ABSTRACT
In this study we examine the circulation of instruments, tests, and images related to psychometrics in 1920s São Paulo. From a list of instruments described and evaluated by the Brazilian engineer and polytechnic professor José Octávio Monteiro de Camargo, we identified a significant international market for German psychometric instruments that have been applied in Brazil. The analysis of advertising and didactic images depicting these instruments, as well as the human gestural interaction found in some of them have enabled us to identify the uses and appropriations of psychometric technology required for scientific legitimization around the globe.
Keywords:
Images; Psychometrics; Instruments Market; São Paulo; Germany
RESUMO
Neste trabalho, analisamos a circulação de instrumentos, testes e imagens relativos à psicotécnica, na São Paulo dos anos 1920. A partir de uma lista de instrumentos descrita e avaliada pelo engenheiro e professor politécnico brasileiro José Octávio Monteiro de Camargo, identificamos um importante mercado internacional de instrumentos psicotécnicos, produzidos na Alemanha, com ramificações no Brasil. A análise de imagens didáticas e de propaganda retratando tais instrumentos, e a interação gestual humana presente em algumas delas, possibilitou identificar os usos e apropriações que a tecnologia psicométrica demandou em seu processo de legitimação científica ao redor do globo.
Palavras-chave:
Imagens; Instrumentos psicotécnicos; Mercado; São Paulo; Alemanha
Introduction
As it is attentive to what enables the circulation of knowledge, the history of science has explored the linguistic, political, cultural, and economic negotiations embedded in the movement of scientists, intellectuals, books, and instruments (Latour, 2000; Pratt, 2008; Raj, 2007; Secord, 2004). These studies are based on the premise that science depends not only on the possession and control of definitions, theorems, and techniques, but also on access to instruments, journals, books, and other printed materials. This is an endeavor that generally requires a series of rather mundane procedures such as the purchase, sale, transportation, and handling of objects. The circulation and adaptation of these objects can influence representation and legitimize knowledge in spaces where they are read and used (Bourdieu, 2002; Latour & Hernandt, 2004).
Psychology is emblematic in this regard. The discipline achieved its autonomy from philosophy at the beginning of the twentieth century largely through psychometric techniques (Paicheler-Harrous, 2018), though little has been said about the role that psychometric instruments played in this development. In Brazil, psychometrics was institutionalized even before psychology itself was (Dadico; Monteiro, 2021). Most local studies on the early structuring of the field of psychology are focused on the circulation of individuals, the internal organization of the field, and its uses for society or even an independent and linear evolution of ideas toward the establishment of a distinct scientific instrument (Antunes, 1999; Jacó-Vilela, 2024; Patto, 2021; Figueiredo, 1991).
Documents abound that offer evidence of the use of machines and various instruments for the application of psychometric tests. The many manuals that emerged at the time contain descriptions, drawings, and photographs, but few references as to how these instruments were conceived, adapted, and used. To address this gap in historiography, the present study examines the use of psychometric instruments in the selection of mechanics in Brazil at the end of the 1920s.
To do so, we turn to the instruments described by engineer and professor José Octávio Monteiro de Camargo of the São Paulo Polytechnic School in a paper presented at the 4th Brazilian Congress on Hygiene in 1928. Later published in the Journal Polytechnica, of São Paulo (1928), this paper was included in the conference proceedings where it offered testimony on the efforts of psychometrics professionals in scientifically legitimizing and disseminating their procedures throughout the country.
In addition to describing the instruments used and noting the type of test associated with each one, Camargo details their origins, whether national or imported, and their creators. These data allowed us to reconstruct the extensive chain of production, circulation, and use of psychometric instruments of the time. If such instruments should be regarded as important agents in the constitution of psychology and if they can serve as, “mediators between the world, our perception, and the knowledge we construct about it,” (Figueirôa, 2014, p. 15) then Camargo’s list prompts us to question the excessive emphasis that scientific memory has placed on the French and American schools in the formation of the Brazilian psychology (Dadico; Monteiro, 2021, p. 22-25). In fact, many of the instruments in Camargo’s paper were designed and produced in Germany, the country where the first generation of American psychologists had trained (Paicheler-Harrous, 2018). In this way, French and American intellectuals and institutions mediated knowledge that had originated in Germany, thus making the psychology that took root in Brazil a more complex bricolage than a mere dispute between schools. Nor does the Brazilian case seem isolated, since the presence of German psychometric instruments was also documented in Japan before the Second World War (Yoshimura, 2016), indicating that a significant portion of the international market for medical and psychometric instruments was controlled by German companies.
