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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Special
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Title: Special talents and defects

Their significance for education

Author: Leta S. Hollingworth

Release date: August 12, 2024 [eBook #74232]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: The Macmillan Company,

1923

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPECIAL

TALENTS AND DEFECTS ***
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Experimental Education Series

Edited by M. V. O’SHEA

SPECIAL TALENTS AND DEFECTS

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited

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SPECIAL TALENTS AND DEFECTS

Their Significance for Education

BY
LETA S. HOLLINGWORTH, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Education
Teachers College, Columbia University

New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1923

All rights reserved

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Copyright, 1923
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Set up and electrotyped. Published August, 1923.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

TO
THE MEMORY OF
RUTH ELINOR STETTER
A GOOD TEACHER
 PREFACE

This book has proceeded haltingly, as must be evident in many

places, for it attempts to explore and describe a field that is not well
illuminated. The actual examination of those mental functions which
are relatively dissociated from general intelligence has not been
carried far by experimentalists. However, the problems have been
sufficiently formulated, and enough evidence has been secured, to
warrant attempts at gleaning implications for education, even now.
Mine is the comparatively humble task of bringing together in an
ordered presentation the works of original investigators, in such a
way that they will be available for application. The appeal of the data
is above all to educators, but also, of course, to those who deal in any
office with human beings.
The chief difficulty in organizing the subject has been to delimit it,
as regards the psychology of the elementary school subjects on the
one hand, and mental measurement on the other. It is not the
purpose to cover either of these fields in the present volume. Yet so
closely are they related to the study of special aptitudes in school
children that it will be scarcely possible to obtain the very clearest
view of what is here written without additional knowledge of these
matters.
It will be observed, also, that there has been no attempt here to
teach introductory psychology. It is assumed that readers of this
volume will be acquainted with the vocabulary of elementary
psychology. The time has definitely passed when it was either
feasible or desirable to present all topics in a single volume. Those
who would learn what modern educational psychology has to teach
now expect, first of all, to equip themselves by study of a general
introductory text.
 The lists of references are selected, not complete. To present
complete bibliographies of all works bearing immediately or
remotely upon every topic treated would cumber the volume
inexcusably. References have been selected for these lists because
they are historically indispensable, because they contain information
of fundamental importance, or because they summarize much
previous work. I believe that the selection is such that from the books
and articles listed it will be possible for the student who wishes to do
so, to construct the complete bibliography and history of each topic,
up to the present time.
The hundreds of teachers who have sat in the lecture room of
Professor E. L. Thorndike will see how many guiding suggestions for
this volume have come from that source. Professor W. A. McCall has
given counsel on certain chapters. Many investigators and publishers
have extended courtesies, which are acknowledged through the
references, and to which attention is here gratefully directed. I am
indebted to Dr. John S. Richards, Medical Superintendent of The
Children’s Hospital, Randall’s Island, New York, and to Mr. L. L.
Kolburne, student at Teachers College, for assistance in securing
illustrative material for Chapter VII. Finally, I have enjoyed the
advantage of editorial supervision by Professor M. V. O’Shea.
My chief hope for the volume is that it may contribute toward the
welfare of school children compelled to attend upon prescribed
education, without due regard for their idiosyncrasies of original
endowment.
Leta S. Hollingworth

Teachers College
Columbia University
May, 1923
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 PAGE
Preface vii

Editor’s Introduction xvii

CHAPTER
I. Preliminary Discussion 1
Speculation Concerning the Nature of Ability. Results
of Quantitative Investigation.

II. The Relationships among Capacities 11

The Coefficient of Correlation. General Intelligence vs.
Special Aptitudes. Correlation of Abilities in Various
Groups. Studies of Disorganizing Minds. Is Intellect
Inherited as a Unit? Can an Intellect Be Trained as a
Unit? The Hierarchy of Abilities. Present Status of the
Problem. Measurement of General Intelligence: The IQ.
Measurement of Special Ability. The Psychographic
Picture of Individuality. At What Age Is Mental
Endowment Evident? The Frequency of Marked Special
Talents and Defects. Possible Origin of the Dissociation
of Certain Capacities.

III. Consideration of the Neural Basis 49

The Physiological Mechanism of Mental Life.
Attempted Localization of Mental Functions. Theory of
Congenital Lesion or Atrophy Criticized. Regeneration
of Function without Regeneration of Structure in
Injured Brains. Attempts to Establish a Neural Basis for
the “Two Factor Theory” and the “Two Level Theory.”
Present Status of the Problem.

