The Measurement of Intelligence Part 32

REMARKS. Scoring, as we have seen, takes account only of the number of words. It is instructive, however, to note the kind of words given. Some subjects, more often those of the 8- or 9-year intelligence level, give mainly isolated, detached words. As well stated by Binet, "Little children exhaust an idea in naming it. They say, for example, _hat_, and then pa.s.s on to another word without noticing that hats differ in color, in form, have various parts, different uses and accessories, and that in enumerating all these they could find a large number of words."

Others quickly take advantage of such relations.h.i.+ps and name many parts of an object before leaving it, or name a number of other objects belonging to the same cla.s.s. _Hat_, for example, suggests _cap_, _hood_, _coat_, _s.h.i.+rt_, _shoes_, _stockings_, etc. _Pencil_ suggests _book_, _slate_, _paper_, _desk_, _ink_, _map_, _school-yard_, _teacher_, etc.

Responses of this type may be made up of ten or a dozen plainly distinct word groups.

Another type of response consists in naming only objects present, or words which present objects immediately suggest. It is unfortunate that this occurs, since rooms in which testing is done vary so much with respect to furnis.h.i.+ngs. The subject who chooses this method is obviously handicapped if the room is relatively bare. One way to avoid this influence is to have all subjects name the words with eyes closed, but the distraction thus caused is sometimes rather disturbing. It is perhaps best for the present to adhere to the original procedure, and to follow the rule of making tests in a room containing few furnis.h.i.+ngs in addition to the necessary table and chairs.

A fourth type of response is that including a large proportion of unusual or abstract words. This is the best of all, and is hardly ever found except with subjects who are above the 11-year intelligence level.

It goes without saying that a response need not belong entirely to any one of the above types. Most responses, in fact, are characterized by a mixture of two or three of the types, one of them perhaps being dominant.

Though not without its shortcomings, the test is interesting and valuable. Success in it does not, as one might suppose, depend solely upon the size of the vocabulary. Even 8-year-olds ordinarily know the meaning of more than 3000 words, and by 10 years the vocabulary usually exceeds 5000 words, or eighty times as many as the child is expected to name in three minutes. The main factors in success are two, (1) richness and variety of previously made a.s.sociations with common words; and (2) the readiness of these a.s.sociations to reinstate themselves. The young or the r.e.t.a.r.ded subject fishes in the ocean of his vocabulary with a single hook, so to speak. He brings up each time only one word. The subject endowed with superior intelligence employs a net (the idea of a cla.s.s, for example) and brings up a half-dozen words or more. The latter accomplishes a greater amount and with less effort; but it requires intelligence and will power to avoid wasting time with detached words.

One is again and again astonished at the poverty of a.s.sociations which this test discloses with r.e.t.a.r.ded subjects. For twenty or thirty seconds such children may be unable to think of a single word. It would be interesting if at such periods we could get a glimpse into the subject's consciousness. There must be some kind of mental content, but it seems too vague to be crystallized in words. The ready a.s.sociation of thoughts with definite words connotes a relatively high degree of intellectual advancement. Language forms are the short-hand of thought; without facile command of language, thinking is vague, clumsy, and ineffective.

Conversely, vague mental content entails language shortage.

Occasionally a child of 11- or 12-year intelligence will make a poor showing in this test. When this happens it is usually due either to excessive embarra.s.sment or to a strange persistence in running down all the words of a given cla.s.s before launching out upon a new series.

Occasionally, too, an intelligent subject wastes time in thinking up a beautiful list of big or unusual words. As stated by Bobertag, success is favored by a certain amount of "intellectual nonchalance," a willingness to ignore sense and a readiness to break away from a train of a.s.sociations as soon as the "point of diminis.h.i.+ng returns" has been reached. This doubtless explains why adults sometimes make such a surprisingly poor showing in the test. They have less "intellectual nonchalance" than children, are less willing to subordinate such considerations as completeness and logical connection to the demands of speed. Knollin's unemployed men of 12- to 13-year intelligence succeeded no better than school children of the 10-year level.

We do not believe, however, that this fault is serious enough to warrant the elimination of the test. The fact is that in a large majority of cases the score which it yields agrees fairly closely with the result of the scale as a whole. Subjects more than a year or two below the mental age of 10 years seldom succeed. Those more than a year or two above the 10-year level seldom fail.

There is another reason why the test should be retained, it often has significance beyond that which appears in the mere number of words given. The naming of unusual and abstract words is an instance of this.

An unusually large number of repet.i.tions has symptomatic significance in the other direction. It indicates a tendency to mental stereotypy, so frequently encountered in testing the feeble-minded. The proportion of repet.i.tions made by normal children of the 10- or 11-year intelligence level rarely exceeds 2 or 3 per cent of the total number of words named; those of older r.e.t.a.r.ded children of the same level occasionally reach 6 or 8 per cent.

It is conceivable, of course, that a more satisfactory test of this general nature could be devised; such, for example, as having the subject name all the words he can of a given cla.s.s (four-footed animals, things to eat, articles of household furniture, trees, birds, etc.). The main objection to this form of the test is that the performance would in all probability be more influenced by environment and formal instruction than is the case with the test of naming sixty words.

One other matter remains to be mentioned; namely, the relative number of words named in the half-minute periods. As would be expected, the rate of naming words decreases as the test proceeds. In the case of the 10-year-olds, we find the average number of words for the six successive half-minutes to be as follows:--

18, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7.

Some subjects maintain an almost constant rate throughout the test, others rapidly exhaust themselves, while a very few make a bad beginning and improve as they go. As a rule it is only the very intelligent who improve after the first half-minute. On the other hand, mentally r.e.t.a.r.ded subjects and very young normals exhaust themselves so quickly that only a few words are named in the last minute.

