Personality and Scientific Aptitude

Abstract

IN a recent communication¹, science sixth forms in English schools were shown to attract boys who have high intelligence quotients but relatively low scores on ‘open-ended’ tests, that is, tests consisting of questions for which no one right answer exists, and which seem to have some bearing on the potentiality for original work². Two types of boy were distinguished: the ‘converger’, who excels in the close reasoning of the intelligence test but lacks fluency on ‘open-ended’ tests; the ‘diverger’, who is exceptionally fluent but relatively weak in close logical argument. This convergent/divergent distinction, corresponding roughly to the science and arts sides of the sixth form, correlates with a variety of other differences. There are, in all, five further sets of data to be reconciled: (1) Convergers are relatively unlikely to express attitudes which are unusual in the statistical sense (P = 0.025 χ² test with Yates's correction, n = 95), or which are liberal and non-authoritarian (P = 0.005). They are unlikely to show emotional involvement in their views (P = 0.005), or, more specifically, to admit that they are unhappy at school (P = 0.005). (2) Convergers' interests and hobbies tend to be practical and out-of-doors rather than—with the exception of music—cultural or political (P = 0.005); and the range of their interests tends to be narrow rather than broad (P = 0.025). (3) When asked to suggest uses for everyday objects or to draw, convergers are relatively unlikely to give responses involving humour (P = 0.05) or personal violence (P = 0.001). (4) Convergers are relatively unlikely to make errors in doing the intelligence test (P = 0.01). (5) Within the intelligence test, convergers show a bias of ability towards questions expressed in numbers and patterns rather than in words (P = 0.005), even though the logical operations performed with these three kinds of symbol are identical. The bias among divergers is the reverse.