IV. Reading 57
Relation between IQ and Capacity for Reading. The
Mechanics of Reading. Comprehension in Reading.
Word Blindness. Psychological Studies of Special Defect
in Reading. Nervous Instability and Special Defect in
Reading. A Four-Year Study of a Non-Reader.
Summary of Studies of Non-Readers. Cases of Special
Ability in Reading. The Significance of Literacy.
 V. Spelling 98
Coherence among Linguistic Functions. Analysis of
Learning to Spell. Psychological Examination of Poor
Spellers. Can Special Defect in Spelling Be Overcome?
Does Reading Teach Spelling? Illustrative Cases.

VI. Arithmetic 114

Relation between IQ and Capacity for Arithmetic.
Distinction between Arithmetic and Mathematics. The
Psychology of Arithmetical Calculation. The
Organization of Arithmetical Abilities. Psychological
Studies of Special Deficiency in Arithmetic. Methods of
Detecting Wrong or Incomplete Habits. Nervous
Instability and Special Deficiency in Arithmetic.
Arithmetical Prodigies. Arithmetical Ability of Two
Children of IQ 184 and IQ 187 (Stanford-Binet). The
Inheritance of Arithmetical Abilities. Implications for
Education.

VII. Drawing 141

The Various Kinds of Drawing. Ramifications of
Drawing through the Curriculum. Psychological
Analysis of Talent in Drawing. Relation between
Aptitude in Drawing and General Intelligence. The
Color-Blind. Illustrative Cases. Inheritance of Talent in
Drawing. General Summary.

VIII. Music 164

What Is Music? The Various Kinds of Music. The
Analysis of Musical Talent. Relation among Various
Elements of Musical Talent. Relation between Musical
Talent and General Intelligence. Absolute Pitch. Tone
Deafness. Range of Individual Differences. Can Musical
Capacity Be Increased by Education? The Inheritance
of Musical Talent. Psychographic Study of Individuals.
Capacity to Appreciate Music.

IX. Miscellaneous 183

Special Functions Which Have Not Been Long Studied.
Left-Handedness. Mirror Writing. Mechanical Ability.
Ability to Lead and Handle People.
X. Individuality and Education 196
The Values of Individuality. Compulsory Education.
The Importance of General Intelligence for School
Progress. Special Abilities and Disabilities as
Determinants of School Progress. Experimental
Attempts to Individualize Education. The Cost of
Fostering Individuality. The Probable Rewards of
Individualizing Education.
TABLE OF FIGURES
FIGURE PAGE
1. Distribution of ability to discriminate among intervals of
time, the subjects being adults. (From Seashore’s The
Psychology of Musical Talent. Reproduced by courtesy
of Silver, Burdett and Company, and of the Columbia
Graphophone Company.) 8

2. Flight of birds, illustrating distribution in ability to fly.

(Schematic.) 9

3. The psychograph of a schoolboy, showing his standing in

various mental functions; illustrating use of the
horizontal line to denote typical performance. (From
Hollingworth’s Judging Human Character.
Reproduced by courtesy of D. Appleton and Company.) 39

4. The psychographs of three schoolgirls, showing their

standings in various mental functions, measured to
determine mathematical ability; illustrating use of the
vertical line to denote typical performance. (From Tests
of Mathematical Ability and Their Prognostic Value.
Reproduced by courtesy of Agnes L. Rogers.) 40

5. The psychograph of a schoolboy, showing his standing in

various mental functions; illustrating use of the circle as
a diagram, the median circumference denoting the
typical performance of his age 41

6. Showing how X improved as measured by Trabue’s

“Language Scale A,” from Feb., 1918, to Dec., 1921 77–81

7. Showing X’s improvement in silent reading, from April 15,

1921, to Dec. 2, 1921, as measured by Thorndike-McCall
“Reading Scale,” Form I 82–83

8. Showing X’s ability to get meaning from printed words, in

May, 1922, as tested by Haggerty’s “Sigma 1,” for grades
1 to 3 84

9. Showing an account written by X of his week’s reading 86

10. Composition written at school by X in December, 1920,
showing deficiencies in spelling 107

11. Letter written by X showing how he could spell by use of

dictionary 108

12. Showing efforts to spell of a 14-year-old schoolboy, of IQ

93, after eight years of school instruction. Illustrating
extreme dissociation of spelling ability from general
intelligence 110

