Herman H. Spitz
Born(1925-03-02)March 2, 1925
Paterson, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedFebruary 11, 2019(2019-02-11) (aged 93)
Natick, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma materLafayette College,
New York University
Known forStudies of intellectual disability
Scientific career
FieldsPsychometrics, intellectual disability
InstitutionsTrenton State Hospital,
E. R. Johnstone Training and Research Center

Herman Heinrich Spitz (March 2, 1925 – February 11, 2019) was an American psychologist known for his work measuring intelligence among those with developmental disability. He was director of research at the E.R. Johnstone Training and Research Center, which was a state institution for adolescents and young adults with upper-level intellectual disability in Bordentown, New Jersey, until he retired in 1989. He worked under the direction of the Superintendent John M. Wall, who retired in 1990 having served from August 1969.

Spitz studied concepts such as mental age,[1] and the abilities of autistic savants.[2] He co-authored a survey of attempts to raise intelligence among people with intellectual disability.[3] He reported on programs like the Carolina Abecedarian Early Intervention Project which advocated the early education of poor children.[4] Through use of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, he reported that the Flynn effect of massive intelligence quotient gains in a single generation in many nations only applied to people in the average intelligence range.[5] He also looked at the hereditarian hypothesis for general intelligence factor by examining Wechsler subtest patterns among test-takers with intellectual disability.[6]

In 1994 he was one of 52 signatories on "Mainstream Science on Intelligence,[7]" an editorial written by Linda Gottfredson and published in the Wall Street Journal, which declared the consensus of the signing scholars on the measurement and significance of intelligence following the publication of the book The Bell Curve.

Herman H. Spitz died in Natick, Massachusetts on February 11, 2019, at the age of 93.[8]

Books

  • The raising of intelligence : a selected history of attempts to raise retarded intelligence. Hillsdale, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates. 1986. ISBN 9780898598360. OCLC 13666567.
  • Nonconscious movements : from mystical messages to facilitated communication. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum. 1997. ISBN 9780805825633. OCLC 35360511.

References

  1. ↑ Spitz HH (1982). Intellectual Extremes, Mental Age, and the Nature of Human Intelligence. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly v28 n2 p167-92 Apr 1982
  2. ↑ Spitz HH (1995). Calendar calculating idiots savants and the smart unconscious. New Ideas in Psychology
  3. ↑ Spitz HH (1986). The Raising of Intelligence: A Selected History of Attempts to Raise Retarded Intelligence. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  4. ↑ Spitz HH (1992). Does the Carolina Abecedarian Early Intervention Project Prevent Sociocultural Mental Retardation? Intelligence v16 n2 p225-37 Apr-Jun 1992
  5. ↑ Spitz HH (1989). Variations in Wechsler Interscale IQ Disparities at Different Levels of IQ. Intelligence v13 n2 p157-67 Apr-Jun 1989
  6. ↑ Spitz HH (1988). Wechsler Subtest Patterns of Mentally Retarded Groups: Relationship to "g" and to Estimates of Heritability. Intelligence v12 n3 p279-97 Jul-Sep 1988
  7. ↑ Gottfredson, Linda (December 13, 1994). Mainstream Science on Intelligence. Wall Street Journal, p A18.
  8. ↑ "Herman Heinrich Spitz". Forever Missed. Retrieved 12 October 2023.


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