Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-24

oNA hE1ANA%e N"ss SNPeSAASA 80 .
invaded this cloud washed mountain re
boards, chewing gum, pennies, stacks I
paraphernalia Of university psychologist
They were drawn by the excepto
mountain "hollows," barely 100 miles
Revolutionary American stock in the
obtain data of fundamental s~igniflcanc
lectual processes and the evolution of
The party included DR.. Mandel Sher-
man. director Of the Washington Child
Research Center. and DR.. Cora Key.
child psychologist of the center. who
were especially interested In the mental
processes of the mountain children and
the effect of an extreme paucity of
contacts with the outside world on the
developing intelligence. They joined
hands with a group from the Univer-
sity of Virginia, headed by DR.. D. M.
Mann. we'll known sociologist; r. C.
Davis. psychologist, and Charles M.
Kaufman, whose previous work has
done much to call attention to the dis
Indignation process.
At Skyland the party was Joined by
physicians n social workers among
the guests. sc that a long cavalcade
proceeded in single file from log cabin
to log cabin along the edges of steep
cliffs and down the courses Of noun
tain brooks. 1t looked like a body of
mounted soldiers on the march. and
soldiers in a campaign seldom have
worked harder than these erudite men
and women in rounding up the chill
dren. apply batteries of tests under the
pretense that they were new games"
and trying to draw out by skillful ques-
tioning just what the subjects knew
about things in general.
Intended to Map Course.
The intention was to lay out a field
for further study. since few conclu-
sions could be drawn from the hurried
work of a single week end and with
tests obviously inadequate for the pur-
pose, since they were constructed for
minds which have had normal con-
facts with the world. So far as many
OF the children were concerned. some
of the standard tests used were in what
amounted to a foreign language. SO
that the responses could not be judged
by the same standards as would be used
in testing children in the lowlands.
This was shown especially In the tests
Of vocabulary. One of the words in the
standard Stanford inet test, such as
is used in the public schools of the Dis
trict of Columbia, is soldier" Those
who defined this word at all said that
a soldier was "a murderer" There was
no conception OF a member of a mill
| tary organization. Another word is
post Office" All defined q post Office
as "a place with baskets of apples in
front Of it." Some added other details,
such as two or three men sitting at
the door," But not one associated
post Office" with mail" The concep-
ton was obviously due to the fact that
the specific post Office with which these
children have had contact Is a mou
tain grocery store at Old Rag.
Language Difficulties.
The language dificulty wa shown
especially in such tests as the following
A circle or square Is drawn on a sheet
of paper and the child told that 1t
represents an incloSed field. in which a
ball has been lost. The child is asked
to indicate with a pencil how he would
proceed to find the ball, the correct
procedure obviously being to circle
around in the field until the lost object
Is found. In each case this test re-
suited in O complete failure, because,
despite the most patient explanations,
the subjects could not visualize ade-
quately a field as a comparatively
level. treeless, inclosed area. There are
fields in the mountains planted with
corn, but they are nearer vertical than
horizontal. Ordinarily the child indi-
Gated that he would look for the ball by
hunting around the trunks of trees.
He could not conceive of anything being
lost any other way.
Then the idea of a lost ball, so IA
miliar to most children, was hard for
these to grasp, since playing with a ball.
until very recently at least, has been
never have hunted for lost balls. and
amt conceive why any one should at
tach significance to such a situation.
DR.. Sherman and Miss Key found
that the children could not define abb
stractions. Many of them could not
sense Similarities and differences be-
tween objects. A child would be shown
a nickel and a penny, and instructed
that both were similar, IN hat both
were money. After the subject appar-
emily had grasped the idea he would be
asked how an apple and a peach were
similar, and answer in some way, such
as Apples round and peach's fuzzy"
An idea associated with one class Of
objects could not readily be transferred
to another.
Lack Of Sense Of Form.
An outstanding showing made by
these tests was the almost complete
lack Of a sense of form. This was
SLlOWIl WILL Wy dlNCAAiPbo w ib TWINS
into a form board and efforts to copy
simple drawings, such as a square or
triangle, in the Binet test. Asked to
copy a drawing of a triangle, many of
the children drew circles. Very simple
form board tests, much used in institu-
tions for the mentally defective. proved
complete failures on the first attempt.
Yet, according to Mr.. Davis, who
worked with the form board and whose
chief objective is to work out some form
of test based on the experience of these
children which will measure adequately
their intelligence for use in whatever
educational program is ~inaugurated in
the future, the results actually showed
great promise. The learning curve was
almost sensational. Children in their
Laas. -. 4ha Arct 4rial aIlith thu faraaa