The relation between cranial capacity, relative cranial capacity and intelligence in school children

Abstract

The cranial capacity was calculated by the Pearson-Lee formula, which is a function of length, breadth and height; the two forms were used for the sexes, but no correction was applied for the age of the subjects (the formula having been derived for adults). Relative cranial capacity is the quotient obtained by dividing cranial capacity by stature. Intelligence quotients were derived from the Stanford-Binet when the children were six, Dearborn A when they were seven, and Otis Primary when they were eight. All of the children were of the same age, lived in Medford and Revere (being part of the subjects of the Harvard Growth Study), and comprised 172 boys and 207 girls; subdivisions were made by race. In intelligence boys were slightly inferior to girls; Italians (brunet only considered) were low, Jews rather above average, north Europeans much above average, the brunet type being highest of all. In the correlations between intelligence and cranial capacity, boys surpassed girls (0.24 vs. 0.14); the girls' coefficients are of doubtful significance, but all positive; the only group of boys whose coefficients are conspicuously insignificant is the north European brunet. The relative capacity-intelligence coefficients are clearly insignificant with the possible exception of North European mixed boys, and one-fourth of them are negative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)