This article is organized into four sections. The first two present Camargo’s contributions, unpacking the professor`s arguments and strategies regarding his use and defense of psychometrics. The remaining two sections show Camargo to be an attentive reader of psychometric theories and the international market for such instruments. Subsequently, we analyze the images and practices surrounding the use of certain instruments, most notably the tremometer, that circulated in São Paulo in the 1920s before ultimately returning to the issue of the presence of the human body and gestures as visual arguments in the psychometric texts of the time.
The Engineer Monteiro de Camargo, Psychometrics, and Professional Selection Tests
Although some of the earliest records of the use of psychometric instruments in Brazil are associated with their application in Normal and Primary Schools (Centofanti, 2006), it was in the field of vocational selection and guidance that psychometrics achieved its first major success in the country. This development enabled not only the establishment of specialized services and laboratories but also career advancement for its practitioners and the consolidation of the discipline at the higher education level.
A combination of factors contributed to the theoretical and practical success of psychometrics in the early stages of Brazilian psychology’s development as an institution. Rapid industrialization, urban growth, mechanized production, and substantial investments in rail transport all created a need for the handling of machinery unfamiliar to most Brazilians. Responding to this demand, centers were established by various national rail companies to select and train young apprentices. By 1937, the state of São Paulo alone had nine such centers spread across the countryside, including in Pindamonhangaba, Bebedouro, Araraquara, and others (Salvadori, 2005). The Sorocabana Railway Company was a pioneer in this area, and it sent students as early as 1924 to the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios de São Paulo where Swiss engineer Roberto Mange served as superintendent of the mechanical course.
From an epistemological perspective, the use of instruments for measuring aptitude and generating statistics granted the discipline a new status. With mathematical interpretation, psychology could then separate itself from philosophy in the 1930s, a time when the Brazilian sciences were being reorganized and many universities were founded. Not only psychology, but a variety of disciplines gained greater autonomy from the so-called “imperial professions” such as law, medicine, and engineering (Schwartzman, 2015).
Roberto Mange, professor of Applied Mechanics at the Polytechnic School of São Paulo, visited Germany in 1923 where he learned about the professional selection program used by the Berlin tram company. This inspired him to employ psychometric tests in the selection of Brazil´s Sorocabana Railway workers. With Mange’s assistance, Sorocabana inaugurated its own professional selection training program in 1930, and it soon began to receive not only candidates for positions within the company but also referrals sent by the Department of Transportation and Public Works. At the time, the department was directed by José Octávio Monteiro de Camargo, a colleague of Mange’s at the University of São Paulo’s Polytechnic School. Mange and Monteiro de Camargo would also collaborate on the commission that founded the Institute for the Rational Organization of Work in 1929 (Correia; Almeida, 2013).
A mechanical-electrical engineer trained at the Polytechnic School of São Paulo in 1920, Camargo joined the faculty in 1928 as an assistant professor. He had previously interned and worked for transportation companies and later joined the Department of Transportation and Public Works (SILVA, 2006). At the start of his academic career when he was 28, Camargo presented his work on professional selection at the 4th Brazilian Congress on Hygiene held in Bahia. In his presentation, the young professor praised Mange’s efforts and in particular his initiative in establishing a Psychometric Office during his tenure at the São Paulo School of Arts and Crafts. This was, “intended to assist with its methods in the training of mechanical workers by maximizing the use of their abilities” (Camargo, 1928, p. 455). The results of this initiative demonstrated the need to extend these services to train drivers and vehicle operators as they bore the responsibility of preventing accidents and sparing human lives.
An engineering professor presenting his work on psychometrics at a hygiene congress aligned with the contemporary discourse which advocated for the use of these instruments in the improvement of industrial and service work performance where it promised to reduce waste and injury (Mange, 1926). These also aligned with the international movement of professionals seeking to affiliate themselves with the discipline. In 1929, the 6th International Congress of Psychotechnics took place in Barcelona, Spain, and in 1930, the Mental Hygiene Congress was held in New York (Lahy, 1929), both of which included professors active in Brazil (Dadico; Monteiro, 2021).
