In this group are included those children who would not, according to any of the commonly accepted social standards, be considered feeble-minded, but who are nevertheless far enough below the actual average of intelligence among races of western European descent that they cannot make ordinary school progress or master other intellectual difficulties which average children are equal to. A few of this class test as low as 75 to 80 I Q, but the majority are not far from 85. The unmistakably normal children who go much below this (in California, at least) are usually Mexicans, Indians, or negroes.
R. G. Negro boy, age 13-5; mental age 10-6; I Q approximately 80.Normal in appearance and conduct, but very dull. Is attempting fifth-grade work in a special class, but is failing. From a fairly good home and has had ordinary school advantages. In the examination his intelligence is very even as far as it goes, but stops rather abruptly after the 10-year tests. Will unquestionably pass as normal among unskilled laborers, but his intelligence will neverexceed the 12-year level and he is not likely to advance beyond the seventh grade, if as far.Circle has one line entering at the gate and going to the centre, from which several more lines to the edge emanate.Fig. 12.BALL AND FIELD. R. G., AGE 13-5, MENTAL AGE 10-6
R. G. Negro boy, age 13-5; mental age 10-6; I Q approximately 80.Normal in appearance and conduct, but very dull. Is attempting fifth-grade work in a special class, but is failing. From a fairly good home and has had ordinary school advantages. In the examination his intelligence is very even as far as it goes, but stops rather abruptly after the 10-year tests. Will unquestionably pass as normal among unskilled laborers, but his intelligence will neverexceed the 12-year level and he is not likely to advance beyond the seventh grade, if as far.
Circle has one line entering at the gate and going to the centre, from which several more lines to the edge emanate.Fig. 12.BALL AND FIELD. R. G., AGE 13-5, MENTAL AGE 10-6
Fig. 12.BALL AND FIELD. R. G., AGE 13-5, MENTAL AGE 10-6
F. D. Boy, tested at age 10-2; I Q 83, and again at 14-1; I Q 79.Mental age in the first test was 8-6 and in the second test 11. Son of a barber. Father dead; mother capable; makes a good home, and cares for her children well. At 10 was doing unsatisfactory work in the fourth grade, and at 12 unsatisfactory work in low sixth. Good-looking, normal in appearance and social development, and though occasionally obstinate is usually steady. Any one unacquainted with his poor school work and low I Q would consider him perfectly normal. No physical or moral handicaps of any kind that could possibly account for his retardation. Is simply dull. Needs purely a vocational training, but may be able to complete the eighth grade with low marks by the age of 16 or 17.
F. D. Boy, tested at age 10-2; I Q 83, and again at 14-1; I Q 79.Mental age in the first test was 8-6 and in the second test 11. Son of a barber. Father dead; mother capable; makes a good home, and cares for her children well. At 10 was doing unsatisfactory work in the fourth grade, and at 12 unsatisfactory work in low sixth. Good-looking, normal in appearance and social development, and though occasionally obstinate is usually steady. Any one unacquainted with his poor school work and low I Q would consider him perfectly normal. No physical or moral handicaps of any kind that could possibly account for his retardation. Is simply dull. Needs purely a vocational training, but may be able to complete the eighth grade with low marks by the age of 16 or 17.
G. G. Girl, age 12-4; mental age 10-10; I Q 82.From average home. Excellent educational advantages and no physical handicaps. At 12 years was doing very poor work in fifth grade. Appearance, play life, and attitude toward other children normal. Simply dull. Will probably never go beyond the 12- or 13-year level and is not likely to get as far as the high school.
G. G. Girl, age 12-4; mental age 10-10; I Q 82.From average home. Excellent educational advantages and no physical handicaps. At 12 years was doing very poor work in fifth grade. Appearance, play life, and attitude toward other children normal. Simply dull. Will probably never go beyond the 12- or 13-year level and is not likely to get as far as the high school.
Those testing 80 and 90 will usually be able to reach the eighth grade, but ordinarily only after from one to three or four failures. They are so very numerous (about 15 per cent of the school enrollment) that it is doubtful whether we can expect soon to have special classes enough to accommodate all. The most feasible solution is a differentiated course of study with parallel classes in which every child will be allowed to make the best progress of which he is capable, without incurring the risk of failure andnon-promotion. The so-called Mannheim system, or something similar to it, is what we need.
It is often said that the schools are made for the average child, but that “the average child does not exist.” He does exist, and in very large numbers. About 60 per cent of all school children test between 90 and 110 I Q, and about 40 per cent between 95 and 105. That these children are average is attested by their school records as well as by their I Q’s. Our records show that, of more than 200 children below 14 years of age and with I Q between 95 and 105, not one was making much more nor much less than average school progress. Four were two years retarded, but in each case this was due to late start, illness, or irregular attendance. Children who test close to 90, however, often fail to get along satisfactorily, while those testing near 110 are occasionally able to win an extra promotion.
The children of this average group are seldom school problems, as far as ability to learn is concerned. Nor are they as likely to cause trouble in discipline as the dull and border-line cases. It is therefore hardly necessary to give illustrative cases here.
The high school, however, does not fit their grade of intelligence as well as the elementary and grammar schools. High schools probably enroll a disproportionate number of pupils in the I Q range above 100. That is, the average intelligence among high-school pupils is above the average for the population in general. It is probably not far from 110. College students are, of course, a still more selected group, perhaps coming chiefly from the range above 115. The child whose school marks are barely average in the elementary grades, when measured against children in general, will ordinarily earn something less than average marks in high school, and perhaps excessively poor marks in college.
