Evening star., 1925-05-24
Days Of Week and Hours of Day
Tested for Varying Mental Powers

the conclusions worthless. What kind
of tests, then, should he employ?
Without a doubt, mathematical
problems are helpful in estimating in
telligence. DR.. Laird. therefore, de-
cided to put them on the list. He Sc
lected two types-simple one-coiumn
addition and more difficult two-column
addition.
Comprehension tests-the What is
wrong with this room?' type of prob
lens is somewhat of an eXample-are
valuable to the psychologist. One test
of this kind was therefore used.
DR.. Laird then decided that he
would place special emphasis on mem
ory. as that is a phase of mental ac-
tivity which is found quite necessary
in everyday life. He put four types
of memory exercises on his program
This made seven different kinds of
mental tests. To round out the list
fully he added an exercise in substi-
tuition, rearranging letters that had
been purpoSely jumbled up-and one
in reading time, the reading being of
piece selected for memorization at the
same time.
Now came the problem of selecting
the subjects to be tested. AS he was
doing his work at Colgate University,
DR.. Laird decided that it would be
best to use college students, as he
could get enough to make the test of
some value, and the regularity of
their appearance could be counted on.
He selected 112 students, and from
that number made squads of
16 each. The intelligence scores of
these groups, as determined by pre-
vious comprehensive tests, We're
approximately equal. Thus he had
good material with which to start on
his quest of the mental high spots"
and low spots" of, the day and week.
There was one point, however,
which might have rendered all his
work of little value had he overlooked
1t. That was the mental attitude of
the students. If they knew the direct
object of these tests, might they not,
consciously or unconsciously, be influ-
enced in their reactions by their owr
set opinions?
If student A had a firm supersti-
ton that Friday was the high spot of
the week, he might be strongly inf1u-
enced by such a feeling, should he
know that the tests were being made
to see whether or not that supersti-
ton were actually true. So the canny
psychologist logged" the 112 by tell
ing them that the work was being
temperature changes.
The start was made, and for six
weeks the work went on smoothly and
steadily. The whole battery of nine
different tests were fired at the vari-
GUS groups at and 10 o'clock in the
morning, and at 1 and in the after
noon, and at 8, 9 and 10 at night. This
was done consistently every day. At
the end of the six weeks period DIR.
Laird expressed himself as satisfied
that enough data had been gathered
to make some valuable deductions, so
the students were released from their
extra mental duty. Not one of the
112 had missed a single test period
the records were complete.
Then followed computation of the
result.
Statistic lovers may be interested
to learn that 4,704 test blanks had
been mimeographed and scored, IT 900
numbers had to be added to tabulate
the records, 10000 numbers had to be
squared, there were $4,000 subtrac-
tions to be made, and all the computa-
tions had to be checked. 1t was no
light job that DIR. Laird and his as
sistants had undertaken.
The results, however, were clear