The Measurement of Intelligence Part 17

IV, 6. REPEATING FOUR DIGITS

PROCEDURE. Say: "_Now, listen. I am going to say over some numbers and after I am through, I want you to say them exactly like I do. Listen closely and get them just right--4-7-3-9._" Same with 2-8-5-4 and 7-2-6-1. The examiner should consume nearly four seconds in p.r.o.nouncing each series, and should practice in advance until this speed can be closely approximated. If the child refuses to respond, the first series may be repeated as often as may be necessary to prove an attempt, but _success with a series which has been re-read may not be counted_. The second and third series may be p.r.o.nounced but once.

SCORING. Pa.s.sed if the child repeats correctly, _after a single reading, one series out of the three_ series given. The order must be correct.

REMARKS. The test of repeating four digits was not included by Binet in the scale and seems not to have been used by any of the Binet workers.

It is pa.s.sed by about three fourths of our 4-year-olds.

IV. ALTERNATIVE TEST: REPEATING TWELVE TO THIRTEEN SYLLABLES

The three sentences are:--

(a) "_The boy's name is John. He is a very good boy._"

(b) "_When the train pa.s.ses you will hear the whistle blow._"

(c) "_We are going to have a good time in the country._"

PROCEDURE. Get the child's attention and say: "_Listen, say this: 'Where is kitty?'_" After the child responds, add: "_Now say this ..._,"

reading the first sentence in a natural voice, distinctly and with expression. If the child is too timid to respond, the first sentence may be re-read, but in this case the response is not counted. _Re-reading is permissible only with the first sentence._

SCORING. The test is pa.s.sed if at least _one sentence is repeated without error after a single reading_. As in the alternative test of year III, we ignore ordinary indistinctness and defects of p.r.o.nunciation due to imperfect language development, but the sentence must be repeated without addition, omission, or transposition of words.

REMARKS. Sentences of twelve syllables had not been standardized previous to the Stanford revision, but Binet locates memory for ten syllables at year V, and others have followed his example. Our own data show that even 4-year-olds are usually able to repeat twelve syllables with the procedure here set forth.

CHAPTER XI

INSTRUCTIONS FOR YEAR V

V, 1. COMPARISON OF WEIGHTS

MATERIALS. It is necessary to have two weights, identical in shape, size, and appearance, weighing respectively 3 and 15 grams.[50] If manufactured weights are not at hand, it is easy to make satisfactory subst.i.tutes by taking stiff cardboard pill-boxes, about 1 inches in diameter, and filling them with cotton and shot to the desired weight.

The shot must be embedded in the center of the cotton so as to prevent rattling. After the box has been loaded to the exact weight, the lid should be glued on firmly. If one does not have access to laboratory scales, it is always possible to secure the help of a druggist in the rather delicate task of weighing the boxes accurately. A set of pill-box weights will last through hundreds of tests, if handled carefully, but they will not stand rough usage. The manufactured blocks are more durable, and so more satisfactory in the long run. If the weights are not at hand, the alternative test may be subst.i.tuted.

[50] The weights required for this test, and also for IX, 2, may be purchased of C. H. Stoelting & Co., 3037 Carroll Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.

PROCEDURE. Place the 3- and 15-gram weights on the table before the child some two or three inches apart. Say: "_You see these blocks. They look just alike, but one of them is heavy and one is light. Try them and tell me which one is heavier._" If the child does not respond, repeat the instructions, saying this time, "_Tell me which one is the heaviest._" (Many American children have heard only the superlative form of the adjective used in the comparison of two objects.)

Sometimes the child merely points to one of the boxes or picks up one at random and hands it to the examiner, thinking he is asked to _guess_ which is heaviest. We then say: "_No, that is not the way. You must take the boxes in your hands and try them, like this_" (ill.u.s.trating by lifting with one hand, first one box and then the other, a few inches from the table). Most children of 5 years are then able to make the comparison correctly. Very young subjects, however, or older ones who are r.e.t.a.r.ded, sometimes adopt the rather questionable method of lifting both weights in the same hand at once. This is always an unfavorable sign, especially if one of the blocks is placed in the hand on top of the other block.