13. Showing spelling of a 12-year-old girl, of IQ 59, after six

years of instruction. Illustrating extreme dissociation of
spelling ability from general intelligence 111

14. Showing spelling of a child 9 years 10 months old, with IQ

143, after three years of instruction. Illustrating
dissociation of spelling ability from general intelligence 112

15. Showing D’s calculations on Test 2, Army Alpha, Form 5,

at the age of 10 years 11 months, five minutes being
allowed for the performance 132

16. Showing D’s calculations on Test 6, Army Alpha, Form 5,

at the age of 10 years 11 months, three minutes being
allowed for the performance 133

17. Showing R’s calculations on Test 2, Army Alpha, Form 5,

at the age of 7 years 6 months, five minutes being
allowed for the performance 135

18. Showing R’s calculations on Test 6, Army Alpha, Form 5,

at the age of 7 years 6 months, three minutes being
allowed for the performance 136

19. Showing the psychograph of a stupid child, who has a

special ability in representative drawing. (From
Manuel’s A Study of Talent in Drawing. Reproduced by
courtesy of The Public School Publishing Company.) 155
20. Showing special ability in drawing of a 14-year-old boy, of
IQ near 70 156

21. Showing special ability in drawing of a 14-year-old boy, of

IQ near 70 157

22. Showing the special ability to cut silhouettes, of a feeble-

minded man, inmate of an institution for mental
defectives 159

23. Charlie Chaplin pursuing a gentleman, and pursued by a

policeman. Showing the special ability to draw, of a
feeble-minded man, in an institution for mental
defectives 160

24. Showing attempts by two distinguished university

professors to cut silhouettes of an elephant 161

25. Psychograph of G, showing special ability in music and

drawing combined with mediocre intelligence 177

26. Psychograph of M, showing special defect in music

combined with very superior general intelligence 179

27. Showing mirror writing by public school pupils. (From

Beeley’s An Experimental Study of Left-Handedness.
Reproduced by courtesy of the University of Chicago
Press.) 189
 EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

When the writer of this introductory note began teaching, it was

popularly believed that a pupil who showed special excellence in
intellectual work or in some particular study owed his superiority to
a faithful and energetic will which held him to his tasks until he had
mastered them thoroughly. It was generally believed, also, that
marked deficiency in school work as a whole or in a special subject
was due principally to a lethargic or indifferent will which could not
resist distractions and temptations to self-indulgence. In those days,
pupils were upbraided and even physically chastised if they failed to
prepare the lessons which were prescribed for them in any study. The
writer has often seen pupils whipped because they failed in their
spelling, arithmetic, reading, history, or grammar. When
punishment was administered in the school it was frequently
repeated in the home, since parents quite generally entertained the
view that failure to perform intellectual tasks satisfactorily was due
to negligence or laziness, and it was thought that the best way to
correct such delinquency was to arouse the will, usually by means of
dermal stimulation. In his early experience as a teacher, the writer
never heard, either in training classes or in teachers’ institutes, that
pupils possessed special talents or defects which were certain to be
manifested in their school work because they were established by
native endowment which could not be modified to any large extent
by rewards or penalties.
But we are gradually abandoning the view that either brightness or
dullness in general or in special directions is due primarily to
volitional control or the absence of it. During the last few years,
experimental studies have impressed the principle that individuals
differ in their inheritance of special capacities. Dr. Hollingworth
shows in this volume how far we have gone in the detection of special
talents and defects, with particular regard to the work of the school.
She shows in preliminary discussion what notions people have
entertained regarding the nature of ability, and then she discusses
methods of measuring ability, alike of a general and of a special sort.
She discusses the bases for differences among individuals in ability
in respect to various intellectual traits or functions. Then she
presents in detail what is known to-day regarding special talents and
defects as revealed in the more important subjects taught in the
schools.
We believe in these times that the school should to the fullest
extent provide opportunities for each pupil to develop his talents as
completely and as rapidly as possible. It is still required in most
public schools, though, that pupils in any group should be kept quite
close together in their educational progress, even when they show
marked differences in ability in particular subjects or in the entire
work of the school. But the pressure is becoming constantly greater
to arrange school programs so that pupils may go forward as rapidly
as their abilities, either general or special, will enable them to do,
while those who are deficient may receive help according to their
needs. There are already a number of experimental schools and
school systems in which the principle of individual differences in
ability is recognized and applied to a greater or less extent. One may
safely predict that we shall find a way in time so that the principle
may be recognized and applied in all public schools.
Dr. Hollingworth’s book lays a sound foundation for the
differentiation of pupils in a school or classroom according to special
abilities or deficiencies. It can be read by teachers who have not had
extensive study of educational psychology or statistical methods of
investigating such problems as are treated in this volume. The book
is written in a graceful style, and technical matters are discussed in
an unusually clear, simple, and attractive way. It may be confidently
asserted that any teacher who has charge of thirty or forty pupils—or
a smaller or larger number—will be helped to understand individual
traits of excellence or deficiency if she will read what Dr.
Hollingworth has presented in this volume. It may be safely stated,
also, that a teacher will be more sympathetic toward pupils who
experience difficulty in mastering special subjects of study if she will
become familiar with the facts and conclusions which this book
contains.
M. V. O’Shea

