard girls and Columbia men
 were found to be about equal.
 These tests are made on all enter-
 ing classes at Barnard and Columbia.
 At the end of four years the same
 test is repeated in order to see what
 the student has. gained. There are
 twenty-one tests in all, intended to
 cover the complete range of mental
 ability. They include measurements
 as to length and breadth of head, strength of hands, and ability to en- dure fatigue, as well as tests of eye sight, color vision, hearing, percep- tion of pitch, perception of weight, sensation areas sentivenesss to pain, perception of size, color preference, reaction time, rate of perception,
 naming colors, ratesof movement, ac-
 curacy of movement, perception of time, association, imagery and mem ory, visual, auditory, logical and
 retrospective.
 For many of the tests, like fatigue
 and the perception of pain, a simple apparatus is used which registers the
 results of a continuous movement of or continuous pressure applied to the hand. For the tests that are regarded as most important in de- Etermining mental ability, however, like tests as to perception, memory and quickness of movement, no ap- paratus of any sort Is necessary. :. To test the rate of perception 100 As are scattered at random through a list of 800 letters and the student is asked to mark all the As as quick ly as possible. In general. the women succeeded better in this than the men, the average for them being about ninety-one seconds. while most of the men took more than 100 sec onds. The percentage of errors. how ever, was larger among the wohen that among the men.
 Another test in perception was in naming 100 color squares, which represented nine different colors and were indiscriminately mixed. In this the women succeed much better than the men, doing it in nineteen seconds less time.
 To test the rate of movement each student was asked to place a dot in each of 100 squares, while to test accuracy the same person tried to place pencil on each of 100 dots as quickly as possible. The time of the first movement was on an average of two seconds longer for the women than for the men. In the accuracy test exact measurements for the wO- men were slightly superior.
 There were four memory tests. ToA test the auditory memory ten num- bers were repeated to the student in close succession and he was asked to recall them. Ten other numbers were shown the student in succession, and he recalled these To test the logical memory passage of 100 words was read and the student asked to give the thought that 1t contained. To test retrospective memory the stu dent was asked for after lapse of an hour to reproduce line that he had drawn. The men were found to be much better in auditory than in visual memory. in which the women were largely their superiors.
 Regarding the differences between freshmen and the same persons four years later. it has been found that | the principal improvement is in the | width of the head. the perception of | pitch. estimation of time, memory | and the marking of As. In the mat ter of sensation areas the freshmen l were found to be superior.
 The association tests which are re- | garded as important are made by | causing the student to write rapidly ! opposite the following words the things that are just suggested to his mind: House, tree. child. time. art, London, Napoleon, red. enough. rights.
 The question as to how closely the mental ability as shown by these tests is related to the general college work done by each student is arous- ing much interest among the Colum- bia faculty. While it seems that the | two are not so closely correlated as might be expected. it is found that in general those who pass the best tests do the best work in their studies. Memory seems to have little to do with class standing. Tests of quickness. both of speed of and of perception seem to bear the closest relation to the work lone in college
 One interesting fact that was brought out was the subjection of college people to halluc,nations. It vas found that 90 per cent of the freshmen were subject to these in ,ne form or another. and that in many cases they continued through put the students college course. For he most part these visions consisted ,f voices heard or something of the ,ind. although occasionally some hing was seen. In one case a stu lent reported that he had hesri the -oice Of his mother l.500 miles away. besides scraps Of conversation. and he voices Of his friends calling him