266 



The Journal of Heredity 



had had the advantage of travel, etc.; 

 the fathers of this group were nearly all 

 American. Group B was mostly of 

 German and Italian parentage; the 

 fathers were wage-earners or small busi- 

 ness men. Group C was made up of the 

 children of a Hebrew Orphan Asylum 

 who had had, strictly speaking, no home 

 environment. In the various tests of 

 intelligence group A was first but the 

 Hebrew orj)hans of Grouj) C were a 

 close second. Group B was last. The 

 investigators say, "Judging from the 

 results environment does not seem to 

 affect greatly mental capacity, if at all." 

 If that is true, then the differences of 

 intelligence of the children must be due 

 to inherited differences, ])artly racial, in 

 the various social classes. 



6. Children (all white) in the city 

 schools and in the schools of the mill 

 district in Columbia, S. C, were tested 

 by Miss A. C. Strong. Approximately 

 the same course of study was presented 

 in both schools. None of the mill 

 children was above his age level, but 

 10% of the city children were. Less 

 than 6% of the city children, but 18% 

 of the mill children, were retarded at 

 least one year. 



7. Yerkes and Anderson tested fifty- 

 four children in the kindergarten and 

 first grade of a "favored" Cambridge 

 (Mass.) school and an equal number 

 from a school whose children had a 

 much lower economic and social status.^ 

 They found that at and about the age 

 of six years, the "favored" children 

 did from a quarter to a third better in 

 the tests than the "unfavored " children. 



THE COLU.MHUS INVESTIGATION 



8. Bridges and Coler tested 301 chil- 

 dren in two schools of Columbus, Ohio, 

 by the point scale. ^ School A was in a 

 very desirable residential district, the 

 fathers mostly being i)r()fessional or 

 prominent business men. The other 

 school, B, was in a poor factory district, 

 where half the fathers were unskilled or 

 casual laborers, many of the mothers 

 worked, and half the families were 



recipients of some kind of charity. In 

 both cases, howe\'er, all of the children 

 were American-born of English-speaking 

 parents. 



The children in A were found to be 

 from 21% to 32^/1 superior to those of B ; 

 for a constant chronological age of 

 IJupil, there was a constant difference 

 of two years in mental development. 

 This difference was mainly in the tests 

 demanding the higher mental functions, 

 such as analysis and abstraction. 

 Measured by the ordinary standards, 

 nearly one-third of the children in B 

 school would have been judged feeble- 

 minded. 



In the better school, two groups of 

 tliirty pupils each were chosen on the 

 basis of their father's professions, and 

 comjmred as follows: 



Chronological 



age Mental age 



Professional men.. .7 yrs. 7 mos. 9 yrs. 8 mos. 



Traveling salesmen. 7 7 9 3 



That is, the offspring of the professional 

 classes were found to be nearly half a 

 year superior in intelligence to the 

 children of trax'cling men. Two groups 

 of seventeen each were compared on the 

 basis of the following origin: 



Chronological 



age Mental age 



Clerks 7 yrs. 10 mos. 9 yrs. 1 mo. 



Managers 7 8 9 5 



The children of managers of business 

 enterprises were two months younger 

 in physical age, but four months older 

 intellectually, than the children of 

 clerks. A similar grouping in School B 

 gave the following contrast: 



Chronological 



age Mental age 



Skilled labor 7 yrs. 11 mos. 7 yrs. 6 mos. 



Unskilled labor.... 8 1 6 11 



There were thirty-six children in each 

 of these groups. Both were retarded. 

 The children of unskilled laborers were 

 chronologicalh' two months older than 

 their associates, but mentally seven 

 mf)nths younger. 



The authors make no attemi)t to 



* Yerkes, Rf)l)ert M., and Anderson, Helen M. Social Status and Mental Capacity. Journ. 

 Educ. Psych., Manh, 191.S. 



• Bridges, James W., and Coler, Lillian E. The Relation of Intelligence to Social Status. 

 Psychol. Rev., x.\iv, ]>p. 1-32, January, 1917. 



