258 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



tiiiger Pre-Yocational Schools of New York City, in improving the gen- 

 eral manual accuracy of the boys. The problem resolved itself into a 

 new aspect of the old question of transfer from practiced abilities to un- 

 practiced ones. 



The plan was to test at the beginning of the school year two groups 

 of boys ; one group of those just beginning the pre-vocational shop work, 

 and the other a control group of academic boys of the same grade and 

 school. At the end of the year the tests are to be repeated. In so far 

 as they are a reliable index of general motoi- ability, they are expected to 

 indicate some effect of the shop work. 



The necessity for large groups and for moderate haste prevented the 

 use of more than three tests on each boy. Those used were the Thrust- 

 ing, the Hammering and the common 3-hole test. The first two were 

 designed for this work. 



The Thrusting test required a full arm movement ; to hit Avith a pencil 

 the middle target of a row of three varying targets, thirty rows appear- 

 ing from behind a screen at a constant speed. Four groups of thirty 

 were used at four speeds, such that each row was in sight for 1.0 sec., 

 1.2 sec, 1.6 sec, and 2.0 sec. Each hit was separate and distinct, as one 

 row only was in sight at a time. The number of hits ranged from to 21. 



In the Hammering tests the subject used a specially prepared ham- 

 mer, to hit three points, distant from each other by 50 cm. Time was 

 constant, measured by the beats of a metronome, at the average rate 

 preferred by ten boys. An improvement in the apparatus records each 

 hit electrically on a kymograph. There were very marked differences 

 in the abilities of the boys, the hits ranging from to 20 in 50 shots. 



The 3-Hole test was too well known to be described. Time was taken 

 for 50 contacts. 



Mr. Myers stated that the purpose of this study is to investigate the 

 natural tendency of classification as shown by the superior speed in nam- 

 ing (Avithin certain limits) successive individuals of a single class over 

 the speed of naming single individuals of successive classes. 



In the preliminary test each of '^'1 normal school girls was supplied 

 with a copy of 2 series, each of 10 class names of familiar things (Group 

 I). These tAVo series interchanged reappeared on the opposite side of 

 the page (G-roup II). About half the subjects were given 18 seconds to 

 write the names of things falling under each of the 10 class names of 

 the first series. Then for the second series they Avere given a total of 

 180 seconds to Avrite successively under each of the 10 class names, one 

 name at a time, as many individual names as possible. For the other 

 half of the subjects the procedure throughout Avas reversed. 



