Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)

The great man of measurement, of "anything and everything" was Sir Francis Galton. Overshadowed in popular accounts by his cousin Charles Darwin, the significance of Galton's practical contributions to society has remained largely undervalued. Anyone who has enjoyed a crime show or detective novel is aware of one of his many discoveries -- finger-printing.

Galton was also a pioneer in the development of regression analysis -- a statistical technique forming the basis of prediction in widely ranging fields, such as economics and human resource management. Further to these achievements, he was one of the first individuals to realize the importance of posted questionnaires. These questionnaires (always accompanied with prizes) sought to capture people's psychological pre-dispositions. Indeed, it is likely that if Galton were around today, he would have used the WWW to ask "How annoying do you find frames and Java applets? "A wealthy gentleman scholar, Galton had time to develop these many interests, but to contemporary psychologists he remains mainly the progenitor of individual differences and the statistical techniques necessary for such investigations.

The introduction to psychological analysis of the Bell Curve and the Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (developed in collaboration with his good friend, Karl Pearson) can be traced to Galton. He also conducted empirical studies that relied on the measurement of sensory processes across many different people. However, due to inadequate technology and procedure at the turn of the century, this emphasis appeared fruitless. A hundred years on, some investigators (e.g., Roberts, Pallier, & Goff, 1999) have demonstrated that Galton was on the right track relative to his investigation of sensory processes. Galton also placed emphasis on the importance of quickness of response (reaction time) to mental ability, which appears also to have been justified (e.g., Roberts & Stankov, 1998) Did you know? Apart from his significant (and extensive) contributions to science in general, and psychology in particular, one may blame Galton for the fact that we have access to weather reports. It was Galton who was first to describe cyclonic and anti-cyclonic weather patterns.

*Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)* The great man of measurement, of "anything and everything" was Sir Francis Galton. Overshadowed in popular accounts by his cousin Charles Darwin, the significance of Galton's practical contributions to society has remained largely undervalued. Anyone who has enjoyed a crime show or detective novel is aware of one of his many discoveries -- finger-printing. Galton was also a pioneer in the development of regression analysis -- a statistical technique forming the basis of prediction in widely ranging fields, such as economics and human resource management. Further to these achievements, he was one of the first individuals to realize the importance of posted questionnaires. These questionnaires (always accompanied with prizes) sought to capture people's psychological pre-dispositions. Indeed, it is likely that if Galton were around today, he would have used the WWW to ask "How annoying do you find frames and Java applets? "A wealthy gentleman scholar, Galton had time to develop these many interests, but to contemporary psychologists he remains mainly the progenitor of individual differences and the statistical techniques necessary for such investigations. The introduction to psychological analysis of the Bell Curve and the Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (developed in collaboration with his good friend, Karl Pearson) can be traced to Galton. He also conducted empirical studies that relied on the measurement of sensory processes across many different people. However, due to inadequate technology and procedure at the turn of the century, this emphasis appeared fruitless. A hundred years on, some investigators (e.g., Roberts, Pallier, & Goff, 1999) have demonstrated that Galton was on the right track relative to his investigation of sensory processes. Galton also placed emphasis on the importance of quickness of response (reaction time) to mental ability, which appears also to have been justified (e.g., Roberts & Stankov, 1998) Did you know? Apart from his significant (and extensive) contributions to science in general, and psychology in particular, one may blame Galton for the fact that we have access to weather reports. It was Galton who was first to describe cyclonic and anti-cyclonic weather patterns.