Applied Psychology: Driving Power of Thought Part 5

An approximate determination of the range of vocabulary of your prospective stenographer can be had by the use of the following comparatively short and simple test.

Hand the applicant a printed slip bearing the list of one hundred words given here and ask him to mark the words carefully according to these instructions.

Place _before_ each word one of these three signs:

(I) A plus sign (+) if you know the word.

(II) A minus sign (-) if you do not know the word.

(III) A question mark (?) if you are in doubt.

When you have finished, count the marks and fill out these blanks, making sure that the numbers add to one hundred.

Number known ...........

Number unknown ...........

Number doubtful ...........

abductor decide interim rejoice abeam deception lanuginose rejoin abed disentomb lanuginous rejoinder abet disentrance lanugo rejuvenate amalgamation disepalous lanyard scroll amanuensis disestablish matting scrub amaranth eschar mattock scruff baron escheat mattress scrunch baroscope escort maturate skylight barouche eschalot m.u.f.f skyrocket barque filiform m.u.f.fin skysail bottle-holder filigree m.u.f.fle skyward bottom filing mufti subcutaneous bottomry fill page sub-let boudoir gourd paG.o.da subdue channel gout paid tenderloin chant govern pail tendinous chanticleer gown photograph tendon chaos hodman photographer tendril concatenate hoe photography tyc.o.o.n concatenation hoecake photo-lithograph tymbal concave hog publication type conceal intercede pudding virago decemvirate interdict puddle virescent decency interest pudgy virgin

By adding find the total number of "plus" marks on the applicant's slip. Multiply this number by 280, and you will then have obtained the applicant's absolute vocabulary.

An absolute vocabulary of twenty thousand words or over may be graded as excellent; 17,500 to 20,000 words, good; 15,000 to 17,500, fair; and below 15,000, poor.

You should not employ as train-dispatcher a person whose time-reactions indicate a tendency to confuse a.s.sociated ideas. The a.s.sociated ideas may be related in time, place or a variety of ways, and the memory of one who has an inherent tendency to subst.i.tute an a.s.sociate for the thing itself is a treacherous instrument. The tendency to confuse a.s.sociated ideas can be measured by psychological tests.

Your own knowledge of the work of the world will suggest other employments besides that of train-dispatcher in which such a test could be used in hiring men to the improvement of the service.

[Sidenote: _Crime-Detection by Psychological Tests_]

The employment of psychological tests in the detection of crime is fast supplanting the brutalities of the "third degree."

Thus, for example, by the use of highly sensitive instruments we are able to detect the quickened heart-beat, the shudder, and other evidences of emotion not otherwise discernible, but due to the deliberate presentation of the details and evidences of a crime.

Though the subject may not himself be aware of the slightest physical expression of emotion, these signs of a disturbed mentality are unerringly revealed by the delicate instruments of the psychologist.

[Sidenote: _The Factory Operative's Attention Power_]

In some factories the operative is called upon to simultaneously keep watch over a large number of parts of a moving mechanism, and to note and quickly correct a disturbance in any part. Eye and ear must have a wide range, must be able to take account of a large number of operations widely separated in s.p.a.ce.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TESTING THE RANGE OF VISUAL ATTENTION. PRIVATE LABORATORY, SOCIETY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY]

For the scientific determination of the operative's range of visual attention, the "disc tachistoscope," shown facing page 106, may be used.

This is a form of short-exposure apparatus. The essential idea is to furnish a field upon which the subject may for a moment fasten his attention, and then to subst.i.tute for this field another containing certain prepared test-material. This last field is exposed for but a brief instant and removed, and the subject is then called upon to report all that he has seen during the last exposure. Tests of this kind have demonstrated that the range of visual attention is a comparatively constant quant.i.ty with each individual, having but little relation to general ability or intelligence and being but little affected by practice.

It matters not how painstaking the individual may be, he will fail in a test of this kind and at work of this kind if the type of attention that Nature gave him is unfitted for such an "expanded" watchfulness.

Yet in any type of work requiring a focusing of the attention upon a minute operation so as to note nice discriminations and detect subtle differences, he might prove a most excellent worker.

[Sidenote: _Kinds of Testing Apparatus_]

The kind of apparatus, the method to be employed and the place for the experiment are all matters that vary with the conditions of the special problem. The apparatus may be simple and easily devised, or it may be intricate and the result of years of investigation and a large expenditure of money.

If there seems to you to be anything impracticable in the employment of tests in the manner we have indicated, please remember that for many years those seeking employment as railroad engineers have been required to pa.s.s tests for color-blindness, tests just as truly psychological as any that we have here referred to and differing from them only in respect to the character and complexity of the qualities tested.

[Sidenote: _a.n.a.lysis of Different Callings_]

Every calling can be a.n.a.lyzed and the mental elements requisite for success in that particular line can be scientifically disentangled.

Methods for testing the individual as to his possession of any one or all of the mental elements required in any given vocation may then be devised in the psychological laboratory.

Furthermore, definite and scientific exercises can be formulated whereby the individual may train and develop special senses, faculties and powers so as the better to fit himself for his chosen field of work.

[Sidenote: _Exercises for Developing Special Faculties_]

The use of the experimental method is new to every department of science. Crude and occasional experiments have marked the advance of physics, physiology and chemistry, but it is only with the recent innovation of the scientific laboratory that these sciences have made their greatest strides.

The employment of this method in dealing with problems of the mind is particularly new. So far as we are aware there is no school in all the world that employs definite and scientific exercises in the discipline and training of its pupils in power of observation, imagination and memory.

You have now completed a brief survey of the fundamental processes of the mind and seen something of the practical utility of this knowledge. You have before you "sense-perceptions," "causal judgments," "cla.s.sifying judgments," and "a.s.sociated emotional qualities" or "feeling tones." Every suggested idea, every act of reasoning is in the last a.n.a.lysis the product of one or more of these elementary forms of mental activity.

We shall now go on to consider the operations of these mental processes in connection with certain mental phenomena.

[Sidenote: _Principles that Bear on Practical Affairs_]

Our purpose in all this is not to teach you the elements of psychology as it is ordinarily conceived or taught. Our aim is to conduct you through certain special fields of psychological investigation, fields that within the past few years have produced remarkable discoveries of which the world, outside of a few specialists, knows little or nothing. In this way you will be fitted to comprehend the practical instruction, the application of these principles to practical affairs, toward which this _Course_ is tending.