Of the six themes addressed at the 4th Congress on Hygiene, two involved evaluation through bodily measurement. These were titled “Biometric verification of children and adults in Brazil” and “Vocational guidance, practical means of indicating it, and attempts made in Brazil”. These topics were rarely addressed at hygiene movement events of the time which largely focused on sanitation and the treatment and eradication of infectious and sexually transmitted diseases such as malaria and syphilis. Yet Camargo’s paper attracted attention and was republished in 1928 both in the Journal Polytechnica and in Bulletin 28 of the São Paulo Institute of Hygiene, which was then directed by engineer Paula Souza.
The Statistical Challenge of Selecting and Adapting Psychometric Tests and Instruments in Brazil
Opening the session on vocational guidance, Monteiro de Camargo immediately addressed the methods employed in psychometric testing by asserting that there was no “general” method that could be used across all branches of industry and also noted that these methods had yet to be used on the local population. His presentation was in part promotional when he spoke in favor of a campaign to demonstrate the economic and social benefits of, “making the best use of human potential, granting greater ease in the work process” (Camargo, 1928, p. 456). Camargo’s discourse explored the potential gains in productivity from psychometric evaluation, its economic advantages, as well as its success abroad, and he stated that the most effective tests would be those that were both simpler and better suited to the functions being evaluated.
As he explained, the idea was to “assess an individual’s ability for a specific trade within the mechanical professions” (Camargo, 1928, p. 457). To achieve this, it was necessary to select and apply reliable tests, adopting as criteria both their proven success, “validated by foreign practice,” and their “verification by calculating correlations on the largest possible number of observed cases,” (Camargo, 1928, p. 460). One of the main challenges in the rise of psychometrics, beyond establishing trust that the tests and instruments were the most accurate way to identify psychological and motor skills, was relating them to certain abilities expected of a worker. To address this, Camargo began to list and analyze a set of psychometric instruments available on the market.
To select skilled mechanics, he submitted 26 students from the Arts and Crafts School to a battery of tests in use at the time. Seven general aptitudes were considered: (1) General intelligence; (2) Comparative technical memory; (3) Attention and reaction; (4) Carefulness; (5) Visual acuity; (6) Technical sense; and (7) Mechanical skill.
“Tests and Instruments Associated with Mechanical Skills” This excerpt is part of a larger table comprising six other skill domains: General Intelligence; Comparative Technical Memory; Attention and Reaction; Carefulness; Visual Acuity; and Technical Sense. These were categorized according to the same framework. Tests highlighted in gray indicate those selected by Camargo
Each category was further subdivided. Mechanical skill, for example, could be divided into “orientation” and “manual,” the latter subdivided into sensitivity, hand steadiness, strike control, craftsmanship, and dexterity. In total, Camargo described 28 abilities to be assessed. This listing and classification method differed considerably from other texts of the period. In his study of fitters, Roberto Mange referred to 50 qualities and aptitudes, whereas for dispatcher selection he cited only nine aptitudes (Mange, 1934). Thus, there was no single set of abilities to be tested among specialists at the time. For each social position, an ideal set of skills was designed, and for each of them, tests and instruments were developed and subsequently validated.
A plan of psychometric tests was organized - tests grouped together in the attached chart - intended to investigate, from an entirely practical perspective, the set of aptitudes we aim to select. Each of the capacities indicated in this plan is examined in terms of its importance for a specific trade. These tests are preceded by a general medical examination. The information obtained through this medical exam, the psychometric tests, and other general data will allow us to assess an individual’s ability for a specific trade within the mechanical professions. (Camargo, 1928, p. 456-457).
Spearman›s correlation (ranges from -1 to 1), among the 13 tests chosen by Camargo. Negative values are in bold
Out of the 52 tests listed by Camargo, only 13 appeared to be statistically suitable for selecting students to enter the field of mechanics. All the scores the students received were collected from the battery of tests, a hands-on practical exam, and assessments by the workshop masters at the Arts and Crafts School, and afterwards Camargo submitted the results to a correlation analysis using Spearman’s formula to identify which tests most closely aligned with the determined performance profile. According to the results (Figure 1) which ranged from -1 (weakest correlation) to +1 (strongest correlation), tests B (the crank test) and E (the wire test) had the highest Spearman coefficients (0.581), while tests A (the weight test) and L (the optometer test) had the lowest (-0.354).
