e., three years mental retardation) or less would, for
the present, be given the benefit of the doubt, and classed among the
possibly normal. Such a procedure, in dealing with intelligence, is
necessary and justifiable, but its adoption must not blind students, as
it often does, to the fact that the distinction made is an arbitrary
one, and that there is no more a hard and fast line of demarcation
between imbeciles and normals than there is between "rich men" and "poor
men."
[Illustration: CADETS ARRANGED TO SHOW NORMAL CURVE OF VARIABILITY
FIG. 14.--The above company of students at Connecticut
Agricultural College was grouped according to height and photographed by
A. F. Blakeslee. The height of each rank, and the number of men of that
height, is shown by the figures underneath the photograph. The company
constitutes what is technically known as a "population" grouped in
"arrays of variates"; the middle rank gives the median height of the
population; the tallest array (5 ft., 8 in.) is the mode. If a line be
drawn connecting the upper ends of the rows, the resulting geometric
figure will be a "scheme of distribution of variates" or more briefly a
"variability curve," such as was shown in several preceding figures.
Pages:
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151