27I 



DISCOVERY 



interesting and instructive. These results are now 

 being made public. 



The specific problems which the military authorities 

 faced were the selection of the right man for the right 

 job and the disposition of draftees of very low in- 

 telligence. In the old army promotion came after long 

 observation. A man rarely got his stripes until well 

 on in his second enlistment period, while a soldier must 

 hav-e served six years as a line sergeant before he was 

 eligible for promotion to ordinance sergeant. In the 

 new army, on the other hand, sergeants were literally 

 made over-night, so that the need of a quick and ready 

 method of judging men was imperative. 



Feeble-mindedness : A Social Problem 



The proper disposal of men of very low intelligence 

 was an urgent need. Many draftees of such a degree 

 of feeble-mindedness as to constitute not only useless 

 consumers of food, but a positive menace to military 

 efficiency, were sent home to continue in the simple 

 tasks from which they had been taken, while men of 

 intermediate grade were segregated into special or- 

 ganisations for special work adapted to their abilities. 



Feeble-mindedness is a state of arrested mental 

 development, due to an original lack of the power of 

 mental growth beyond a certain level. The primary 

 causes of such arrested development are far from being 

 adequately understood, but an unstable or diseased 

 nervous system in the parents may certainly be con- 

 sidered among the most important. 



Having reached a certain stage of advancement, the 

 feeble-minded cease to develop, and this stage cannot 

 be raised by any known methods of education. This 

 fact of the hereditary foundation and apparently 

 irremedial nature of mental deficiency is of the greatest 

 importance in considering problems of education and 

 reform. 



Three classes of the feeble-minded are ordinarily 

 recognised : (i) idiots, those persons lacking the ability 

 to protect themselves from ordinary physical dangers ; 

 (2) imbeciles, those able to see to their physical wants 

 and do simple, routine tasks, but unable to bear the 

 responsibility of looking after their general welfare or 

 of providing for themselves without constant super- 

 vision ; (3) morons, or those who, assuming full 

 responsibility for their actions and livelihood, are of 

 inferior judgment and unable to progress in school or 

 industry — the ne'er-do-wells and the dullards. 



For the care of idiots and imbeciles society assumes 

 responsibility, and the problem is rather financial than 

 social ; but the moron is not recognised either legally, 

 medically, or industrially as being different from the 

 rest of us, and he accordingly constitutes the greater 

 social problem. From among this class are recruited 

 the greatest percentage of chronic failures, of prosti- 



tutes, of criminals — those persons unable to judge the 

 natural consequences of their acts. As feeble-minded- 

 ness is inheritable, the moron, marrying or otherwise 

 propagating his kind, gives to the country generations 

 of undesirables and paupers, a menace and an expense 

 to the State. 



The problem in the army was very similar to that 

 in society in general. Idiots, of course, never leave 

 asj'lums, but the army did receive many middle- and 

 high-grade imbeciles. They were easily recognised, 

 however, and generally disposed of, although military 

 policy was far from uniform on this point. The real 

 trouble began with the moron. The moron formed a 

 weak link in the organisation ; he was unteachable and 

 highly expensive, demanding continual supervision ; 

 in actual service he was entirely unreUable. 



Psychological Tests 



" Early in the emergency," says the report' given 

 under the authority of Major Robert M. Yerkes, " it 

 became clear to psychologists in the military sers'ice 

 that the fundamental psychological problem of the 

 army is one of placement, and that the most important 

 service psychologists could possibly render would be 

 to assist in so assigning every soldier that his mental 

 (as well as physical) ability should be used to advantage. 

 It was assumed by the psychological personnel that 

 inteUigence, alertness, the will to win, enthusiasm, 

 faith, courage, and leadership are even more important 

 than are physical strength and endurance, and that 

 this fact must be scientifically reckoned with wherever 

 a strong military organisation is to be built quickly. 

 Very promptly it became the recognised purpose of 

 army psychologists to assist in winning the war by the 

 scientific utilisation of brain-power. The achievement 

 of this purpose necessitated the preparation of special 

 methods of mental measurement in order that recruits 

 should be properly classified for ehmination or assign- 

 ment to militarj' training." 



These special methods of mental measurement, how- 

 ever, are based in principle upon the intelligence tests 

 de\nsed bj^ two French scientists, Simon and Binet, 

 to detect and classify backward school children. 

 Simon and Binet undertook to construct a scale that 

 would measure the native intelligence of any child and 

 indicate whether he were nomial, precocious, or re- 

 tarded, and to what extent. By this scale a child would 

 be given a mental age which might or might not corre- 

 spond to his chronological age. 



The principle on which these tests were constructed 

 is as follows: Take the ability to count thirteen 

 pennies. They found by experimenting on Paris 

 school children that most of those six years old could 

 count thirteen pennies, so counting thirteen pennies 

 • Science, 1919, N.S. vol. xlix, pp. 221 et seq. 



