Jaxuart 24, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



95 



tion incident to high altitudes. I entered 

 this work with the understanding that as soon 

 as such a test was completed I should have 

 opportunity to investigate other (and in my 

 opinion) more important psycho-physical prob- 

 lems. (I should not want it to be supposed 

 that I was willing to disorganize my uni- 

 versity work for the development of such a 

 test merely.) 



A sunmiary of the work in the development 

 of the psychological part of the " rating test " 

 has been published (by order of the board) in 

 the Journal of the American Medical Asso- 

 ciation. Ifore detailed account of the experi- 

 mental work involved in the perfecting of this 

 test will be given later (I hope) in a technical 

 journal (probably in Psychohioloyy). There 

 is not time, of course to elaborate the details 

 here. I may point out that we embarked on 

 an unknown sea. and that we were able to get 

 results in a relatively short time must be 

 ascribed to the small but highly etRcient staff 

 I assembled in the early months of the work. 

 After trying a wide range of standard psycho- 

 physical test-s, and some we devised ourselves 

 after usual patterns, with puzzling results, we 

 hit upon the actual primary effects of asphyxia, 

 and were then able to devise tests to fit. 



These primary effects, we found, are not on 

 any special mechanism or division of the 

 nervous system (I except of course the cardio- 

 vascular and respiratory mechanisms), but are 

 upon the integration of the system, and are 

 evidenced in the decrease in sensory-motor 

 coordination, and in range and sustention of 

 attention. The so-called " higher mental proc- 

 esses " are affected in so far as they depend on 

 attention and coordination, and no further. 

 For example, a man may be able to make 

 accurate observations visually, up to the time 

 he can no longer " keep his attention on the 

 task " (that is, if diplopia does not interfere), 

 and record them, until his records become un- 

 decipherable, and also be able to remember 

 these observations with normal accuracy. 

 These findings I consider of great importance 

 for future psychological work. 



The functioning of " attention peaks," as 

 we have called brief spurts of normal attention 



and coordination, is one of the important 

 practical findings. Even with large actual 

 deterioration of the patient's mental ability, 

 he is able to bring himself back to his usual 

 level of efficiency for a brief period, if given 

 the appropriate mental stimulus. In this way, 

 ordinaiy methods of testing, entirely fail to 

 show the patient's real condition. In my own 

 case, for example. I become diplo])ic regularly 

 in the early light stages of asphyxiation, but 

 the usual oculist's test shows no diplopia 

 until the asphyxia has reached a much more 

 serious stage, because the presentation of the 

 test object " pulls me together," and for the 

 few seconds required I coordinate properly, 

 relapsing into diplopia as soon as the test is 

 over. The importance of these attention peaks 

 in working on fatigue, bad ventilation, and 

 drug effects, is too obvious to need further 

 emphasis. 



The work of the psychologists, as will be 

 readily imagined, was necessarily extended 

 over a wider scope than the devising of the 

 fundamental psychological part of the " rating 

 te^t." Such disagreeable tasks as securing a 

 system of work under which visitors were ex- 

 cluded from the room where the patients 

 were being tested, protecting the jiatient from 

 distraction and excitement by careless re- 

 marks of those belonging to the combined 

 medieo-physio-ophtho-psychological group of 

 examiners, and similar routine precautions 

 against invalidating work, the psychologists 

 were of course forced to assume. This pro-' 

 duced friction at first, as many of the men 

 beginning the testing work were unaccustomed 

 to research work, but they soon grasped the 

 situation, and excellent cooperation was se- 

 cured with the men in the other departments 

 engaged upon these tests. 



Into the discussion of the test as a whole 

 there is not time to enter far. As applied in 

 the field, men were rated chiefly on the psy- 

 chological findings, the cardiovascular, respir- 

 ation and ophthalmologieal findings figuring 

 in minor degree. Although the blood-pressure 

 observations were introduced by the psycholo- 

 gists, and carried on by us until the physiol- 

 ogists were convinced of their value, we were 



