Norsworthy Mental Tests (1906)

Categories versus a continuum

THE CATEGORY VIEW, 1910s

IdiotImbecile"Moron"Normal

Contemporary classifications sorted people into grades by mental age: an idiot up to about two years, an imbecile up to seven, a "moron" up to twelve.⁶ Even then, some writers conceded the top grade shaded off imperceptibly into the normal population.⁶

NORSWORTHY, 1906

Using test data, she compared institutionalised children with ordinary peers, covering motor control, memory and problem solving. She treated the gap as a matter of degree.⁵ On that view, methods used for all pupils should be re-examined for slower learners too.⁵

The terms idiot, imbecile and moron are quoted as historical classifications. They are no longer used clinically.

EXPLORE · WHAT A LINE DOES TO A CONTINUUM

Draw the line anywhere. Someone is just across it.

If ability varies continuously, any cutoff separates children who are almost identical. Move the line and see how many simulated children sit within a few points of it on either side.

Cutoff score70

Lower scoreHigher score

2.1%of simulated children fall below the line

17 | 29children within 3 points below | above the line

≈ sameability either side of the line, yet different labels

A simulated normal distribution of 2,000 scores (mean 100, SD 15). This isn't Norsworthy's data. It illustrates the logic of her argument, not her numbers.

From Morristown classroom to Columbia faculty

1877Born 29 September in New York City to parents who had emigrated from England. Schooled in Rutherford, New Jersey.¹

c. 1892Enters New Jersey State Normal School at 15, among its youngest students, and graduates in three years.¹

1901After four years teaching in Morristown, New Jersey, she takes a BS at Teachers College, Columbia, where she was a student assistant in psychology.¹

1904PhD. She presents the thesis to the American Psychological Association, the first time a woman had presented a thesis at its New York centre.¹

1906The thesis appears as Archives of Psychology no. 1 and in Columbia's contributions to philosophy and psychology.³

1916Dies aged 39. She had been the first woman on the Teachers College faculty. A memorial biography, The Life of Naomi Norsworthy, follows in 1918.⁴

References

[1]Wikipedia contributors. Naomi Norsworthy (accessed 1 Oct 2026).en.wikipedia.org

[2]Norsworthy, N. (1906). The psychology of mentally deficient children. New York. Internet Archive (Library of Congress copy).archive.org

[3]The psychology of mentally deficient children (catalogue record: thesis, Columbia; also Archives of Psychology no. 1, Nov. 1906). Library of Congress.loc.gov

[4]Columbia University, history of psychology at. Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School Psychology. Springer.link.springer.com

[5]The Psychology of Mentally Deficient Children (reprint edition, publisher's description). Forgotten Books via Amazon.amazon.com

[6]Feeble-mindedness: a review by the editor of the Journal of Heredity. PubMed Central.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

HOW TO CITE THIS PAGE

What's Your IQ. (2026). Norsworthy: The Psychology of Mentally Deficient Children (1906). In Historical IQ Tests Archive. Retrieved October 1, 2026, from /en/historical-iq-tests/norsworthy-mental-tests-1906

EDITORIAL RECORD

First published2026

Last reviewed1 October 2026

Sources6: the monograph, library records and biographical references

Open questionsHer exact test battery and the size of her comparison group of ordinary pupils; this page relies on summaries, not a full reading of the 124 pages

Canonical URLwhats-your-iq.com/en/historical-iq-tests/norsworthy-mental-tests-1906

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Binet and Simon built a scale to separate children held back by schooling from those with an intellectual deficit. Norsworthy tackled the same population in New York with a statistical comparison.

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Norsworthy trained at Columbia's Teachers College, part of the university where Cattell had run his testing programme. Her work applied that measurement tradition to children in institutions.

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Stanford-Binet 1916

Terman's IQ placed everyone on a single scale. Later deviation scores made that continuous view the standard way to report ability.

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Part of the Historical IQ Tests Archive. Editorial content under CC BY-SA 4.0. Norsworthy's 1906 monograph is in the public domain; read it on the Internet Archive.

BibTeX RIS

A difference of degree, not of kind.

Categories versus a continuum

Draw the line anywhere. Someone is just across it.

From Morristown classroom to Columbia faculty

References

Related historical tests

Ability is a continuum. See where you sit.