RECORDS OF MEETINGS 299 



SECTIOF OF ANTHEOPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY 



27 KOVEMBER, 1916 



The Section met in conjunction with the New York Branch of the 

 American Psychological Association at Columbia University. 

 The following program was presented : 



L. S. Hollingworth, Echolalia in Idiots : Its Meaning for Modern 



Theories of Imitation. 

 G. C. Myers, Shrinking of Images. 



J. C. Bell, A Comparison of the Binet-Simon Tests of 



Intelligence and the Squire Graded Mental 



Tests. 



Summary of Papers 



Dr. Hollingworth stated that echolalia (which is a curious tendency 

 found in aments and in certain insane patients to echo or repeat what- 

 ever is said to them or in their hearing) has occasionally been described 

 in the literature of pathological psychology, notably by Barr. The pres- 

 ent paper describes three cases of echolalia in idiots, one case being a 

 child of five years, the second a child of eleven years, and the third a 

 man of about thirty years. These patients showed marked ability and 

 tendency to repeat automatically whatever was said to them, revealing no 

 understanding of the question-response situation. Instead of replying 

 to questions, they simply repeat them mechanically. Such cases are of 

 great interest in connection with modern controversies about the nature 

 of imitation in man. Professor Thorndike has recently called into ques- 

 tion former ideas about imitation, and has debated the propriety of its 

 inclusion, as a general tendency, among the instinctive tendencies of man. 

 Professor Montague has made persuasive objection to Professor Thorn- 

 dike's discussion and final conclusion, holding that the potency of be- 

 havior to produce similar behavior in witnessing human beings cannot 

 be satisfactorily explained on the ground of a few specific inherited ten- 

 dencies plus the laws of habit formation in general. Does the behavior 

 of our three idiots furnish any new light to the controversy? It would 

 be desirable to have much more information about the development and 

 modifiability of the echolalia which they showed. However, it is very 

 difficult to see how their tendency to duplicate behavior experienced is to 

 be explained except on the basis of instinctive imitation. The patients 

 were idiots, incapable of adapting themselves independently to even very 

 simple situations, or of understanding the significance of what was said 



