64 PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS OF TESTING INTELLIGENCE 



clearly by numerical evidence. For the figures in 

 the tables above do show just this, that intelligence 

 is never more than a partial factor in school activ- 

 ity: and this demonstration may serve to refute that 

 one-sided intellectualism that notes and values in 

 pupils only their intellectual ability. Not that in- 

 tellectual endowment is not still to be regarded as 

 a factor of chief importance : in truth when by tests 

 of intelligence and other psychological devices we 

 shall have obtained a more exact knowledge of it, 

 there will be much of profit for the schools and many 

 mistakes and wrong courses of procedure can be 

 prevented, and this so much the more as we get 

 clear ideas of the range and limits of its meaning 

 and importance. If, for instance, a given pupil 

 shows only a moderate success in the tests of intelli- 

 gence but does distinctly good work at school, and 

 if there is no chance that a special talent might have 

 exerted a decided influence (which could easily be 

 recognized if existent), then there is a probability 

 approximating to certainty that this pupil's strength 

 is to be sought primarily in qualities of character 

 and will. 



Accordingly, the lack of agreement between tests 

 of intelligence and school performance is really cal- 

 culated to increase our confidence in the psycholog- 

 ical test-methods. In this connection Kramer very 

 pertinently remarks. 17 "Had we found a strict 

 parallelism between the results of the testing of in- 

 telligence and the school performance, we should 



"See reference 54, pp. 30-31. Kramer was alluding to the ex- 

 amination of abnormal children, but what he says applies to nor- 

 mal cases as well. 