Tests B (the crank test) and C (tremometer) showed positive correlations with nearly all the other tests. This seems to be one of the reasons Camargo chose them, though he did not say so explicitly. He demonstrates that the workshop masters’ assessments correlate at 0.677 with the average of the test correlations, suggesting that the selected tests aligned closely with these assessments. However, we are not told how the masters themselves evaluated the students. Camargo’s article does not present the correlation results for the discarded tests, nor does it explain the threshold used to exclude them. Apparently, the discarded tests were those showing a higher number of negative correlations with others. If that were the case, retaining the weight test (A), which had seven negative correlations, would seem excessive. Here Camargo hides behind a cloud of calculations which, according to a footnote, were carried out by Madame Piéron (the wife of Henri Piéron), and Camargo provides no clear rationale for his final selection of tests.
International Circulation of Psychometric Instruments: The Case of the Tremometer
While the quantitative results of the psychometric tests conducted by Monteiro de Camargo and his correlation analyses appear in the main body of his presentation at the 4th Brazilian Congress of Hygiene, the appendix to his work includes examples of the instruments used in the psychometric assessments carried out at the Arts and Crafts School. These examples include information about the abilities being assessed, the instruments used, and their measurement procedures. The text is accompanied by drawings and diagrams, including excerpts from the test sheets that were part of the testing plan (involving exercises in mathematics, geometric shapes, and Portuguese language), as well as images of instruments used in sensory evaluations. These instruments were meant to identify a subject’s capacity to discriminate, compare, and order objects according to their characteristics, such as thickness and weight, as well as understanding of leverage, hand steadiness, gesture precision, and other skills.
As mentioned previously, Monteiro de Camargo compiled a table (excerpted in Table 1) containing the general plan of the tests performed. This table outlined the techniques used, the names of the tests, the abilities each test aimed to assess, and - most relevant for our purposes here - the instruments used to carry out these assessments. The Observations section contains instruments that appear to have been developed by Camargo’s own team, such as the “washer test” which required subjects to fill an empty can with washers to test their ability to compare the weight of two objects. Other instruments, however, are clearly industrial in origin and identified by manufacturer name, catalog number, and sometimes the name of the device’s inventor. This is the case with the “tremometer,” used in a test of the same name and consisting of a board, a gauge, and a stylus with a fountain pen tip which the subject was to hold first with a supported hand and then with a free hand while guiding the stylus along a groove without touching the edges of the board. Errors were registered via a galvanometer placed along the sides of the board (Figure 2).
According to the German-language information in Monteiro de Camargo’s table noted as “Tremometer by Moede” (excerpt in Table 1) we can infer that this instrument was created by the German industrial psychologist Walther Moede, a former assistant to Wilhelm Wundt at the Leipzig Laboratory of Experimental Psychology. Seven instruments attributed to Moede appear among the 52 tests described by Camargo. The device’s manufacturer and catalog number are also listed as “cat. Zimmermann 5011” as if the catalog were readily accessible in São Paulo and the instrument’s number could be recorded for a later purchase. During the 1920s, catalogs of psychometric instruments were available from the scientific instrument manufacturer “E. Zimmermann: Fabrik wissenschaftlicher Apparate” located in Leipzig and Berlin (Zimmermann, 1923, 1928, [n.d.]).
Given the matching registration numbers, it is likely that the 1923 catalog was the version used by Monteiro de Camargo as a reference. In this catalog, all the instruments designated by Camargo with the “cat. Zimmermann” label are listed (some with illustrations), including the articulation sensitivity gauge (no. 5003), the fine joint tester (no. 5006), the impact force tester (“strike gauge,” no. 6315), the conical pin adjuster (no. 5004), the caliper device (no. 5007), the touch test (“esthesiometer,” no. 5008), the Moede tremometer (no. 5009), and the bimanual test device (no. 5011).
The Moede tremometer (no. 5009) appears in the Zimmermann catalog in two versions, “a” and “b,” described as follows:
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a) For determining the steadiness and control of the hand. Openings of different shapes and sizes are made in a plate, and the subject must navigate these openings in a specific way. For example, they may be required to gently insert a metal rod into the openings or guide it along grooves without touching the sides. If contact occurs, a signal will sound, and the number of tremors may also be recorded.