Children of this group ordinarily make higher marks and are capable of making somewhat more rapid progress than the strictly average child. Perhaps most of them could complete the eight grades in seven years as easily as the average child does in eight years. They are not usually the best scholars, but on a scale of excellent, good, fair, poor, and failure they will usually rank as good, though of course the degree of application is a factor. It is rare, however, to find a child of this level who is positively indolent in his school work or who dislikes school. In high school they are likely to win about the average mark.
Intelligence of 110 to 120 I Q is approximately five times as common among children of superior social status as among children of inferior social status; the proportion among the former being about 24 per cent of all, and among the latter only 5 per cent of all. The group is made up largely of children of the fairly successful mercantile or professional classes.
The total number of children between 110 and 120 is almost exactly the same as the number between 80 and 90; namely, about 15 per cent. The distance between these two groups (say between 85 and 115) is as great as the distance between average intelligence and border-line deficiency, and it would be absurd to suppose that they could be taught to best advantage in the same classes. As a matter of fact, pupils between 110 and 120 are usually held back to the rate of progress which the average child can make. They are little encouraged to do their best.
Children of this group are better than somewhat above average. They are unusually superior. Not more than 3 out of 100 go as high as 125 I Q, and only about 1 out of 100 as high as 130.In the schools of a city of average population only about 1 child in 250 or 300 tests as high as 140 I Q.
In a series of 476 unselected children there was not a single one reaching 120 whose social class was described as “below average.”[29]Of the children of superior social status, about 10 per cent reached 120 or better. The 120–140 group is made up almost entirely of children whose parents belong to the professional or very successful business classes. The child of a skilled laborer belongs here occasionally, the child of a common laborer very rarely indeed. At least this is true in the smaller cities of California among populations made up of native-born Americans. In all probability it would not have been true in the earlier history of the country when ordinary labor was more often than now performed by men of average intelligence, and it would probably not hold true now among certain immigrant populations of good stock, but limited social and educational advantages.
What can children of this grade of ability do in school? The question cannot be answered as satisfactorily as one could wish, for the simple reason that such children are rarely permitted to do what they can. What they do accomplish is as follows: Of 54 children (of the 1000 unselected cases) falling in this group, 12½ per cent were advanced in the grades two years, approximately 54 per cent were advanced one year, 28 per cent were in the grade where they belonged by chronological age, and three children, or 5½ per cent, were actually retarded one year. But wherever located, such children rarely get anything but the highest marks, and the evidence goes to show that most of them could easily be prepared for high school by the age of 12years. Serious injury is done them by schools which believe in “putting on the brakes.”
The following are illustrations of children testing between 130 and 145. Not all are taken from the 1000 unselected tests. The writer has discovered several children of this grade as a result of lectures before teachers’ institutes. It is his custom, in such lectures, to ask the teachers to bring in for a demonstration test the “brightest child in the city” (or county, etc.). The I Q resulting from such a test is usually between 130 and 140, occasionally a little higher.
Margaret P. Age 8-10; mental age 11-1; I Q 130.Father only a skilled laborer (house painter), but a man of unusual intelligence and character for his social class. Home care above average. M. P. has attended school a little less than three years and is completing fourth grade. Marks all “excellent.” Health perfect. Social and moral traits of the very best. Is obedient, conscientious, and unusually reliable for her age. Quiet and confident bearing, but no touch of vanity.M. P. is known to be related on her father’s side to John Wesley, and her maternal grandfather was a highly skilled mechanic and the inventor of an important train-coupling device used on all railroads.Although she is not yet 9 years old and is completing the fourth grade, she is still about a grade below where she belongs by mental age. She could no doubt easily be made ready for high school by the age of 12.
Margaret P. Age 8-10; mental age 11-1; I Q 130.Father only a skilled laborer (house painter), but a man of unusual intelligence and character for his social class. Home care above average. M. P. has attended school a little less than three years and is completing fourth grade. Marks all “excellent.” Health perfect. Social and moral traits of the very best. Is obedient, conscientious, and unusually reliable for her age. Quiet and confident bearing, but no touch of vanity.
M. P. is known to be related on her father’s side to John Wesley, and her maternal grandfather was a highly skilled mechanic and the inventor of an important train-coupling device used on all railroads.
Although she is not yet 9 years old and is completing the fourth grade, she is still about a grade below where she belongs by mental age. She could no doubt easily be made ready for high school by the age of 12.
J. R. Girl, age 12-9; mental age 16 (average adult); I Q approximately 130.Daughter of a university professor. In first year of high school. From first grade up her marks have been nearly all of the A rank. For first semester of high school four of six grades were A, the others B. A wonderfully charming, delightful girl in every respect. Play life perfectly normal.J. R.’sparents have moved about a great deal and she has attended eight different schools. She is two years above grade in school, but of this gain only one-half grade was made in school;the other grade and a half she gained in a little over a year by staying out of school and working a little each day under the instruction of her mother. But for this she would doubtless now be in the seventh grade instead of in high school. As it is she is at least a grade below where she belongs by mental age. Something better than an average college record may be safely predicted for J. R.
J. R. Girl, age 12-9; mental age 16 (average adult); I Q approximately 130.Daughter of a university professor. In first year of high school. From first grade up her marks have been nearly all of the A rank. For first semester of high school four of six grades were A, the others B. A wonderfully charming, delightful girl in every respect. Play life perfectly normal.
