Howard Andrew Knox: Pioneer of Intelligence Testing at Ellis Island

Howard Andrew Knox (1885-1949) served as assistant surgeon at Ellis Island during the 1910s, administering a range of verbal and nonverbal tests for the mental capacity of potential immigrants. An early proponent of nonverbal intelligence testing (largely through the use of formboards and picture puzzles), Knox developed an evaluative approach that informs the techniques of practitioners and researchers today. Whether adapted to measure intelligence and performance in children, military recruits, neurological and psychiatric patients, or the average job applicant, Knox's pioneering methods deserve in-depth investigation that situates his discoveries within contemporary psychological practice. Completing the first biography of this unjustly overlooked figure, John T. E. Richardson, former president of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences, takes stock of Knox's understanding of intelligence and his legacy beyond Ellis Island. Consulting published and unpublished sources, Richardson establishes a chronology of Knox's life, including details of his medical training and his time as a physician with the U.S. Army. He describes the conditions that gave rise to intelligence testing, including public concern that the mentally unfit were allowed to settle within the country. He then recounts the development of intelligence tests by Knox and his colleagues and the publication of their research, which captured the attention of a nation. These publications present a useful and extremely human portrait of psychological testing and its limits, particularly regarding the predicament of the people who were examined at Ellis Island. Richardson concludes with the continuation of Knox's work and its changing application in conjunction with modern psychological theory.

About the Author :
John T. E. Richardson is the professor of student learning and assessment at The Open University in the United Kingdom and a former professor of psychology and head of the Department of Human Sciences at Brunel University. He is an academician of the U.K. Academy of Social Sciences, a fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a fellow of the Society for Research into Higher Education. He is an associate editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology and Psychology Teaching Review, and among his fifteen coauthored and coedited books are Gender Differences in Human Cognition, Imagery: Current Developments, The Future of Higher Education, Intelligent Systems in a Human Context, and Mental Imagery and Human Memory.

Review :
John Richardson's work does much to bring us a new look at our past. His book tells of an important chapter in American history and psychology and provides new insights into our ongoing struggles to understand the expression of our cognitive abilities and limitations.--David B. Baker, The University of Akron and the Center for the History of Psychology what makes it such an intriguing read, is the complex interrelationship that existed between the emerging science of psychology and the organizational, political, and cultural context inwhich both the idea and the specific techniques of intelligence testing took hold in Americansociety.--Steven Ward "PsycCritiques" An important account of the role that one man played during a fertile and important period in the history of American immigration and intelligence testing.--Kaitlin Bell Barnett "Psych Central" This book is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in intelligence testing and the historical events that contributed to their adoption by modern psychology--Sherry Ginn "Journal of the History of the Neurosciences" With respect to the centrality of psychological testing on a truly global scale today (not to mention human resource recruitment, personality assessment, and terrorism defense), John Richardson's book will acquire a wide readership extending far beyond the community of psychologists and historians of psychology and immigration. In fact, the audience for this book ranges from scholars in American history, historians of science, and public and population health researchers to a wide general readership. Richardson focuses on a long-forgotten forbear and a pioneering test protocol, which often goes unnoticed in many standard psychology and behavioral medicine textbooks. His book is an original contribution.--Frank W. Stahnisch, University of Calgary, Alberta Howard Andrew Knox is comprehensive and compelling. John Richardson has created a very original work and his examination of a previously unknown contributor to the science of intelligence testing is insightful and original.--Eric Turkheimer, University of Virginia