RECENT PSYCHOLOGICAE RESEARCH 
237 
The problem now remains to find out which of the tests 
best serves the purpose and to substitute other tests for those 
which do not serve so well. This done, the aim will then be to 
standardize the test for use in the eighth grade to assist the voca- 
tional guidance of those pupils who expect to elect the commercial 
course in high school. 
A MEASURE OF CAPACITY FOR ACQUIRING SKILL 
IN COORDINATION OF EYE AND HAND 
WILHELMINE KOERTH 
Because success in many industries and activities depends to 
a large extent on ability to acquire skill in coordination of eye 
and hand, a measure of this capacity would prove very service- 
able in both vocational guidance and selection. We are now try- 
ing to determine whether an apparatus providing a moving target 
of known size, following a constant predictable path at a uniform 
rate of speed will give an index of such capacity. This index 
is to be found by measuring the observer’s ability to hold a 
ringed, metallic pointer on the moving target. 
The apparatus consists of a circular target, 1.9 cm. in diameter, 
mounted flush with the surface of a wooden disc large enough to 
permit the target to describe a circle 16 cm. in diameter as it re- 
volves. The target is electrically connected with a commuta- 
tor on the edge of the disc, which records on a Veeder count- 
er the time the observer is able to hold the pointer on the 
revolving target. The disc is revolved on an ordinary phonograph 
at the rate of one revolution per second, thereby providing a con- 
stant, uniform rate of speed and recording the time in tenths of 
a second. 
After measuring 140 men and women, principally from the 
sophomore class, the following things were noted: that observers 
fall into four groups ; i.e., those who start low and end low, those 
who start low and end high, those who start high and end higher, 
and those who start high and end practically on the same 
level, that the curve of distribution tends to be normal with 
the mode at forty and the extremes at five and eighty. The 
averages of twenty trials for each person were used to establish 
this curve. The curve for each observer is a typical learning 
curve, and with continued practice the typical plateaus of organi- 
zation are well marked. In a ten day practice period the curve 
