The abilities of man : their nature and measurement / by C. Spearman.

  • Charles Spearman
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The abilities of man : their nature and measurement / by C. Spearman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of g being applied to them, their performances proved to be quite up to the normal standard. The suggestion seemed to be that the lack of nutrition produces not so much a decrease of ability as an increase of fatigability. Such pre¬ servation of mental power would agree well with the known physiological fact that in starvation the most important organs—above all, the brain—are the last to suffer. There is some other evidence, however, which tends more to support the old maxim, mens sana in corpore sano. The gifted children of Terman, for instance, showed on an average nearly 30 per cent, less “ general weakness ” than ordinary children. They also suffered less from “ nervous¬ ness ” and from headaches. Turning to the other extreme, mentally defective children are notoriously susceptible to illness of nearly every sort.1 Very important, too, would seem to be the following research of Sandwick.2 Here 423 students were submitted to an intelligence test, and then the highest 40 as also the lowest 40 were made to undergo a very exhaustive medical examination. The proportion of each group reported as suffering in the various respects examined is given in the table on the following page. The results are startling, especially the bottom one showing that 52 per cent, of the highest 40 were free from all defects, whereas none of the lowest 40 were so. Doubt only remains as to the relation of cause and effect. Do the bodily ailments produce the lowering of g ? Or are the two ills only outward manifestations of some more deeply seated weakness ? A still more recent work bearing on the same point is that of McCrae.3 He tested two groups of children, both being of the kind called physically defective. But one group had been undergoing special treatment consisting, it seems, in heliotherapy and graduated exposure to open air. After three months of this treatment their metabolism had in¬ creased some 20 per cent. Now, this second group obtained a considerably higher average score in the tests of g ; and >■ LoCr cit. p. 197. 2 Journ. Educ. Research, 1920. 3 Not yet published.
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