After the first trial, the weights are shuffled and again presented for comparison as before, _this time with the positions reversed_. The third trial follows with the blocks in the same position as in the first trial. Some children have a tendency to stereotyped behavior, which in this test shows itself by choosing always the block on a certain side. Hence the necessity of alternating the positions.[51] Reserve commendation until all three trials have been given.

[51] For discussion of "stereotypy" see p. 203.

SCORING. The test is pa.s.sed if _two of the three_ comparisons are correct. If there is reason to suspect that the successful responses were due to lucky guesses, the test should be entirely repeated.

REMARKS. This test is decidedly more difficult than that of comparing lines (IV, 1). It is doubtful, however, if we can regard the difference as one due primarily to the relative difficulty of visual discrimination and muscular discrimination. In fact, the test with weights hardly taxes sensory discrimination at all when used with children of 5-year intelligence. Success depends, in the first place, on the ability to understand the instructions; and in the second place, on the power to hold the instructions in mind long enough to guide the process of making the comparison. The test presupposes, in elementary form, a power which is operative in all the higher independent processes of thought, the power to neglect the manifold distractions of irrelevant sensations and ideas and to drive direct toward a goal. Here the goal is furnished by the instruction, "Try them and see which is heavier." This must be held firmly enough in mind to control the steps necessary for making the comparison. Ideas of piling the blocks on top of one another, throwing them, etc., must be inhibited. Sometimes the low-grade imbecile starts off in a very promising way, then apparently forgets the instructions (loses sight of the goal), and begins to play with the boxes in a random way. His mental processes are not consecutive, stable, or controlled. He is blown about at the mercy of every gust of momentary interest.

There is very general agreement in the a.s.signment of this test to year V.

V, 2. NAMING COLORS

MATERIALS. Use saturated red, yellow, blue, and green papers, about 2 1 inch in size, pasted one half inch apart on white or gray cardboard. For sake of uniformity it is best to match the colors manufactured especially for this test.[52]

[52] Printed cards showing these colors are included in the set of material furnished by the publishers of this book.

PROCEDURE. Point to the colors in the order, red, yellow, blue, green.

Bring the finger close to the color designated, in order that there may be no mistake as to which one is meant, and say: "_What is the name of that color?_" Do not say: "_What color is that?_" or, "_What kind of a color is that?_" Such a formula might bring the answer, "The first color"; or, "A pretty color." Still less would it do to say: "_Show me the red_," "_Show me the yellow_," etc. This would make it an entirely different test, one that would probably be pa.s.sed a year earlier than the Binet form of the experiment. Nor is it permissible, after a color has been miscalled, to return to it and again ask its name.

SCORING. The test is pa.s.sed only if _all_ the colors are named correctly and without marked uncertainty. However, prefixing the adjective "dark,"

or "light," before the name of a color is overlooked.

REMARKS. Naming colors is not a test of color discrimination, for that capacity is well developed years below the level at which this test is used. All 5-year-olds who are not color blind discriminate among the four primary colors here used as readily as adults do. As stated by Binet, it is a test of the "verbalization of color perception." It tells us whether the child has a.s.sociated the names of the four primary colors with his perceptual imagery of those colors.

The _ability_ to make simple a.s.sociations between a sense impression and a name is certainly present in normal children some time before the above color a.s.sociations are actually made. Many objects of experience are correctly named two or three years earlier, and it may seem at first a little strange that color names are learned so late. But it must be remembered that the child does not have numerous opportunities to observe and hear the names of several colors at once, nor does the designation of colors by their names ordinarily have much practical value for the young child. When he finally learns their names, it is more because of his spontaneous interest in the world of sense. Lack of such spontaneous interest is always an unfavorable sign, and it is not surprising, therefore, that imbecile intelligence has ordinarily never taken the trouble to a.s.sociate colors with their names. Girls are somewhat superior to boys in this test, due probably to a greater natural interest in colors.

