Learning ability probably follows very closely the mental growth curves. If one considers intelligence to be the capacity to learn, the mental growth curves and learning ability may be considered identical. Intelligence, as we conceive it, can not be separated from learning if mental growth is expressed by the amount learned, and future growth a function of what has been learned. According to such an hypothesis, individuals may vary in their intelligences according to their volitional traits for study as well as their opportunities; and likewise for learning.The mental growth curve accelerates very rapidly up to the ages of ten and eleven when it rounds off to a plateau at the ages of fourteen, fifteen and sixteen. Heinis, 1 by statistical means, continues a slightly rising mental growth curve to an age of about forty. This suggests that capacity to learn increases with greatest rapidity in the preadolescent ages, and following those ages, increases slightly to forty. There are no curves experimentally determined for the complete span of life, but it is known empirically that there is a definite decline in late senescence. We do not know if intelligence, exclusive of the dementias, increases or decreases with advancing age. If we may use interchangeably the intelligence determined by intelligence tests and learning ability as obtained by investigation there is some ground for stating that intelligence does not decrease much with increasing age. Inferences that it does not decrease at all are even permitted.At this point we may drop the concept of intelligence and limit ourselves to ability to learn. If the reader wishes to substitute intelligence as an equivalent for learning ability, the writer is not the one who will quarrel with him. However, the thesis which will be considered for major discussion is one concerning the relation of a wide range of adult ages to ability to learn.In his experimentation reported in "Adult Education," Thorndike 2 concludes that there is a slight decrement in people's abilities to learn as they grow older. This decrease can be expressed quantitatively at about ten to fifteen per cent. In discussing the learning curve in Esperanto as determined by a class of adults Thorndike says:
Pupil control or pupil guidance depends to a large degree on measurements of traits and capacities which have been evaluated in terms of each other and against their predictive value in various situations. Because individuals find themselves in multiple situations, requiring different modes of behavior, measurements for guidance must be devised in terms of several abilities. Sampling all traits is impossible. The most profitable procedure is to measure those factors which have proved themselves significant, and some which are thought to be major in importance for pupil control.In this study tests and measurements are analyzed and related with each other in terms of school situations where they are most significant. The tests and measurements used were diversified in their nature, ranging from those testing special abilities to those testing varied traits and characteristics expressed in a behavior score. There are six, as follows: (1) Intelligence; (2) Behavior; (3) Mechanical interest; (4) Mechanical ability; (5) Industrial grades and (6) Academic grades. These measures were obtained from over six hundred pupils of the 7B, 8B, and 9B grades.Intelligence was measured by the Terman Group Test of Mental Ability. Measurements of behavior were secured by means of a rating scale of behavior tendencies, known as Schedule B, which was used by Olson. 1 Mechanical ability and interest were measured by a mechanical interest analysis blank and paper form board. 2 Behavior
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