What to do with the sub-normal child / editor: Henry Smith Williams, M.D., LL.D.

Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: What to do with the sub-normal child / editor: Henry Smith Williams, M.D., LL.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ane 4 ore yar) =f ee ee {= a Re ee ep ee eee a ceive aptitudes and proclivities even in the very young, much more readily in those semi-matured, and can with almost infallible certainty point out, not only what work can be undertaken with fair hope of success, but also what slight modification or addition and diminution will more than double the personal power.” The Psychologist To the Rescue But Professor Hugo Minsterberg, the Harvard psychologist, very much doubts the availability of any such intuitional power as this. He would pin his faith rather to the methods of laboratory, and would attempt to substitute the results of scientific investigation for what he terms mere guesswork. In illustrating what may be done in this direction, Professor Miinsterberg cites various interesting cases. He tells, for example, how Mr. S. A. Thomp- son applied the method of the psychological lab- oratory to testing the workers in a bicycle factory where 120 girls were inspecting the balls. The results of the test were so remarkable that they may well be given in detail. The case is peculiarly interesting because the work involved was of so simple a character that it might almost be thought that one person of average intelligence could do it as well as another. The task was this: The girls had to place a row [23]
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