The University of Wisconsin

May, 1923
SPECIAL TALENTS AND DEFECTS
 CHAPTER I
Preliminary Discussion

I. SPECULATION CONCERNING THE

NATURE OF ABILITY
Since reflective men began to record their speculations, theories
have been expressed concerning the nature and relationships of
mental functions. Plato in The Republic contemplated the
importance of knowledge in this field. “Come now and we will ask
you a question: when you spoke of a nature gifted or not gifted in any
respect, did you mean to say that one man will acquire a thing easily,
another with difficulty; a little learning will lead the one to discover a
great deal; whereas the other, after much study and application, no
sooner learns than he forgets; or, again, did you mean that the one
has a body which is a good servant to his mind, while the body of the
other is a hindrance to him? Would not these be the sort of
differences which would distinguish the man gifted by nature from
the one who is ungifted?”
In The Republic the use of mental tests to discover the caliber of
the mind is foretold. “We must watch them from their youth
upwards, and make them perform actions in which they are most
likely to forget or to be deceived, and he who remembers and is not
deceived is to be selected, and he who fails in the trial is to be
rejected. That will be the way?”
Aside from the speculations of scholars, folk notions as expressed
in proverbs are interesting, especially as showing what men wish
were true concerning human talents and defects. Many of these
proverbs embody the idea of a compensatory distribution of abilities:
if I am weak in one respect, I am sure to be strong in another; if I am
a failure now, I shall probably be a success later on. “Every dog has
his day.” “Homely in the cradle, handsome at the table.” “Slow but
sure.” “Easy come, easy go.” This doctrine of compensation satisfies
certain cravings of human nature, and is therefore likely to be held
wherever people have not given impartial attention to the results of
experimental investigation.
Folk-wisdom has also seen men under mental types. According to
the theory of types, the human species is divided into separate
categories, with respect to mental constitution. There would thus be
the musical and the unmusical, the quick and the slow, the
imaginative and the unimaginative, the eye-minded and the ear-
minded, and so forth. The observable complexities of behavior have
further led to the description of a given person by a combination of
type-terms, as, for example, “quick-musical-imaginative,” or
“mathematical-accurate-unimaginative.” Persons thus classified by
types, are thought to be of “different kinds,” “equal” but “unlike.”
Two persons are thus compared as an apple is compared to an
orange. Both fruits are “equal,” but of “different types.” People,
according to this conception of human nature, are not thought of as
differing from each other simply in amount, as an apple is compared
with a larger, a smaller, or a sweeter apple. Comparison in terms of
amount is disagreeable in some respects, so that uncontrolled
speculation would surely tend to favor the theory of distinct types.
Type-terms have also been invented for temperament,—sanguine,
choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic. The idea underlying this
classification is that everyone belongs to one or another of these
distinct temperamental types, and, furthermore, that there is a
relationship among types which warrants fixed hyphenated
categories.
The mental traits or “faculties” thus classified and hyphenated are
conceived as entities, having each its distinct existence in the
individual mind, and being susceptible to general training and
strengthening, by prescribed exercises. Thus it has been believed that
“the observation” may be developed by exercises with particular
materials, so that all materials whatsoever will be observed equally
or approximately as well.
 Speculation has been much occupied, as the history of human
thought shows, with the problem of the origin of individual
endowment. Many different possible explanations were proposed,
before the day of quantitative measurement in psychology. It has
been surmised that mental endowment is the result of prenatal
influences, the wishes and environment of the mother, during the
period of gestation; or that it is the result of education; or that it
arises from the physical accidents met with by the organism; or that
it may be inherited from ancestors, as physical traits rather obviously
are. On the whole, speculation has favored the notion that mental
endowment originates in the environment. The idea that ability is
hereditary, determined for each by the conditions of ancestry, is
repugnant. Man prefers to consider that he can himself determine
what he will do and be. This doctrine will not be tenable if it is
admitted that talents and deficiencies are determined in the germ-
plasm, from which the organism springs; that man can only use, not
choose, his mental endowment.
 II. RESULTS OF QUANTITATIVE
INVESTIGATION
Many of the cherished hopes and desires of mankind concerning
itself are in some part violated by the teachings of scientific
psychology. Experimental psychology is not yet half a century old,
dating its beginning as a technical science from the founding of
Wundt’s laboratory at Leipzig, in 1879. Therefore, it is clear that the
study of these problems by quantitative methods brings us very close
to the present day.
When the problem of measuring mental capacity was first taken
into the laboratory, the modern definition of a mental function
began to be formulated. It became apparent that a mind must be
judged by its product. The measurement of performance is the only
approach there is, or probably ever will be, to the measurement of
mind. On this basis it was found impossible to identify or measure
any such function as “the reason,” “the memory,” “the observation,”
“the imagination,” “the will,” and similar supposed entities. A mental
function came to be defined as “an actually or possibly observable
event in behavior.” Thus, memorizing digits, detecting absurdities,
and reading English print are examples of mental functions, in the
sense in which the term is used throughout the chapters of this
discussion.
Other terms which are used to refer to performances or “events in
behavior,” are abilities and capacities. A prolonged discussion might
be conducted, in an attempt to assign different technical meanings to
these words, and to bring out fine shades of distinction among them.
For instance, it might be claimed that “ability” should be reserved to