Binet originally placed this test in year VIII, changing it to year VII in the 1911 scale. G.o.ddard places it in year VII, while Kuhlmann omits it altogether. With a single exception, all the actual statistics with normal children justify the location of the test in year V. Bobertag's figures are the exception, opposed to which are Rowe, Winch, Dumville, Dougherty, Brigham, and all three of the Stanford investigations.

The test is probably more subject to the influence of home environment than most of the other tests of the scale, and if the social status of the child is low, failure would not be especially significant until after the age of 6 years. On the whole it is an excellent test.

V, 3. aeSTHETIC COMPARISON

Use the three pairs of faces supplied with the printed forms. It goes without saying that improvised drawings may not be subst.i.tuted for Binet's until they have first been standardized.

PROCEDURE. Show the pairs in order from top to bottom. Say: "_Which of these two pictures is the prettiest?_" Use both the comparative and the superlative forms of the adjective. Do not use the question, "Which face is the uglier (ugliest)?" unless there is some difficulty in getting the child to respond. It is not permitted, in case of an incorrect response, to give that part of the test again and to allow the child a chance to correct his answer; or, in case this is done, we must consider only the original response in scoring.

SCORING. The test is pa.s.sed only if all _three_ comparisons are made correctly. Any marked uncertainty is failure. Sometimes the child laughingly designates the ugly picture as the prettier, yet shows by his amused expression that he is probably conscious of its peculiarity or absurdity. In such cases "pretty" seems to be given the meaning of "funny" or "amusing." Nevertheless, we score this response as failure, since it betokens a rather infantile tolerance of ugliness.

REMARKS. From the psychological point of view this is a most interesting test. One might suppose that aesthetic judgment would be relatively independent of intelligence. Certainly no one could have known in advance of experience that intellectual r.e.t.a.r.dation would reveal itself in weakness of the aesthetic sense about as unmistakably as in memory, practical judgment, or the comprehension of language. But such is the case. The development of the aesthetic sense parallels general mental growth rather closely. The imbecile of 4-year intelligence, even though he may have lived forty years, has no more chance of pa.s.sing this test than any other test in year V. It would be profitable to devise and standardize a set of pictures of the same general type which would measure a less primitive stage of aesthetic development.

The present test was located by Binet in year VI and has been retained in that year in other revisions; but three separate Stanford investigations, as well as the statistics of Winch, Dumville, Brigham, Rowe, and Dougherty, warrant its location in year V.

V, 4. GIVING DEFINITIONS IN TERMS OF USE

PROCEDURE. Use the words: _Chair_, _horse_, _fork_, _doll_, _pencil_, and _table_. Say: "_You have seen a chair. You know what a chair is.

Tell me, what is a chair?_" And so on with the other words, always in the order in which they are named above.

Occasionally there is difficulty in getting a response, which is sometimes due merely to the child's unwillingness to express his thoughts in sentences. The earlier tests require only words and phrases.

In other cases silence is due to the rather indefinite form of the question. The child could answer, but is not quite sure what is expected of him. Whatever the cause, a little tactful urging is nearly always sufficient to bring a response. In this test we have not found the difficulty of overcoming silence nearly as great as others have stated it to be. In consecutive tests of 150 5- and 6-year-old children we encountered unbreakable silence with 8 words out of the total 900 (150 6). This is less than 1 per cent. But tactful encouragement is sometimes necessary, and it is best to take the precaution of not giving the test until _rapport_ has been well established.

The urging should take the following form: "_I'm sure you know what a ... is. You have seen a .... Now, tell me, what is a ... ?_" That is, we merely repeat the question with a word of encouragement and in a coaxing tone of voice. It would not at all do to introduce other questions, like, "_What does a ... look like?_" or, "_What is a ...

for?_" "_What do people do with a ... ?_"