J. R.’sparents have moved about a great deal and she has attended eight different schools. She is two years above grade in school, but of this gain only one-half grade was made in school;the other grade and a half she gained in a little over a year by staying out of school and working a little each day under the instruction of her mother. But for this she would doubtless now be in the seventh grade instead of in high school. As it is she is at least a grade below where she belongs by mental age. Something better than an average college record may be safely predicted for J. R.
E. B. Girl, age 7-9; mental age 10-2; I Q 130.E. B. was selected by the teachers of a small California city as the brightest school child in that city (school population about 500). Her parents are said to be unusually intelligent. E. B. is in the third grade, a year advanced, but her mental level shows that she belongs in the fourth. The test was made as a demonstration test in the presence of about 150 teachers, all of whom were charmed by her delightful personality and keen responses. No trace of vanity or queerness of any kind. Health excellent. E. B. ought to be ready for high school at 12; she will really have the intelligence to do high-school work by 11.A rough anticlockwise spiral from the gate inwards to the centre.Fig. 13.BALL AND FIELD TEST. E. B., AGE 7-9; I Q 130
E. B. Girl, age 7-9; mental age 10-2; I Q 130.E. B. was selected by the teachers of a small California city as the brightest school child in that city (school population about 500). Her parents are said to be unusually intelligent. E. B. is in the third grade, a year advanced, but her mental level shows that she belongs in the fourth. The test was made as a demonstration test in the presence of about 150 teachers, all of whom were charmed by her delightful personality and keen responses. No trace of vanity or queerness of any kind. Health excellent. E. B. ought to be ready for high school at 12; she will really have the intelligence to do high-school work by 11.
A rough anticlockwise spiral from the gate inwards to the centre.Fig. 13.BALL AND FIELD TEST. E. B., AGE 7-9; I Q 130
Fig. 13.BALL AND FIELD TEST. E. B., AGE 7-9; I Q 130
L. B. Girl, age 8-6; mental age 11-6; I Q 135.Tested nearly three years earlier, age 5-11; mental age 7-6; I Q 127. Daughter of a university professor. At age of 8-6 was doing very superior work in the fifth grade. Later, at age of 10-6, is in the seventh grade with all her marks excellent. Has two sisters who test almost as high, both completing the eighth grade at barely 12 years of age. L. B. looks rather delicate, and though a little nervous is ordinarily strong. We have known her since her early childhood. Like both her sisters, she is a favorite with young and old, as nearly perfection as the most charming little girl could be.
L. B. Girl, age 8-6; mental age 11-6; I Q 135.Tested nearly three years earlier, age 5-11; mental age 7-6; I Q 127. Daughter of a university professor. At age of 8-6 was doing very superior work in the fifth grade. Later, at age of 10-6, is in the seventh grade with all her marks excellent. Has two sisters who test almost as high, both completing the eighth grade at barely 12 years of age. L. B. looks rather delicate, and though a little nervous is ordinarily strong. We have known her since her early childhood. Like both her sisters, she is a favorite with young and old, as nearly perfection as the most charming little girl could be.
R. S. Boy, age 6-5; mental age 9-6; I Q 148.When tested at age 5-2 he had a mental age of 7-6, I Q 142. Father a university professor. R. S. entered school at exactly 6 years of age, and at the present writing is 7½ years old and is entering the third grade. Leads his class in school and takes delight in the work. Is normalin play life and social traits and is dependable and thoughtful beyond his years. Should enter high school not later than 12; could probably be made ready a year earlier, but as he is somewhat nervous this might not be wise.
R. S. Boy, age 6-5; mental age 9-6; I Q 148.When tested at age 5-2 he had a mental age of 7-6, I Q 142. Father a university professor. R. S. entered school at exactly 6 years of age, and at the present writing is 7½ years old and is entering the third grade. Leads his class in school and takes delight in the work. Is normalin play life and social traits and is dependable and thoughtful beyond his years. Should enter high school not later than 12; could probably be made ready a year earlier, but as he is somewhat nervous this might not be wise.
T. F. Boy, age 10-6; mental age 14; I Q 133.At 13-6 tested at “superior adult,” and had vocabulary of 13,000 (also “superior adult”). Son of a college professor. Did not go to school till age of 9 years and was not taught to read till 8½. At this writing he is 15½ years old and is a senior in high school. He will complete the high-school course in three and one-half years with A to B marks, mostly A. Gets his hardest mathematics lessons in five to ten minutes. Science is his play. When he discovered Hodge’sNature Study and Lifeat age of 11 years he literally slept with the book till he almost knew it by heart. Since age 12 he has given much time to magazines on mechanics and electricity. At 13 he installed a wireless apparatus without other aid than his electrical magazines. He has, for a boy of his age, a rather remarkable understanding of the principles underlying electrical applications. He is known by his playmates as “the boy with a hobby.” Stamp collections, butterfly and moth collections (over 70 different varieties), seashore collections, and wireless apparatus all show that the appellation is fully merited. He chooses his hobbies and “rides” them entirely on his own initiative.
T. F. Boy, age 10-6; mental age 14; I Q 133.At 13-6 tested at “superior adult,” and had vocabulary of 13,000 (also “superior adult”). Son of a college professor. Did not go to school till age of 9 years and was not taught to read till 8½. At this writing he is 15½ years old and is a senior in high school. He will complete the high-school course in three and one-half years with A to B marks, mostly A. Gets his hardest mathematics lessons in five to ten minutes. Science is his play. When he discovered Hodge’sNature Study and Lifeat age of 11 years he literally slept with the book till he almost knew it by heart. Since age 12 he has given much time to magazines on mechanics and electricity. At 13 he installed a wireless apparatus without other aid than his electrical magazines. He has, for a boy of his age, a rather remarkable understanding of the principles underlying electrical applications. He is known by his playmates as “the boy with a hobby.” Stamp collections, butterfly and moth collections (over 70 different varieties), seashore collections, and wireless apparatus all show that the appellation is fully merited. He chooses his hobbies and “rides” them entirely on his own initiative.
