Introduction. With passage of time permitting a decade of observation on the same subjects and a wide variety of approaches to test other hypotheses on considerable groups it is now possible to lay down certain observations on the nature of artistic aptitude, which, in the sense that anything in science may be " final", epitomize the complete findings. The principal conclusions rest mainly on the experimental work of research assistants, the case-study records of six talented and six nontalented children and the life histories of forty-one American artists, although much more data enters into specific phases of the findings.The finding of greatest interest is a new theory of talent which, for the first time, clearly indicates the specific interaction of the inherited aspects of talent with the learned phases. There can be no adequate understanding of artistic aptitude rvithout both being taken into account. The view presented herein places the greater emphasis upon heredity, but extreme care must be taken by the reader to note the particular aspect of heredity involvedconstitutional stock inheritance-not direct inheritance, in the commonly assumed sense, from parents. Only one of the six factors is strongly referable to inheritance-manual skill-yet
Introduction. In analyses of the relationship between various abilities and general intelligence, certain ones have appeared to be but slightly, if at all, related to ability in general, and to these the designation of special abilities or talents has been applied. Theoretically, artistic ability has been denoted as one of these, since " artistic aptitudes appear to be controlled primarily by special gifts rather than by general ability" (29, p. 505 ).3 Actual evidence in support of this contention exists, however, only for that limited phase of artistic performance which has been designated as representative drawing. Furthermore, statistical data supplying such evidence of a low degree of relationship between general intelligence and ability in representative drawing have been derived, in the main, from investigations dealing with unselected groups, such as those of Ayer (2), Elderton (8), Fischlovitz (9), and Ivanoff (16). These studies have uniformly shown low, positive correlations between measures of the two variables.4Complete agreement with these findings does not appear in the results of studies dealing with subjects selected for superior ability in art as manifested in other activities in addition to representation of single objects. The investigations of Kerschensteiner (17), Kik (18) and Terman (38) indicate that
The growing interest which has been evinced in the Downey Will-Profile 1 (Will-Temperament Test) since its publication in 1919 is perhaps attributable to the current interest in tests which may serve to supplement the measures of general intelligence, and to the fact that it is the most systematic attempt yet made in the appraisal of temperamental qualities. This field of volitional and temperamental measurement presents complex and difficult problems, so that it seems somewhat unlikely that any test will ever sample the variables which constitute temperament, with a high degree of certainty. The study reported herein 2 is an attempt to ascertain the degree of reliability which this promising test possesses.A consideration of the previous studies of the test 3 gives a variety of conclusions concerning the value of the test, and reveals certain limitations and shortcomings in procedure, unforeseen at the time, from which this study has profited. Space limitations forbid a critical review, but the points of departure will be found in the context. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Two procedures may be followed to secure data upon the reliability of the test. The first consists of giving other objective tests of known validity that would provide measures of traits similar to or identical
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