Howard Andrew Knox

Pioneer of Intelligence Testing at Ellis Island
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-0-231-14168-0
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 261 mm x 163 mm, Gewicht: 608 g

Howard Andrew Knox (1885;1949) served as assistant surgeon at Ellis Island during the 1910s, administering a range of verbal and nonverbal tests to determine the mental capacity of potential immigrants. An early proponent of nonverbal intelligence testing (largely through the use of formboards and picture puzzles), Knox developed an evaluative approach that today informs the techniques of practitioners and researchers. Whether adapted to measure intelligence and performance in children, military recruits, neurological and psychiatric patients, or the average job applicant, Knox's pioneering methods are part of contemporary psychological practice and deserve in-depth investigation.

Completing the first biography of this unjustly overlooked figure, John T. E. Richardson, former president of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences, takes stock of Knox's understanding of intelligence and his legacy beyond Ellis Island. Consulting published and unpublished sources, Richardson establishes a chronology of Knox's life, including details of his medical training and his time as a physician for the U.S. Army. He describes the conditions that gave rise to intelligence testing, including the public's concern that the United States was opening its doors to the mentally unfit. He then recounts the development of intelligence tests by Knox and his colleagues and the widely-discussed publication of their research. Their work presents a useful and extremely human portrait of psychological testing and its limits, particularly the predicament of the people examined at Ellis Island. Richardson concludes with the development of Knox's work in later decades and its changing application in conjunction with modern psychological theory.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Richardson, John, D.Phil

Richardson, John

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Bewusstseinszustände Hypnose, Psychopharmaka-induzierte Bewusstseinszustände
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Experimentelle Psychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Psychologie: Allgemeines

Inhaltsverzeichnis

IllustrationsTablesForeword by Robert J. SternbergPrefaceChronologyKey People in the TextIntroductionPart I: Before Ellis Island1. Early Years2. Army DaysPart II: The Context3. Immigration, Intelligence, and the Public Health Service4. The Measurement of Intelligence5. At Ellis IslandPart III: Developing the Ellis Island Tests6. The Ellis Island Tests7. Popularizing the Work at Ellis Island8. Practical Issues in Intelligence Testing9. After Ellis IslandPart IV: The Legacy10. Developing Performance Scales11. Borrowing the Ellis Island Tests12. What Do Performance Tests Measure?13. An AppraisalReferencesIndex

Über Autor(innen)

John T. E. Richardson is the professor of student learning and assessment at The Open University in the United Kingdom and a former professor of psychology and head of the Department of Human Sciences at Brunel University. He is an academician of the U.K. Academy of Social Sciences, a fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education. He is an associate editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology and Psychology Teaching Review, and among his fifteen coauthored and coedited books are Gender Differences in Human Cognition, Imagery: Current Developments, The Future of Higher Education, Intelligent Systems in a Human Context, and Mental Imagery and Human Memory.