J. S. Boy, age 8-2; mental age 11-4; I Q 138.Father was a lawyer, parents now dead. Is in high fourth grade. Leads his class. Attractive, healthy, normal-appearing lad. Full of good humor. Is loving and obedient, strongly attached to his foster mother (an aunt). Composes verses and fables for pastime. Here are a couple of verses composed before his eighth birthday. They are reproduced without change of spelling or punctuation:—ChristmasHurrah for ChristmasAnd all it’s joy’sThat come that dayFor girls and boy’s.FlowersFlowers in the garden.That is all you seeWho likes them best?That’s the honey bee.J. S. ought to be in the fifth grade, instead of the fourth. He will easily be able to enter college by the age of 15 if he is allowed tomake the progress which would be normal to a child of his intelligence. But it is too much to expect that the school will permit this.
J. S. Boy, age 8-2; mental age 11-4; I Q 138.Father was a lawyer, parents now dead. Is in high fourth grade. Leads his class. Attractive, healthy, normal-appearing lad. Full of good humor. Is loving and obedient, strongly attached to his foster mother (an aunt). Composes verses and fables for pastime. Here are a couple of verses composed before his eighth birthday. They are reproduced without change of spelling or punctuation:—
ChristmasHurrah for ChristmasAnd all it’s joy’sThat come that dayFor girls and boy’s.FlowersFlowers in the garden.That is all you seeWho likes them best?That’s the honey bee.
J. S. ought to be in the fifth grade, instead of the fourth. He will easily be able to enter college by the age of 15 if he is allowed tomake the progress which would be normal to a child of his intelligence. But it is too much to expect that the school will permit this.
F. McA. Boy, age 10-3; mental age 14-6; I Q 142.Father a school principal. F. is leading his class of 24 pupils in the high seventh grade. Has received so many extra promotions only because his father insisted that the teachers allow him to try the next grade. The dire consequences which they predicted have never followed. F. is perfectly healthy and one of the most attractive lads the writer has ever seen. He has the normal play instincts, but when not at play he has the dignified bearing of a young prince, although without vanity. His vocabulary is 9000 (14 years), and his ability is remarkably even in all directions. F. should easily enter college by the age of 15.A smooth anticlockwise spiral from the gate to the centre.Fig. 14.BALL AND FIELD F. McA., AGE 10-3, MENTAL AGE 14-6
F. McA. Boy, age 10-3; mental age 14-6; I Q 142.Father a school principal. F. is leading his class of 24 pupils in the high seventh grade. Has received so many extra promotions only because his father insisted that the teachers allow him to try the next grade. The dire consequences which they predicted have never followed. F. is perfectly healthy and one of the most attractive lads the writer has ever seen. He has the normal play instincts, but when not at play he has the dignified bearing of a young prince, although without vanity. His vocabulary is 9000 (14 years), and his ability is remarkably even in all directions. F. should easily enter college by the age of 15.
A smooth anticlockwise spiral from the gate to the centre.Fig. 14.BALL AND FIELD F. McA., AGE 10-3, MENTAL AGE 14-6
Fig. 14.BALL AND FIELD F. McA., AGE 10-3, MENTAL AGE 14-6
E. M. Boy, age 6-11; mental age 10; I Q 145.Learned to read at age of 5 without instruction and shortly afterward had learned from geography maps the capitals of all the States of the Union. Started to school at 7½. Entered the first grade at 9a.m.and had been promoted to the fourth grade by 3p.m.of the same day! Has now attended school a half-year and is in the fifth grade, age 7 years, 8 months. Father is on the faculty of a university.E. M. is as superior in personal and moral traits as in intelligence. Responsible, sturdy, playful, full of humor, loving, obedient. Health is excellent. Has had no home instruction in school work. His progress has been perfectly natural.
E. M. Boy, age 6-11; mental age 10; I Q 145.Learned to read at age of 5 without instruction and shortly afterward had learned from geography maps the capitals of all the States of the Union. Started to school at 7½. Entered the first grade at 9a.m.and had been promoted to the fourth grade by 3p.m.of the same day! Has now attended school a half-year and is in the fifth grade, age 7 years, 8 months. Father is on the faculty of a university.
E. M. is as superior in personal and moral traits as in intelligence. Responsible, sturdy, playful, full of humor, loving, obedient. Health is excellent. Has had no home instruction in school work. His progress has been perfectly natural.
The above list of “very superior” children includes only a few of those we have tested who belong to this grade of intelligence. Every child in the list is so interesting that it is hard to omit any. We have found all such children (with one or two exceptions not included here) so superior to average children in all sorts of mental and moral traitsthat one is at a loss to understand how the popular superstitions about the “queerness” of bright children could have originated or survived. Nearly every child we have found with I Q above 140 is the kind one feels, before the test is over, one would like to adopt. If the crime of kidnaping could ever be forgiven it would be in the case of a child like one of these.
