THE OBSERVATIONAL METHOD 233 
is necessarily very brief, and permits only the most super 
ficial observation. 
During the course of some of the experiments described, 
it was the practice of the experimenter to note, on one 
side of the record card, his personal impressions of the 
subject being examined. These observations, as already 
described in Chapter III, were recorded under the follow 
ing heads: 
General Intelligence 
Attention 
Rhythm 
Personal Appearance 
Physique 
The object of this practice was to find out by means of 
a later comparison how well the estimates based upon mere 
observation tallied with the actual production records and 
also with the records in the tests. At the end of the first 
experiment, this comparison showed a fair if not a re 
markable agreement with the more reliable production 
records. The experimenter, who had had considerable 
experience in selecting people by means of mere observa 
tion and who had a certain degree of confidence in his 
ability as a judge, was naturally pleased by this agree 
ment. However, upon comparing his estimates of in 
spectors with his estimates of gaugers, he found, to his 
surprise, that they were almost alike. In short, he had 
estimated the girls in one group as good, poor, and indif 
ferent, and had estimated the girls in the other group in the 
same way. But there was nothing in his estimates which 
made it possible to separate the successful gaugers from 
the successful inspectors, although nearly all of the gaugers 
were girls who had first tried inspection and had failed.