eleventh place with reference to the exactitude of space-perception,
in the sixteenth place with reference to the association-time, and in
the sixth place with reference to the time of sorting. As soon as we
had all these independent grades, we calculated the average and in
this way ultimately gained a common order of grading. * * *

"With this average rank list, we compared the practical results of the
telephone company after three months had passed. These three months
had been sufficient to secure at least a certain discrimination
between the best, the average, and the unfit. The result of this
comparison was on the whole satisfactory. First, the skeptical
telephone company had mixed with the class a number of women who had
been in the service for a long while, and had even been selected as
teachers in the telephone school. I did not know, in figuring out
the results, which of the participants in the experiments these
particularly gifted outsiders were. If the psychological experiments
had brought the result that these individuals who stood so high in
the estimation of the telephone company ranked low in the laboratory
experiment, it would have reflected strongly on the reliability of the
laboratory method. The results showed, on the contrary, that these
women who had proved most able in practical service stood at the
top of our list. Correspondingly, those who stood the lowest in our
psychological rank list had in the mean time been found unfit in
practical service, and had either left the company of their own accord
or else had been eliminated. The agreement, to be sure, was not a
perfect one. One of the list of women stood rather low in the
psychological list, while the office reported that so far she had done
fair work in the service, and two others, to whom the psychological
laboratory gave a good testimonial were considered by the telephone
office as only fair.

[Sidenote: _Theory and Practice_]

"But it is evident that certain disagreements would have occurred even
with a more ideal method, as on the one side no final achievement in
practical service can be given after only three months, and because on
the other side a large number of secondary factors may enter which
entirely overshadow the mere question of psychological fitness. Poor
health, for instance, may hinder even the most fit individual from
doing satisfactory work, and extreme industry and energetic will may
for a while lead even the unfit to fa