One line containing some right angles and loops, alongside a rectangle inside a larger one, with the corresponding corners joined.Fig. 15.DRAWING DESIGNS FROM MEMORY. E. M., AGE 6-11; MENTAL AGE 10, I Q 145 (This performance is satisfactory for year 10)
Fig. 15.DRAWING DESIGNS FROM MEMORY. E. M., AGE 6-11; MENTAL AGE 10, I Q 145 (This performance is satisfactory for year 10)
Intelligence tests have not been in use long enough to enable us to define genius definitely in terms of I Q. The following two cases are offered as among the highest test records of which the writer has personal knowledge. It is doubtful whether more than one child in 10,000 goes as high as either. One case has been reported, however, in which the I Q was not far from 200. Such a record, if reliable, is certainly phenomenal.
E. F. Russian boy, age 8-5; mental age 13; I Q approximately 155.Mother is a university student apparently of very superior intelligence. E. F. has a sister almost as remarkable as himself. E. F. is in the sixth grade and at the head of his class. Although about four grades advanced beyond his chronological age he is still one grade retarded! He could easily carry seventh-grade work. In all probability E. F. could be made ready for college by the age of 12 years without injury to body or mind. His mother has taken the only sensible course; she has encouraged him without subjecting him to overstimulation.E. F. was selected for the test as probably one of the brightest children in a city of a third of a million population. He may not be the brightest in that city, but he is one of the three or four most intelligent the writer has found after a good deal of searching. He is probably equaled by not more than one in several thousand unselected children. How impatiently one waits to see the fruit of such a budding genius!
E. F. Russian boy, age 8-5; mental age 13; I Q approximately 155.Mother is a university student apparently of very superior intelligence. E. F. has a sister almost as remarkable as himself. E. F. is in the sixth grade and at the head of his class. Although about four grades advanced beyond his chronological age he is still one grade retarded! He could easily carry seventh-grade work. In all probability E. F. could be made ready for college by the age of 12 years without injury to body or mind. His mother has taken the only sensible course; she has encouraged him without subjecting him to overstimulation.
E. F. was selected for the test as probably one of the brightest children in a city of a third of a million population. He may not be the brightest in that city, but he is one of the three or four most intelligent the writer has found after a good deal of searching. He is probably equaled by not more than one in several thousand unselected children. How impatiently one waits to see the fruit of such a budding genius!
B. F. Son of a minister, age 7-8; mental age 12-4; I Q 160.Vocabulary 7000 (12 years). This test was not made by the writer, but by one of his graduate students. The record included theverbatimresponses, so that it was easy to verify the scoring. There can be no doubt as to the substantial accuracy of the test. This I Q of 160 is the highest one in the Stanford University records. B. F. has excellent health, normal play interests, and is a favorite among his playfellows. Parents had not thought of him as especially remarkable. He is only in the third grade, and is therefore about three grades below his mental age.A very smooth anticlockwise spiral from the gate to the centre. The lines are closer together than in previous examples.Fig. 16.BALL AND FIELD. B. F., AGE 7-8; MENTAL AGE 12-4; I Q 160 (This is a 12-year performance)
B. F. Son of a minister, age 7-8; mental age 12-4; I Q 160.Vocabulary 7000 (12 years). This test was not made by the writer, but by one of his graduate students. The record included theverbatimresponses, so that it was easy to verify the scoring. There can be no doubt as to the substantial accuracy of the test. This I Q of 160 is the highest one in the Stanford University records. B. F. has excellent health, normal play interests, and is a favorite among his playfellows. Parents had not thought of him as especially remarkable. He is only in the third grade, and is therefore about three grades below his mental age.
A very smooth anticlockwise spiral from the gate to the centre. The lines are closer together than in previous examples.Fig. 16.BALL AND FIELD. B. F., AGE 7-8; MENTAL AGE 12-4; I Q 160 (This is a 12-year performance)
Fig. 16.BALL AND FIELD. B. F., AGE 7-8; MENTAL AGE 12-4; I Q 160 (This is a 12-year performance)
It is especially noteworthy that not one of the children we have described with I Q above 130 has ever had any unusual amount or kind of home instruction. In most cases the parents were not aware of their very great superiority. Nor can we give the credit to the school or its methods. The school has in most cases been a deterrent to their progress, rather than a help. These children have been taught in classes with average and inferior children, like those described in the first part of this chapter. Their high I Q is only an index of their extraordinary cerebral endowment. This endowment is for life. There is not the remotest probability that anyof these children will deteriorate to the average level of intelligence with the onset of maturity. Such an event would be no less a miracle (barring insanity) than the development of an imbecile into a successful lawyer or physician.
Do the cases described in this chapter give a reliable picture as to what one may expect of the various I Q levels? Does the I Q furnish anything like a reliable index of an individual’s general educational possibilities and of his social worth? Are there not “feeble-minded geniuses,” and are there not children of exceptionally high I Q who are nevertheless fools?
We have no hesitation in saying that there is not one case in fifty in which there is any serious contradiction between the I Q and the child’s performances in and out of school. We cannot deny the existence of “feeble-minded geniuses,” but after a good deal of search we have not found one. Occasionally, of course, one finds a feeble-minded person who is an expert penman, who draws skillfully, who plays a musical instrument tolerably well, or who handles number combinations with unusual rapidity; but these are not geniuses; they are not authors, artists, musicians, or mathematicians.
As for exceptionally intelligent children who appear feeble-minded, we have found but one case, a boy of 10 years with an I Q of about 125. This boy, whom we have tested several times and whose development we have followed for five years, was once diagnosed by a physician as feeble-minded. His behavior among other persons than his familiar associates is such as to give this impression. Nothing less than an entire chapter would be adequate for a description of this case, which is in reality one of disturbed emotional and social development with superior intelligence.