signify capacity plus the skill acquired by practice, if any; while
“capacity” should mean the innate aptitude, apart from all training.
However, since capacity in this sense can never be known, but can
only be inferred from the degree of actual performance, under
controlled conditions, it hardly seems necessary to maintain such
distinctions for our purpose. Refinements of nomenclature will,
therefore, be avoided, and the terms mental function, capacity, and
ability will be used interchangeably, to denote performance which
depends on the inborn integrity and sensitivity of the individual.
By way of clarifying the definition of a mental function as “an
actually or possibly observable event in behavior,” we may quote
from Spearman’s presentation of the distinction between
“observation” as a mental function, and “observation of birds’ nests.”
Spearman says: “Suppose, for instance, that a school boy has
surpassed his fellows in the observation of birds’ nests. His victory
has, no doubt, depended in part on his capacity for the general form
of activity known as ‘observation.’ But it has also depended on his
being able to apply this form of activity to the matter of birds’ nests;
had the question been of tarts in the pastry cook’s window, the
laurels might well have fallen to another boy. A further influence
must have been exercised by the accompanying circumstances; to
spy out nests as they lie concealed in the foliage is not the same thing
as to make observations concerning them in the open light of a
natural history museum. Again, to discover nests at leisure is
different from doing so under the severe speed limits prescribed by
the risk of an interrupting gamekeeper. The boy’s rank may even
depend largely on the manner of estimating merit. Marks may be
given either for the gross number or for the rarity of the nests
observed; and he who most infallibly notes the obvious construction
of the house-sparrow may not be the best at detecting the elusive
hole of the kingfisher.” One cannot, therefore, identify and measure
“observation.” One can only measure “observing birds’ nests, of all
kinds, at leisure,” or “observing rare birds’ nests, under stress of
pursuit,” and so forth, which are “actual or possible events in
behavior.”
As one may glean further from Spearman’s discourse, it has been
shown that most of the mental functions performed by men are not
elementary, but consist of the coördination of complex factors,
capable of analysis. Reading the English word “cat” from a printed
page is, for instance, a very complex function.
The application of quantitative methods to the study of mental
functions as thus defined, quickly revealed the fact that human
beings, sampled at random, in large numbers, do not fall into distinct
types. On the contrary, they yield one unbroken curve of distribution
in the function measured, clustering around a single type (or mode).
In all mental functions which have been measured, there has been
found but one type—the average human type—from which the
individual members of the species deviate in degree (though not in
kind). The majority of individuals deviate but slightly from this
biologically established type or mode. “The typical” in ability is,
indeed, by definition, what the greatest number of people can do.
From this performance of the average or typical person, a few
individuals deviate widely in the direction of superiority, while a
corresponding few deviate widely in the direction of inferiority. No
doubt the conspicuousness, because of their infrequency, of extreme
deviates in respect to any given function (or capacity) has led to the
notion of separate types of mankind. Mental measurement shows
clearly that men cluster closely around one type in mental traits, just
as they do in such physical traits as height and weight. All men can
be no more divided into the dull and the bright, than they can be
divided into the tall and the short. The eye can see that most persons
are best described as medium, in height.
This principle of one type, with deviations in both directions from
it, in a measured trait, holds throughout organic nature. The study of
it in all its bearings is called the study of individual differences.
When the traits involved are mental, we speak of the psychology of
individual differences. It is one of the marvelous facts about human
beings that of all the millions born, no two are just equal in
possession of a given trait, except by chance; and no two are identical
in their combinations of traits, for the infinite possibilities of
permutation practically exclude identity by chance. These
combinations, which go to make up personality, are combinations of
amounts of the same traits. This must be clearly understood. The
mental classification of men under different “kinds” is a myth. All
show the same kinds of functions; but they show all degrees of
performance in these functions, within limits which are extremely
wide, with multitudinous possibilities of combinations of functions,
in different amounts of each.
There are, therefore, not types. There is one type—the typical or
most frequently occurring amount of performance in a function—
from which there is divergence among the individuals born, in
various degrees. Is it possible to construct a picture of this fact, so
that it may become concrete through visual representation?
Psychologists have given us many such pictures, in the forms of
curves platted from their measurements. We may cite as an example,
Seashore’s curve of distribution for the ability to discriminate among
intervals of time, which is one element in musical sensitivity.
Seashore measured a large number of adults in this respect, with the
result that is pictured in Figure 1.
Where the curve rises to its greatest height, at its peak, there the
greatest number of those measured fall in respect to this function.
That is, therefore, the human type, in sense of time. The typical
individual has that amount of this trait. On each side of the type fall
deviating persons, their frequency decreasing rapidly as the amount
of deviation becomes greater. Very few persons in ten thousand have
that amount of sensitivity to time represented by 95–100; and, on
the other hand, very few are so inferior as to fall at the lowest point
measurable on this scale. The typical person has that amount of the
trait represented by 85–75, approximately. Distinct types, such as
“sensitive” and “insensitive,” do not appear, as a result of
mathematical distribution. But a few extreme deviates from the
typical appear,—the superior in sensitivity and the inferior in
sensitivity.

