STENOGRAPHERS, TYPISTS, AND COMPTOMETRISTS IOI 
there is Miss . I know her personally, and I know 
her work, and I am sure that she is a very inferior 
"Worker, and yet, according to your tests, she is above 
Miss 
This more or less imaginary criticism is typical of the 
power which isolated and personally known cases have 
over the minds of certain individuals, and which is one of 
the greatest obstacles which the psychologist has to over- 
c °me. The difficulty will remain, not only in the psycho- 
lo gical field but in all fields until people are educated suffi 
ciently so that they can weigh the value of an investigation 
° r a problem, not by one or two isolated points which 
happen to stick out most vividly in their minds but by 
Weighing and comparing all the points present in the situa- 
tlo n. It is not the intention here to minimize the im 
portance of the dramatic instance, or the particular case, 
individual instances are, in the last analysis, the funda 
mental facts upon which scientific laws and generalizations 
lest - However, people will not be able properly to place the 
v alue of individual instances until they become statistically 
minded; that is, until they are able to see facts in the light 
Percentages, proportions, curves of frequency and dis 
tribution, and until they are sufficiently at home in this 
md of thinking so that their entire train of thought will 
n °t be thrown out of gear when an isolated instance comes 
. ° n g> or an exception with which they are personally 
mmili ar> 
The little experiment related above was a more fair 
at 1 tem pt than usual on the part of a layman to obtain a 
e lable basis upon which to estimate the value of the 
test s for his work. The official in question chose twelve 
Cases upon which to base his opinion. However, from the 
Psychologist’s point of view, even twelve cases are not