It should be emphasized, however, that what we have said about the significance of various I Q’s holds only for the I Q’s secured by the use of the Stanford revision. As we have shown elsewhere (p.62ff.) the I Q yielded by other versions of the Binet tests are often so inaccurate as to be misleading.
We have not found a single child who tested between 70 and 80 I Q by the Stanford revision who was able to do satisfactory school work in the grade where he belonged by chronological age. Such children are usually from two to three grades retarded by the age of 12 years. On the other hand, the child with an I Q of 120 or above is almost never found below the grade for his chronological age, and occasionally he is one or two grades above. Wherever located, his school work is so superior as to suggest strongly the desirability of extra promotions. Those who test between 96 and 105 are almost never more than one grade above or below where they belong by chronological age, and even the small displacement of one year is usually determined by illness, age of beginning school, etc.
FOOTNOTES:[28]The clinical descriptions to be given are not complete and are designed merely to aid the examiner in understanding the significance of intelligence quotients found.[29]In other investigations, however, we have found even brighter children from very inferior homes. See p.117for an example.
[28]The clinical descriptions to be given are not complete and are designed merely to aid the examiner in understanding the significance of intelligence quotients found.
[28]The clinical descriptions to be given are not complete and are designed merely to aid the examiner in understanding the significance of intelligence quotients found.
[29]In other investigations, however, we have found even brighter children from very inferior homes. See p.117for an example.
[29]In other investigations, however, we have found even brighter children from very inferior homes. See p.117for an example.
In a former chapter we have noted certain imperfections of the scale devised by Binet and Simon; namely, that many of the tests were not correctly located, that the choice of tests was in a few cases unsatisfactory, that the directions for giving and scoring the tests were sometimes too indefinite, and that the upper and lower ranges of the scale especially stood in need of extensions and corrections. All of these faults have been quite generally admitted. The method itself, however, after being put to the test by psychologists of all countries and of all faiths, by the skeptical as well as the friendly, has amply demonstrated its value. The agreement on this point is as complete as it is regarding the scale’s imperfections.
The following quotations from prominent psychologists who have studied the method will serve to show how it is regarded by those most entitled to an opinion:—
There can be no question about the fact that the Binet-Simon tests do not make half as frequent or half as great errors in the mental ages (of feeble-minded children) as are included in gradings based on careful, prolonged general observation by experienced observers.[30]All of the different authors who have made these researches (with Binet’s method) are in a general way unanimous in recognizingthat the principle of the scale is extremely fortunate, and all believe that it offers the basis of a most useful method for the examination of intelligence.[31]It serves as a relatively simple and speedy method of securing, by means accessible to every one, a true insight into the average level of ability of a child between 3 and 15 years of age.[32]That, despite the differences in race and language, despite the divergences in school organization and in methods of instruction, there should be so decided agreement in the reactions of the children—is, in my opinion, the best vindication of theprincipleof the tests that one could imagine, because this agreement demonstrates thatthe tests do actually reach and discover the general developmental conditions of intelligence(so far as these are operative in public-school children of the present cultural epoch), and not mere fragments of knowledge and attainments acquired by chance.[33]It is without doubt the most satisfactory and accurate method of determining a child’s intelligence that we have, and so far superior to everything else which has been proposed that as yet there is nothing else to be considered.[34]
There can be no question about the fact that the Binet-Simon tests do not make half as frequent or half as great errors in the mental ages (of feeble-minded children) as are included in gradings based on careful, prolonged general observation by experienced observers.[30]
All of the different authors who have made these researches (with Binet’s method) are in a general way unanimous in recognizingthat the principle of the scale is extremely fortunate, and all believe that it offers the basis of a most useful method for the examination of intelligence.[31]
It serves as a relatively simple and speedy method of securing, by means accessible to every one, a true insight into the average level of ability of a child between 3 and 15 years of age.[32]
That, despite the differences in race and language, despite the divergences in school organization and in methods of instruction, there should be so decided agreement in the reactions of the children—is, in my opinion, the best vindication of theprincipleof the tests that one could imagine, because this agreement demonstrates thatthe tests do actually reach and discover the general developmental conditions of intelligence(so far as these are operative in public-school children of the present cultural epoch), and not mere fragments of knowledge and attainments acquired by chance.[33]
It is without doubt the most satisfactory and accurate method of determining a child’s intelligence that we have, and so far superior to everything else which has been proposed that as yet there is nothing else to be considered.[34]
The value of the method lies both in the swiftness and the accuracy with which it works. One who knows how to apply the tests correctly and who is experienced in the psychological interpretation of responses can in forty minutes arrive at a more accurate judgment as to a subject’s intelligence than would be possible without the tests after months or even years of close observation. The reasons for this have already been set forth.[35]The difference is something like that between measuring a person’s height with a yardstick and estimating it by guess. That this is not an unfair statement of the case is well shown by the followingcandid confession by a psychologist who tested 200 juvenile delinquents brought before Judge Lindsey’s court:—
As a matter of interest I estimated the mental ages of 150 of my subjects before testing them. In 54 of the estimates the error was not more than one year in either direction; 70 of the subjects were estimated too high, the average error being 2 years and 7 months; 26 of the subjects were estimated too low, the average error being 2 years and 2 months.These figures would seem to imply that an estimate with nothing to support it is wholly unreliable, more especially as many of the estimates were four or five years wide of the mark.[36]
As a matter of interest I estimated the mental ages of 150 of my subjects before testing them. In 54 of the estimates the error was not more than one year in either direction; 70 of the subjects were estimated too high, the average error being 2 years and 7 months; 26 of the subjects were estimated too low, the average error being 2 years and 2 months.These figures would seem to imply that an estimate with nothing to support it is wholly unreliable, more especially as many of the estimates were four or five years wide of the mark.[36]
Criticisms of the Binet method have also been frequently voiced, but chiefly by persons who have had little experience with it or by those whose scientific training hardly justifies an opinion. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that eminence in law, medicine, education, or any other profession does not of itself enable any one to pass judgment on the validity of a psychological method.