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b) This version includes a bell, light, and counter (Zimmermann, 1923, p. 5012, author’s translation).
This description closely matches that provided by Monteiro de Camargo in his presentation to the 4th Congress in which he discusses the test involving the tremometer, which suggests that his use aligned with the manufacturer’s intended purpose.
We were unable to trace the origins of certain devices, such as the “center aligner”, the “attention gauge”, and the “visual acuity meter”, which were attributed to Piorkowski, as well as the “slit device”. Other tests, meanwhile, appear to have prompted the development of new instruments by local practitioners themselves - such as the crank test, the tube test, the washer test, the hydraulic test, the screw test, and others. These were likely invented as means to evaluate abilities considered essential for mechanical professions and involved, for example, the correct selection and handling of parts, their assembly, and maintenance.
Established industrial devices available for import provided a compelling argument that helped legitimize the work of psychometric professionals in Brazil. It reassured specialized audiences that psychometrics was not a local invention or merely pseudo-science, but rather a practice grounded in tradition, accumulated knowledge, and with associated objects. This, in turn, opened a market for the sale of these instruments in Brazil. By specializing in the measurement of perceivable actions and by using positive and objective data, psychometric professionals staked out the domain of sensation as the proper terrain of psychology, and not without competition with other health professionals for market share and areas of expertise.
The struggles surrounding psychometrics and the diffusion of German psychometric devices were not limited to Brazil. Scientific knowledge was becoming increasingly transnational through the movement of professors and researchers as well as their tools and techniques. Thus, investigating this era and the reach of such elements and how they became part of psychology in Brazil is important for understanding this field. In the case of Zimmermann’s products, Yoshimura (2016) notes that the same psychometric instruments were used in Japanese imperial universities in Tokyo and Kyoto in the early twentieth century, and were later replicated by Japanese manufacturers for use in other universities across the country.
According to Yoshimura (2016), the decision by Japanese universities to import Zimmermann’s instruments, rather than those of other emerging German manufacturers like G. E. Müller or F. Schumann of Göttingen, suggests a greater affinity among Japanese academics for the Leipzig school of psychology which was strongly influenced by Wilhelm Wundt.
Far from being mere recipients of European knowledge, researchers at universities in other countries such as Brazil actively participated in the process that contributed to the success of certain theoretical schools and their instruments over others in their places of origin.
Instruments in Henri Piéron’s ‘Psychology and Psychotechnics’ (1927)
Historical archives have preserved relatively few documents concerning the commercial transactions involved in the importation and distribution of books and devices. While such documents are limited to the mundane and economic dimensions of how scientific theories are circulated, technical manuals register the very devices used in contemporary vocational selection and experimental psychology laboratories. In Psychology and Psychotechnics, a compilation of notes from a course taught by Henri Piéron at the Normal School of São Paulo in 1926, we also find photographs and descriptions of devices similar to those used by Monteiro de Camargo. Although they are of unknown origin and manufacture, they include Weber’s esthesiometer, Eulemberg’s baroesthesiograph, Mosso’s ergograph, Charles Henry’s dynamograph, and Pizzoli’s stereognostic device. There are also references to Binet’s tests and others cited by Piéron, which, according to him, came from the United States (Pieron, 1927, p. 141).
It is interesting to note the similarities and differences between the tests and their instructions proposed by Piéron compared to those employed by Monteiro de Camargo. They differ mainly in their intended use and in part by their assumed subjects. The Normal School’s curriculum envisioned the use of psychometrics to classify students within the educational system, and included the separation of those Piéron referred to as “retardataires”. Consequently, the evaluation of motor skills made up only one portion of Piéron’s tests, and these primarily concerned the developmental classification of children according to their age. For this reason, in addition to the tests for simple sensory phenomena and for what he called a “kinesthetic sense”, many of Piéron’s tests were meant to assess intelligence, and many of these were developed by his French colleague Binet (Pieron, 1927, p. 134). The psychometric devices listed earlier fall into the former category.
