Howard Andrew Knox: Pioneer of Intelligence Testing at Ellis Island by John T. E. Richardson (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Howard Andrew Knox: Pioneer of Intelligence Testing at Ellis Island by John T. E. Richardson Alan M. Kraut John T. E. Richardson . Howard Andrew Knox: Pioneer of Intelligence Testing at Ellis Island. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011. xxxii + 309 pp. Ill. $55.00 (978-0231-14168-0). In the second decade of the twentieth century, during a peak period of immigration to the United States, Dr. Howard Andrew Knox was physician in the U.S. Marine Hospital Service (later renamed the Public Health Service) assigned to the medical inspection of immigrants at New York's Ellis Island depot. He served there for only four years, May 1912 to May 1916. However, Knox's interest in psychology and his concern about the questionable mental capacity of immigrants seeking admission to the United States led him to make a significant contribution to intelligence testing, according to biographer John T. E. Richardson, professor of student learning and assessment at the Open University in the United Kingdom and former psychology professor at Brunel University. Richardson's stated purpose is to recover from obscurity Knox's legacy and to restore his rightful place of importance in the history of intelligence testing. Born in 1885, Knox was raised in Michigan by his mother, the daughter of Irish immigrants, and a stepfather who was a physician. After graduating with a medical degree from Dartmouth, Knox joined the Army Medical Corps. When he resigned his position to care for his ailing, widowed mother, he was refused reinstatement. In the absence of evidence, Richardson speculates that the refusal resulted from Knox's departure from his post for family reasons, Knox's own divorce and rapid remarriage, which suggested to superiors a troubling instability, or the scorn of prudish superiors resulting from Knox's distribution of prophylactic kits to enlisted men and prostitutes to curb rampant venereal disease at Fort Hancock, New Jersey. Knox resumed government service in 1912, successfully passing the rigorous U.S. Marine Hospital Service examination. Assigned to Ellis Island, Knox joined the line inspection of immigrants traveling third class and steerage. Ellis Island medical officers became sharp observers. Based on a brief clinical gaze, they surmised whether the immigrant before them required further examination to confirm a diagnosis of disease or disability that would prevent newcomers from supporting themselves and might even pose a health risk to the American population. Mental deficiency was harder to diagnose. Often a gesture or facial expression provided a clue. But appearances could be deceiving. [End Page 128] In an era when definitions of mental deficiency were protean and terms such as moron and imbecile had clinical meaning, there were no reliable measures of intelligence. Examinations developed in Europe, such as the Binet exam, required language skills and a cultural familiarity beyond most immigrants' capability. Researcher H. H. Goddard's use of the Binet test on Ellis Island produced problematic results, and Ellis Island inspectors trusted their own instincts more than Goddard's data. Intrigued by psychology, Howard Knox developed performance tests requiring language comprehension only for instructions. Knox's Diamond Frame Test required associating the shape of blocks with their places in a board within a certain amount of time. His Cube Imitation Test required tapping other blocks in a particular pattern. An Inkblot Imagination Test called for immigrants to interpret the shape of an inkblot as they perceived it. Knox's articles describing these tests and several others were commercially packaged and marketed with the blessing and cooperation of the U.S. Public Health Service. Later, other distinguished intelligence testers proceeded to develop more sophisticated performance tests and explanations for precisely what such tests measured. Some cited Knox's tests in their scholarly papers; others did not. Knox's contribution fell into obscurity. As distinguished psychologist Robert J. Sternberg observes in a preface, "[P]art of becoming a revered pioneer in a field is a matter of luck, which eluded Knox." After Knox left Ellis Island in 1916, he engaged in an undistinguished private medical practice until his death in 1949. Richardson makes the case for Knox's contribution to intelligence testing. Less apparent is whether its significance warrants a biography rather than a lengthy article...