On this point two radically different opinions have been urged. On the one hand, some have insisted that the results of a test made by other than a thoroughly trained psychologist are absolutely worthless. At the opposite extreme are a few who seem to think that any teacher or physician can secure perfectly valid results after a few hours’ acquaintance with the tests.
The dispute is one which cannot be settled by the assertion of opinion, and, unfortunately, thoroughgoing investigations have not yet been made as to the frequency and extent of errors made by untrained or partially trained examiners. The only study of this kind which has so far been reported is the following:—[37]
Dr. Kohs gives the results of tests made by 58 inexperienced teachers who were taking a summer course in the Training School at Vineland. The class met three times a week for instruction in the use of the Binet scale. During the first week the students listened to three lectures by Dr. Goddard. The second week was given over to demonstration testing. Each student saw four children tested, and attended two discussion periods of an hour each. During the third, fourth, and fifth weeks each student tested one child per week, and observed the testing of two others. The student was allowed to carry the test through in his own way, but received criticism after it was finished. Twice a week Dr. Goddard spent an hour with the class, discussing experimental procedure. The subjects tested were feeble-minded children whose exact mental ages were already known, and for this reason it was possible to check up the accuracy of each student’s work.
Kohs’s table of results for the trial testing of the 174 children showed:—
Since hardly any of these students had had any previous experience with the Binet tests, Dr. Kohs seems to be entirely justified in his conclusion that it is possible, in thebrief period of six weeks, to teach people to use the tests with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
What shall we say of the teacher or of the physician who has not even had this amount of instruction? The writer’s experience forces him to agree with Binet and with Dr. Goddard, that any one with intelligence enough to be a teacher, and who is willing to devote conscientious study to the mastery of the technique, can use the scale accurately enough to get a better idea of a child’s mental endowment than he could possibly get in any other way. It is necessary, however, for the untrained person to recognize his own lack of experience, and in no case would it be justifiable to base important action or scientific conclusions upon the results of the inexpert examiner. As Binet himself repeatedly insisted, the method is not absolutely mechanical, and cannot be made so by elaboration of instructions.
It is sometimes held that the examination and classification of backward children for special instruction should be carried out by the school physicians. The fact is, however, that there is nothing in the physician’s training to give him any advantage over the ordinary teacher in the use of the Binet tests. Because of her more intimate knowledge of children and because of her superior tact and adaptability, the average teacher is perhaps better equipped than the average physician to give intelligence tests.
Finally, it should be emphasized that whatever the previous training or experience of the examiner may have been, his ability to adjust to the child’s personality and his willingness to follow conscientiously the directions for giving the tests are important factors in his equipment.
One continually meets such queries as, “How do you know the subject did his best?” “Possibly the child was nervous or frightened,” or, “Perhaps incorrect answers were purposelygiven.” All such objections may be disposed of by saying that the competent examiner can easily control the experiment in such a way that embarrassment is soon replaced by self-confidence, and in such a way that effort is kept at its maximum. As for mischievous deception, it would be a poor clinicist who could not recognize and deal with the little that is likely to arise.
Cautions regarding embarrassment, fatigue, fright, illness, etc. are given inChapter IX. Most of the errors which have been reported along this line are such as can nearly always be avoided by ordinary prudence, coupled with a little power of observation.[38]We must not charge the mistakes of untrained and indiscreet examiners against the validity of the method itself.
It is possibly true that even if the examiner is tactful and prudent an unfavorable attitude on the part of the subject may occasionally affect the results of a test to some extent, but it ought not seriously to invalidate one examination out of five hundred. The greatest danger is in the case of a young subject who has been recently arrested and brought before a court. Even here a little common sense and scientific insight should enable one to guard against a mistaken diagnosis.
It might be supposed that after the intelligence scale had been used with a few pupils in a given school all of their fellows would soon be apprised of the nature of the tests, and so learn the correct responses. Experience shows, however, that there is little likelihood of such influence except in the case of a small minority of the tests. Experiments in the psychology of testimony have demonstrated that children’s ability to report upon a complex set of experiences is astonishingly weak. In testingwith the Stanford revision a child is ordinarily given from twenty-four to thirty different tests, many of which are made up of three or more items. Of the total forty to fifty items the child is ordinarily able to report but few, and these not always correctly.
Such tests as memory for sentences and digits, drawing the square and diamond, reproducing the designs from memory, comparing weights and lines, describing and interpreting pictures, æsthetic comparison, vocabulary, dissected sentences, fables, reading for memories, finding differences and similarities, arithmetical reasoning, and the form-board test, are hardly subject to report at all. While almost any of the other tests might, theoretically, be communicated, there is little danger that many of them will be. It is assumed, of course, that the examiner will take proper precautions to prevent any of his blanks or other materials from falling into the hands of those who are to be examined.
The following tests are the ones most subject to the influence of coaching: Ball and field, giving date, naming sixty words, finding rhymes, changing hands of clock, comprehension of physical relations, “induction test,” and “ingenuity test.”