Piéron’s tests were usually administered with the aid of a metronome (Figure 4, left side) in order to measure the frequency and duration of effort in certain exercises, such as those that assessed fatigue from muscular effort. In the case of the tremometer, which Piéron only refers to as “another American test” (p. 138), the original description aligns closely with that provided by Monteiro de Camargo. However, the device was not originally intended to measure the frequency of hand tremors per se, but rather their variation over time. Piéron used it to investigate the relationship between attention and fatigue, while Monteiro de Camargo was interested in hand steadiness as a skill in and of itself, which was essential for mechanics and train conductors.
On the Presence and Absence of the Person in Psychometric Tests
Each instrument brings with it a range of gestures, procedures, and skills. However, the hand that holds the tremometer, the esthesiometer, or the hammer is rarely seen in the catalogs produced by scientific instrument manufacturers. Even though these companies adapted to their audiences by offering catalogs in German, French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese (Zimmermann, 1928, [n.d.]), there was always an inherent risk in attributing a national or bodily identity to an instrument that was said to be able to measure the abilities of any human being in any location (figure 2). Despite the ambition to universalize commercial products as well as scientific instruments, translators, both literal and cultural, were always required to domesticate theories, tools, and concepts to local preferences. Without such translation, imported devices would be effectively useless. For this reason, irreproducible and incomprehensible instruments were eschewed in favor of domestic versions, such as a can full of washers, sticks of different weights and sizes, and tests tailored to students at mechanical engineering schools in São Paulo. To accurately produce local statistical calculations, bodies needed to be reduced, once again, to categories, gestures and, ultimately, numbers. “The considerable loss of each isolated inscription, in relation to what it represents, is paid for a hundredfold with the added value of information that this compatibility with all other inscriptions provides” (Latour; Hernandt, 2004, p. 48).
Reduced to the smallest possible unit of measurement, knowledge can be reproduced everywhere: Men›s and women›s bodies thus returned to the descriptive images so that the reliability and legitimacy of the procedures could be taught (Figure 3); Wires connected the equipment to a large battery, suggesting portability and that accurate metrics could be obtained in any location; The table was placed diagonally so that the reader could see the correct gesture (Figure 4). Scientific practices are not disconnected or distinct from cultural practices, therefore:
Industrialized dramas, in order to be perceived as an everyday experience, must adapt to formats and be pedagogically taught to individuals, shaping the taste and palate of the audience. The construction of the tradition of a modern world therefore rests on a broad process of socialization of cultural forms and objects (Ortiz, 1994, p. 198).
Thus, the mundane gesture was elevated to ritual, and so trembling hands were observed attentively and silently in São Paulo’s industrial metallurgy workshops.
This process of changing scales will often shuffle the primacy of discoveries and inventions, as well as the perceived nationality of practices and objects. Camargo understood instruments as a commodity and wanted his work to act as a guide for the Brazilian reading public so that instruments could be easily found and adapted for use. Maintaining the legitimacy of the French corpus was embodied in Piéron’s work as much as the legitimacy of the author himself. Such an authority entering and impacting Brazil necessarily serves the ends of French diplomacy (Dadico; Monteiro, 2021; Petitjean, 1996).
Although no reference is made to the names of manufacturers in the psychometric instruments mentioned by Piéron, their inventors (Weber, Eulemberg, Henry, Pizzoli, Mosso, etc.) illustrate the transnational dimension of the psychometric enterprise at the time. Most were German, but they were also French, English, and Italians scientists. Despite this, Piéron claimed that, at the time, the main foreign publication and popularization of these instruments for practical use took place in the United States.
In this relational network, where center and periphery are moving positions, Camargo both contributed to the legitimation of his foreign interlocutors and presented himself as an exemplar for the nascent São Paulo industry.
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Support or Funding:
This research is part of the project “Science and Technology in Images: Editing and Circulation of Printed Materials in 19th-Century Brazil”, process: 407655/2023-9, funded by the CNPq/MCTI Universal Call for Proposals No. 10/2023.
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Availability of Research Data:
All data were generated/analyzed in this article.
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How to cite this article:
MONTEIRO, Rogério; DADICO, Luciana. On the presence and absence of the person in psychometrics: circulation of psychometric instruments in São Paulo in the 1920s, Educar em Revista, Curitiba, v.42, e99237, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-0411.99237-T
All data were generated/analyzed in this article.





Source:
Source: (
Source: Zimmermann, [s.d.]; (1923).
Source: Piéron (1926).