Fig. 12.—Probability curve with increased number
of steps.
And with an infinite number, the steps would disappear altogether, leaving
a perfectly smooth, flowing line, unmarred by a single step or break. It would
be an absolutely continuous distribution.
If then, the results of all
the tests that have been made on all mental traits be studied, it will be found
that human mental ability as shown in at least 95% of all the traits that have
been measured, is distributed throughout the race in various degrees, in accordance
with the law of chance, and that if one could measure all the members of the
species and plot a curve for these measurements, in any trait, he would get this
smooth, continuous curve. In other words, human beings are not sharply divided
into classes, but the differences between them shade off into each other, although
between the best and the worst, in any respect, there is a great gulf.
If this
statement applies to simple traits, such as memory for numbers, it must also
apply to combinations of simple traits in complex mental processes. For practical
purposes, we are therefore justified in saying that in respect of any mental
quality,—ability, industry, efficiency, persistence, attentiveness, neatness,
honesty, anything you like,—in any large group of people, such as the white inhabitants
of the United States, some individuals will be found who show the character in
question in a very low degree, some who show it in a very high degree; and there
will be found every possible degree in between.
