New-York tribune., 1921-05-22

n cussed ouestionnaires fer employees have
4 achieved no other results, at least they
have reused public interest in the what
ana s,Sy OF psychology.
What is the use of such tests, anyway"
is question that has been asked by many
persons after reading the crisp and widely
varied queries in the list sent out from Mr.
Edison's business establishment
In this instance the question is legitimate
enough for experts are agreed that Mr., Edi-
sons questonnaires do not constitute real
intelligence test.
perhaps the questions given out in the
newspapers achieved the results Mr.. Edison
was after" said Professor Samuel B. Heck
man. director of the educational clinic at the
College Of the City of New York, where thou
sands of psychological tests are given to
school children and to groups and individuals
sent by the welfare organizations of the city.
The questions given by Mr. Edison were not
along standard psychological lines, however.
They called for retentive memory for dis
sociated facts, which may be useful to some
and totally useless to anybody else. 1t is
greater to know where to find such facts than
to remember them 1t is like the faculty for
quotation. One man may be able to quote
freely from his reading. A better educated
man, perhaps, will not be able to quote at
ALL but will know where to find the quotations
needed. The high grade man cannot burden
his mind with great mass of facts, but must
know when to apply such facts. 1t is true that
we must have a knowledge of a certain num-
Der of facts on which to base knowledge,
but many facts in Mr.. Edison's tests were not
fundamental. 1t may be, Of course, that his
questionnaires achieved the results that were
sought, but they should not be confused with
psychological tests"
In the opinion Of DR.. Hickman more gen
aral application of the principles of psychol-
ogy in the grammar schools and in high school
will do much to reduce the number of collie
gians whose inability to answer certain ques-
tions caused Mr.. Edison to allude to them as
amazingly ignorant"
Under the present system of education it is
pointed out that too many young people are al
lowed to wander along wrong paths in hit-or-
miss fashion. Psychology seems to offer at
least partial relief to the age-old problem of
the square peg and the round hole. Psychologi-
cal examinations of students in groups and sin
gly and carried out by experts, it is said, will
effect readjustment which is bound to help
the student who is amazingly ignorant" mere
ly because he has been plugging away at the
things for which nature never fitted him.
Education is tending that way. There are
vocational aids in many public schools to-day
Dr. Hickman has class of undergraduates
who studying the application of psychology
and next year the College of the City of New
York will offer course in psychological tests
for the benefit of teachers.
"The aim is to put students on the right
path,' said DR. Hickman. Intelligence tests
can be practically applied in suggestions for
further education and for vocational guidance
after one gets out of school. 1t should be en-
phasized that such tests are not perfect No
one claims that, but they do show general ten
dencies much better than anything else yet
devised"
DR.. Hickman quoted two examples showing
the application of intelligence tests in voca-
tional way.
In one OF these instances man, probably
twenty-five years DID, came to the attention of
those conducting the educational clinic at
City College. He was determined to be court
reporter and had struggled determinedly
through his school years with that goal in
view. An Intelligence test convinced DIR.
Hickman that the man belonged in the gen
eral grade that dc7s we'll in subordinate
capacity. He might nave struggled on few
more years and wound up as a second-rate
stenographer, but he could hope for nothing
better. An opportunity arose for him to take
civil service examination for a clerkship in