Many biological and medical films of psychological interest have been? omitted because of insufficient data. These films, along with others, will be included in a subsequent review.2 As a rule a film should be previewed before it is purchased inasmuch as the quality of photography, continuity, and content of psychological pictures varies excessively. Generally speaking, distributors of films either will sell their pictures on approval or will rent them with the understanding that the rental price will be deducted from the purchase price if the picture subsequently is bought.
Thorndike (25,26) has advanced the suggestion that human abilities should be measured in three respects, (1) height or level of difficulty, (2) extent or range of different tasks, and (3) speed. The relative importance of these three factors is somewhat problematical, due in part to the divergent results and conclusions which are reported in the experimental literature. The purpose of the present paper is to collect and to summarize those results which appertain principally to the significance of speed.In 1928, McFarland (16) reviewed the experimental literature which pertained to the role of speed in mental ability. He noted the contradictory nature of the results, but concluded on the basis of experiments which employed the individual method of timing test items, viz., Peak and Boring (20), Clark (5), Hunsicker (12), and Gilbert (10), that there is "a vital relationship between rate and mental ability." In a later report (17) he stated that "ability to be quick is an essential part, if not one of the crucial factors in the mental reaction." However, other papers including publications subsequent to 1928 present results which cast some doubt upon these sweeping conclusions of McFarland.(a) SPEED IN MOTOR FUNCTIONS 1 Bagley (1) was one of the first to work in this field. From one hundred seventy-five pupils he obtained measures of reaction time and compared them with class standings. He concluded that " there seems to be little direct relation between mental ability as represented by reaction-times, and mental ability as represented by class standings."To a mixed group of fifty-one students at the University of Texas, Perrin (21) administered a series of seventeen motor tests which were chosen for the purpose of eliciting both complex and
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