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Show ( True Intelligence Not Measurable DR MAXTMIT.IAN P E GROSZM ANN of New York, author of "The Exceptional Child." ridicules the sensational generalizations that have bepn made from tho published results of the United States Navy Intelligence tests, the army mental tests, the Beta test and other so-called so-called calculations of Intelligence In the Medical Record ho reviews these tests and some of thj summaries that have been made of them. It amazes him that a man of forty-two, who has made perfect records in several of these testa and yet has not distinguished himself In any public or private wav. should be called one of the "twenty-five best minds In America" And he thinks that if it be true that 70 per cent of our recruits showed an intelligence below that of the normal fifteen-year-old boy, the country is Indeed in a bad way. AfteV examining the tests in derail, he wonders why in the scale of the highly Intelligent no lawyers, teachers, ministers, merchants, bankers, bank-ers, farmers' or psychologists appear beside tho engineer officers, medical officers, civil engineers, engi-neers, accountants, draughtsmen and dental officers offi-cers who appear in the A and B classes He points out that these tests measure only surface appearances, momentary abilities, a mechanical me-chanical quickness, speed of adaptation, placid readiness of response all on a relatively low level They do not measure intelligence so much as a certain type of mental response and activity activ-ity and tho measure of training tho mind has received In one way or another. A small amount of real Intelligence, well trained In traditional lines, aided by a good memory, may show off well when there Is smiling, smooth alertness, the ready shrewdness of tho commercial mind, while a deliberate or neurotic person, although he be a deep thlnkor of creative thoughts, and of extraordinary intelligence, might not measure up Immediately in ready response. "They were tests for the discovery of specialized speci-alized students' work, of capacity for the learned professions, so-ca'led. of a particular typo of mind. But there are other types of mind, equally or more valuable, in human efficiency, if properly prop-erly recognized and trained. "It will be interesting to apply eventually the test of real life success, of humanitarian worth, of true greatness to the students of colleges and other institutions, even to engineering officers and others who scored so highly in the army tests Will they make goodT' Ho cites the report that one of our eminent Generals in command of one of our armies was set down as a ten-year-old in intelligence, and he points out that there are two opposite types of intelligence the first brilliant, quick and superficial, su-perficial, the second, methodical, slow and thorough. The engineer, the operating surgeon, the army officer In the field must be quick of decision and of oxecutlon; tho scientist, the research re-search worker, tho astronomer, tho diagnosing physician, on tho contrary, must arrive at their conclusions by careful elimination, patience, endurance, en-durance, application, ability to meet disappointments disappoint-ments and failures with equanimity. It Is the former clnss that shines in such tests as those on which co much generalization has been based, but it Is the men of the latter class who are most likely to distinguish themselves them-selves by really useful work. Ho sums it up by saying that human intelligence intelli-gence Is not yet measurable by any formula, for "the true measuro of human personality is human service." |