322 



NATURE 



[November 3, 192 1 



National Institute of Industrial Psychology in London. 

 Here attempts were being made at the request of 

 large firms not only to improve the psychological con- 

 ditions in their industries, but also to send scientific- 

 ally trained psychologists to test applicants for par- 

 ticular kinds of work. Other psychologists, who 

 spoke later, emphasised the value of the vocational 

 cesting already carried out in America, and dwelt 

 especially upon the success of recent tests for general 

 ability or intelligence. 



There seemed a general feeling, announced par- 

 ticularly by the educationists, that the process of voca- 

 tional guidance and testing should begin while the 

 child was still at school ; and it was even suggested 

 that the general kind of education imparted at school 

 should be very largely determined by the results of 

 such tests. 



This, indeed, was the position taken up in the 

 opening speech by Dr. C. W. Kimmins (Chief In- 

 spector of the Education Department of the London 

 County Council). London, he claimed, offered the 

 finest field for psychological research in the whole 

 world. Here, under one authority, were accumulated 

 800,000 children and 20,000 teachers. He pointed out 

 that the London County Council had, just before the 

 outbreak of the war, added to the officers of the educa- 

 tion department a psychologist, whose business it was 

 to investigate both individual cases and general 

 problems in the schools; and he described in detail 

 certain aspects of the psychological work under the 

 Council, work (he added) that only the recent demand 

 for economy had prevented from rapid expansion. 

 Since psychology had taken an important and an offi- 

 cial part in investigations among school children, there 

 had been, in London at any rate, large changes. In 

 days gone by the children sent to special schools for 

 the mentally deficient were often merely "backward ; 

 and, thus stigmatised as mentallv defective, their 

 vocational future was often seriously prejudiced. But 

 it was now possible by means of psychological tests 

 to ascertain at the outset whether a child was 

 genuinely and innately defective in native ability, or 

 whether he was merely retarded through accidental 

 causes in his educational attainments alone. His own 

 experience of special schools now was that the children 

 sent to them at the present day were really mentally 

 deficient ; and here, in schools of this type, the elder 

 boys receive special industrial training suited to their 

 capacities and future prospects. At the other end of 

 the scale intelligence tests were now also being used 

 in connection with the transference of brighter children 

 to the secondary schools. Certain children, he said, 

 might, up to a certain stage, do well in routine school 

 work, and even pass their scholarship examinations, 

 and yet it might prove that they had not sufficient 

 inborn intelligence to profit by the higher instruction. 



Dr. Kimmins, however, urged not merely the 

 employment of the better known tests of intelligence, 

 but also the elaboration of tests specificalh* devised for 

 different occupations. In this reference he stated that 

 some time ago he had made an investigation into the 

 after-employment of children in the London district. 

 He described the state of affairs that he found as 

 tragic. In their first appointments an enormous pro- 

 portion of the children gained unsuitable jobs ; when 

 thev found themselves unsuitable they threw them up 

 and drifted from one position to another. In many 

 cases he found that boys of the greatest promise had 

 eventually become mere van boys. And, generally, he 

 concluded, although we spend an enormous amount of 

 monev upon education, we fail to give sufficient atten- 

 tion to the marketing of our products. He, therefore, 

 advocated the' adoption of a system by which the 

 child, upon leaving school, would receive a carefully 



NO. 27 1 A, VOL. 108] 



drawn up statement, based upon psychological tests 

 and prolonged observation, showing the line of employ- 

 ment for which he or she was best fitted. If this were 

 done, he argued, the number of misfits would b<- 

 much fewer than that observable to-day. 



Mr. D. Kennedy Fraser (lecturer in education at 

 the University of Edinburgh) spoke upon similar lines. 

 He described from personal experience the use of in- 

 telligence tests in America. The result of these had 

 been to show that an appreciable proportion of the 

 population, something like one in forty, did not even 

 during adult life attain a mental level beyond that 

 of the average ten-year-old child. He strongly urged 

 the execution of similar researches in this country. He 

 concluded that, as a result of the newer discoveries 

 made by the application of psychological methods to 

 school children, the use of intelligence tests would 

 eliminate — and was, indeed, the only possible way to 

 eliminate — an enormous waste of time and effort 

 on the part of teachers. Thus vocational testing and 

 vocational training were now needed as an essential 

 part of a system of general education. 



Mr. Frank Watts, formerly lecturer on psychology 

 in the University of Manchester, agreed with the fore- 

 going speakers upon the importance of vocational 

 testing, but he emphasised the fact that the tests were 

 as yet still somewhat imperfect. The problem was 

 usually stated too simply. It was depicted purely as 

 a question of fitting pegs, round or square, into holes 

 of an appropriate shape. He pointed out that the 

 pegs were plastic and malleable, and the holes were 

 constantly changing their shape ; and both, as a rule, 

 were neither absolutely square nor absolutely round. 

 Further psychological investigation was, therefore, 

 needed not only into the capabilities of the applicant, 

 but also upon the requirements of the different kinds 

 of job for which he might apply. Just as Sir William 

 Beveridge had urged that firms should take a more 

 intelligent interest in testing and training, so Mr. 

 Watts urged that educationists must bring the schools 

 into more vital contact with the industrial firms. One 

 of the chief difficulties was that not only did the 

 employer know nothing about the applicant, but the 

 applicant when he left school knew nothing about 

 industry. 



This latter point was also emphasised in the speech 

 of Dr. Mvers, who made the very valuable suggestion 

 that the kinematograph should be used to show the 

 responsibilities, the prospects, the advantages, and the 

 dangers of various occupations. Dr. Myers insisted 

 that the choice of the occupation must be made h\ 

 the individual himself; but the boy needed advice; 

 and, helpful as they might be, neither teachers nor 

 parents were entirely adequate to supply that advice 

 because they themselves were without detailed know- 

 ledge of industrial requirements. Expert advice, 

 therefore, was essential. Here once more was evident 

 the need for a national institute of vocational 

 psvchologv, though, even in the work of such an in- 

 stitute, the co-operation of the teacher and of the 

 education authority still remained indispensable. 



Miss L. Grier (principal-elect of Lady Margaret 

 Hall, Oxford) was one of the few speakers who 

 explicitly urged the importance of direct vocational 

 training in addition to general vocational testing. It 

 was apparently her view that, after we had dis- 

 covered what the boy was suitable for, we should 

 attempt to teach him and train him somewhat more 

 specifically upon those lines. In giving this training, 

 the question as between the factory and the school, 

 she believed, was no longer contused by the old dis- 

 tinction between useful and useless knowledge. The 

 idea that knowledge that was useful ceased to be 

 educational was now exploded. The special institu- 