Fig. 1.—Distribution of ability to discriminate among intervals of time, the subjects

being adults. (From Seashore’s The Psychology of Musical Talent. Reproduced by
courtesy of Silver, Burdett and Company, and of The Columbia Graphophone
Company.)
 Occasionally it is possible to illustrate in nature, to the eye of the
man untutored in the derivation of scientific laws, the form of this
distribution. This happens, for example, when a very large flock of
birds rises and passes overhead, during migration. Being tested in
flight, the birds will be seen distributed somewhat as suggested in
Figure 2. Not all are equally swift and enduring, but they deviate
from a single type or mode—the great median mass of birds, which
are typical of this species, in respect to the function of flight.
The same phenomena of distribution appear if a thousand wild
horses run a race, or if a hundred unselected swimmers swim in
competition. They appear whenever non-select organisms of a single
species are submitted to an adequate test or measure of any function
of endowment. The curve approximates that form which
mathematicians tell us results when an infinite number of factors act
together in an infinite number of ways.
We have spoken thus far of the distribution of individuals in a
single kind of performance. What does quantitative psychology teach
with respect to the combination of performances in a given
personality? Is it true, as folk-wishes would have it, that abilities are
distributed among us by a law of compensation? Is the slow man’s
slowness offset by accuracy? Does the quick learner lose his learning
more readily than the slow learner? Is he who excels in arithmetic
likely to be surpassed at spelling? The general consideration of these
questions, which form the topics of this volume, will be found in the
chapter which follows. It will be seen that there is no law of
compensation in human ability, however much we may long to find it
there.

Fig. 2.—Flight of birds, illustrating distribution in ability to fly. (Schematic.)

As for the origin of talents and defects, psychology teaches that

mental endowment in human beings is conditioned by ancestry, just
as other traits of organisms are. Mental capacities are inherited
through the germ-plasm. A child is gifted (if he is so) for the same
reason that he is an Eskimo (if he is one)—because some or all of his
ancestors carried those traits in their germ-plasm, and the
combination of them in just that way was possible.