3 86 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



proficiency and skill who could do little or nothing with these 

 oral questions. This expectation proved to be wholly at vari- 

 ance with the facts. The problem here suggested, as to 

 whether the so-called pure type of motor-mindedness is really 

 only a mythical abstraction, is respectfully referred to the 

 laboratories of educational psychology. 



" The other discovery, not wholly unrelated to the first, was 

 the fact that in a majority of the trades the oral tests yielded 

 more accurate differentiations of proficiency than did the per- 

 formance tests. In other words, the journeyman and the ex- 

 pert differ from the apprentice not so much because they have 

 greater manual skill and dexterity as because they excel in judg- 

 ment, technical information, or trade knowledge. 



" Of course this is not the case in some occupations, 'such as 

 truck driver or typist. Here oral tests are futile. The candi- 

 date must be given a chance to demonstrate his skill through 

 actual performance. But in most of the trades the actual 

 performance testing of the man on the manual job can be 

 omitted without great loss to our knowledge of the man's 

 proficiency." 



Finally, the third chief division of this chapter should present 

 the work of psychologists on special military problems. Many 

 such were formulated by officers of the army, by scientific men 

 in the National Research Council, and by psychologists who 

 were in the midst of military duties. In the majority of in- 

 stances the attempts to deal with special problems were con- 

 spicuously successful, in that they yielded immediately 

 serviceable results. 



There are no better examples to be found to illustrate prob- 

 lems, methods, and achievements, than the work of Lieutenant 

 Commander Raymond Dodge, who has already published else- 

 where fascinating accounts of the professional work of military 

 psychologists. 



We quote from an article on " Mental Engineering," pre- 

 ^V" pared by this officer for the American " Review of Reviews " 

 (May, 1919) : 



