The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-27
WHY. GIRLS. LED BOYS
 IN TESTS EXPLAINED
More Mediocre Material In Male Student Body Is One Reason, Examiners Say-Some Of The
 Queer Quiz Questions And Answers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass, Jan. 26.-The question whether our girls or youths have the keenest minds is under in- quiry in the psychological laboratory at Harvard university. And the girls would seem to have somewhat the bet ter of it, if we may judge by compara- tive tests. But it is not a matter which can be decided in an official way. The reputed superiority of the male still has weight behind it.
 | Dr. Herbert S. Langfeld, in charge of the tests, says that the girls at Rad cliffe measure up to the Harvard .un- dergraduates and never fall quite so low as the laggards. He explains this primarily on the. basis of selection that the Radcliffe girls represent a more carefully picked group than the Harvard students, who outnumber them by far and often go to the university as a matter of course.
 Dr. A. A. Roback, also of Harvard, is specialist in thinking up questions that are hard to answer and the au- thor of several tests used on the two groups of students. In one of these tests 40 Radcliffe girls attained an average of 55 per cent, and the best 107 Harvard students could do was 505 per cent. One from each group tied for first place with scores of St per cent. A Harvard student set the low mark with 9 per cent, whereas the girl with the poorest showing had 2S per cent to her credit. Thus the test proved the conclusion of Dr. Langfeld that the girls never fall so low as the boys, and showed that they often do much better. 'A.'
 College Girls Better Picked Y
 Tt is tradition for many young men to attend Harvard" said Dr. Langfeld. "They come here because their fathers came before them. Others reach us for no special reason con nected with their own abilities. They are sent by their parents as a matter of routine; because of prestige in fu- ture life and similar reasons.
 But it is different with the girls. For the most part they are better picked than the boys. Usually a girl does not get a chance to attend Rad cliffe unless she has shown high scholarship and by earnest effort con- vinced the folk back home that she is going to do something worth while. Many of these girls are entered in Rad cliffe at great sacrifice by their parents and sometimes by. their own sacrifices. So they come to college with will to get ahead that boys often lack. And that spirit is not long in making an i'm pression. That is the reason a psycho- logical test may favor the girls"
 Dr. Langfeld was asked if any fun damental difference existed between the mnetal makeup of the typical boy stu dent and the average girl; whether it was a question of superior natural fit ness on either hand or largely a matter of application and driving power.
 "The personal element is the thing that rules all others" he said. In telligence alone seldom is sufficient to command success. It requires initiative and determination-what we term char acter. Extensive tests by one author ity convinced him that girls up to 14 were brighter than boys by 3 or 4 per cent, but the conclusion stopped at that age. There is a fundamental sex difference between the male and the feminine brain, but we cannot be sure how far that difference extends, nor draw any dogmdtic example. The mat ter still is one for speculation, investi- gatiOn."
 Dr. Roback said that the test used on the two groups Nt Harvard and Radcliffe dealt principally with prob lens or interpretation, application and analysis and sounded what he described as 'the practical common sense phases of intelligence"
 "We must understand not that the