Binet first located this test in year XI, but s.h.i.+fted it to year XII in 1911. G.o.ddard and Kuhlmann retain it in year XI, though G.o.ddard's statistics suggest year X as the proper location, and Kuhlmann's even suggest year IX. Kuhlmann, however, accepts fifty words as satisfactory in case the response contains a considerable proportion of abstract or unusual words. All the American statistics except Rowe's agree in showing that the test is easy enough for year X.

X, ALTERNATIVE TEST 1: REPEATING SIX DIGITS

The digit series used are 3-7-4-8-5-9; and 5-2-1-7-4-6.

The PROCEDURE and SCORING are the same as in VII, 3, except that only two trials are given, one of which must be correct. The test is somewhat too easy for year 10 when three trials are given.

The test of repeating six digits did not appear in the Binet scale and seems not to have been standardized until inserted in the Stanford series.

X, ALTERNATIVE TEST 2: REPEATING TWENTY TO TWENTY-TWO SYLLABLES

The sentences for this year are:--

(a) "_The apple tree makes a cool, pleasant shade on the ground where the children are playing._"

(b) "_It is nearly half-past one o'clock; the house is very quiet and the cat has gone to sleep._"

(c) "_In summer the days are very warm and fine; in winter it snows and I am cold._"

PROCEDURE and SCORING exactly as in VI, 6.

REMARKS. It is interesting to note that five years of mental growth are required to pa.s.s from the ability to repeat sixteen or eighteen syllables (year VI) to the ability to repeat twenty or twenty-two syllables. Similarly in memory for digits. Five digits are almost as easy at year VII as six at year X. Two explanations are available: (1) The increased difficulty may be accounted for by a relatively slow growth of memory power after the age of 6 or 7 years; or (2) the increase in difficulty may be real, expressing an inner law as to the behavior of the memory span in dealing with material of increasing length. Both factors are probably involved.

This is another of the Stanford additions to the scale. Average children of 10 years ordinarily pa.s.s it, but older, r.e.t.a.r.ded children of 10-year mental age make a poorer showing. In the case of mentally r.e.t.a.r.ded adults, especially, the verbal memory is less exact than that of school children of the same mental age.

X, ALTERNATIVE TEST 3: CONSTRUCTION PUZZLE A (HEALY AND FERNALD)

MATERIAL. Use the form-board pictured on page 279. This may be purchased of C. H. Stoelting & Co., Chicago, Illinois. A home-made one will do as well if care is taken to get the dimensions exact.

Quarter-inch wood should be used. The inside of the frame should be 3 4 inches, and the dimensions of the blocks should be as follows: 1+3/16 3; 1 1; 1 2; 1 1; 1 2.

PROCEDURE. Place the frame on the table before the subject, the short side nearest him. The blocks are placed in an irregular position on the side of the frame away from the subject. Take care that the board with the blocks in place is not exposed to view in advance of the experiment.

Say: "_I want you to put these blocks in this frame so that all the s.p.a.ce will be filled up. If you do it rightly they will all fit in and there will be no s.p.a.ce left over. Go ahead._"

Do not tell the subject to see how quickly he can do it. Say nothing that would even suggest hurrying, for this tends to call forth the trial-and-error procedure even with intelligent subjects.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

SCORING. The test is pa.s.sed if the child succeeds in fitting the blocks into place _three times in a total time of five minutes for the three trials_.

The method of procedure is fully as important as the time, but is not so easily scored in quant.i.tative terms. Nevertheless, the examiner should always take observations on the method employed, noting especially any tendency to make and to repeat moves which lead to obvious impossibilities; i.e., moves which leave a s.p.a.ce obviously unfitted to any of the remaining pieces. Some subjects repeat an absurd move many times over; others make an absurd move, but promptly correct it; others, and these are usually the bright ones, look far enough ahead to avoid error altogether.

REMARKS. This test was devised by Professor Freeman, was adapted slightly by Healy and Fernald, and was first standardized by Dr. Kuhlmann. Miss Gertrude Hall has also standardized it, but on a different procedure from that described above.[67]

[67] _Eugenics and Social Welfare Bulletin_, No. 5, The State Board of Charities, Albany, New York.

The test has a lower correlation with intelligence than most of the other tests of the scale. Many bright children of 10-year intelligence adopt the trial-and-error method and have little success, while r.e.t.a.r.ded older children of only 8-year intelligence sometimes succeed. Age, apart from intelligence, seems to play an important part in determining the nature of the performance. A favorable feature of the test, however, is the fact that it makes no demand on language ability and that it brings into play an aspect of intelligence which is relatively neglected by the remainder of the scale. For this reason it is at least worth keeping as an alternative test.

CHAPTER XVII

INSTRUCTIONS FOR YEAR XII

XII, 1. VOCABULARY (FORTY DEFINITIONS, 7200 WORDS)

PROCEDURE and SCORING as in previous vocabulary tests.[68] In this case forty words must be defined.

[68] See VIII, 6.

XII, 2. DEFINING ABSTRACT WORDS

PROCEDURE. The words to be defined are _pity_, _revenge_, _charity_, _envy_, and _justice_. The formula is, "_What is pity? What do we mean by pity?_" and so on with the other words. If the meaning of the response is not clear, ask the subject to explain what he means. If the definition is in terms of the word itself, as "Pity means to pity someone," "Revenge is to take revenge," etc., it is then necessary to say: "_Yes, but what does it mean to pity some one?_" or, "_What does it mean to take revenge?_" etc. Only supplementary questions of this kind are permissible.