In several instances we have interviewed children an hour or two after they had taken the examination, in order to find out how many of the tests they could recall. A boy of 4 years, after repeated questioning, could only say: “He showed me some pictures. He had a knife and a penny. He told me to shut the door.” A girl of 3 years could recall nothing whatever that was intelligible.
An 8-year-old boy said: “He made me tie a knot. He asked me about a ship and an auto. He wanted me to count backwards. He made me say over some things, numbers and things.”
A boy of 12 years said: “He told me to say all the words I could think of. He said some foolish things and asked what was foolish [he could not repeat a single absurdity]. I had to put some blocks together. I had to do some problems in arithmetic [he could not repeat a single problem]. He read some fables to me. [Asked about the fables he was able to recall only part of one, that of the fox and the crow.] He showed me the picture of a field and wanted to know how to find a ball.”
It is evident from the above samples of report that the danger of coaching increases considerably with the age of the children concerned. With young subjects the danger is hardly present at all; with children of the upper-grammar grades, in the high school, and most of all in prisons and reformatories, it must be taken into account. Alternative tests may sometimes be used to advantage when there is evidence of coaching on any of the regular tests. It would be desirable to have two or three additional scales which could be used interchangeably with the Binet-Simon.
Will the same tests give consistent results when used repeatedly with the same subject? In general we may say that they do. Something depends, however, on the age and intelligence of the subject and on the time interval between the examinations.
Goddard proves that feeble-minded individuals whose intelligence has reached its full development continue to test at exactly the same mental age by the Binet scale, year after year. In their case, familiarity with the tests does not in the least improve the responses. At each retesting the responses given at previous examinations are repeated with only the most trivial variations. Of 352 feeble-minded children tested at Vineland, three years in succession, 109 gave absolutely no variation, 232 showed a variation of not more than two fifths of a year, while 22gained as much as one year in the three tests. The latter, presumably, were younger children whose intelligence was still developing.
Goddard has also tested 464 public-school children for three successive years. Approximately half of these showed normal progress or more in mental age, while most of the remainder showed somewhat less than normal progress.
Bobertag’s retesting of 83 normal children after an interval of a year gave results entirely in harmony with those of Goddard. The reapplication of the tests showed absolutely no influence of familiarity, the correlation of the two tests being almost perfect (.95). Those who tested “at age” in the first test had advanced, on the average, exactly one year. Those who testedplusin the first test advanced in the twelve months about a year and a quarter, as we should expect those to do whose mental development is accelerated. Correspondingly, those who testedminusat the first test advanced only about three fourths of a year in mental age during the interval.[39]
Our own results with a mixed group of normal, superior, dull and feeble-minded children agree fully with the above findings. In this case the two tests were separated by an interval of two to four years, and the correlation between their results was practically perfect. The average difference between the I Q obtained in the second test and that obtained in the first was only 4 per cent, and the greatest difference found was only 8 per cent.[40]
The repetition of the test at shorter intervals will perhaps affect the result somewhat more, but the influence is much less than one might expect. The writer has tested, atintervals of only a few days to a few weeks, 14 backward children of 12 to 18 years, and 8 normal children of 5 to 13 years. The backward children showed an average improvement in the second test of about two months in mental age, the normal children an average improvement of little more than three months. No child varied in the second test more than half a year from the mental age first secured. On the whole, normal children profit more from the experience of a previous test than do the backward and feeble-minded.
Berry tested 45 normal children and 50 defectives with the Binet 1908 and 1911 scales at brief intervals. The author does not state which scale was applied first, but the mental ages secured by the two scales were practically the same when allowance was made for the slightly greater difficulty of the 1911 series of tests.[41]
We may conclude, therefore, that while it would probably be desirable to have one or more additional scales for alternative use in testing the same children at very brief intervals, the same scale may be used for repeated tests at intervals of a year or more with little danger of serious inaccuracy. Moreover, results like those set forth above are important evidence as to the validity of the test method.
The criticism has often been made that the responses to many of the tests are so much subject to the influence of school and home environment as seriously to invalidate the scale as a whole. Some of the tests most often named in this connection are the following: Giving age and sex; naming common objects, colors, and coins; giving the value of stamps; giving date; naming the months of the year and the days of the week; distinguishing forenoon and afternoon;counting; making change; reading for memories; naming sixty words; giving definitions; finding rhymes; and constructing a sentence containing three given words.
It has in fact been found wherever comparisons have been made that children of superior social status yield a higher average mental age than children of the laboring classes. The results of Decroly and Degand and of Meumann, Stern, and Binet himself may be referred to in this connection. In the case of the Stanford investigation, also, it was found that when the unselected school children were grouped in three classes according to social status (superior, average, and inferior), the average I Q for the superior social group was 107, and that of the inferior social group 93. This is equivalent to a difference of one year in mental age with 7-year-olds, and to a difference of two years with 14-year-olds.
However, the common opinion that the child from a cultured home does better in tests solely by reason of his superior home advantages is an entirely gratuitous assumption. Practically all of the investigations which have been made of the influence of nature and nurture on mental performance agree in attributing far more to original endowment than to environments. Common observation would itself suggest that the social class to which the family belongs depends less on chance than on the parents’ native qualities of intellect and character.
The results of five separate and distinct lines of inquiry based on the Stanford data agree in supporting the conclusion that the children of successful and cultured parents test higher than children from wretched and ignorant homes for the simple reason that their heredity is better. The results of this investigation are set forth in full elsewhere.[42]
It would, of course, be going too far to deny all possibility of environmental conditions affecting the result of an intelligence test. Certainly no one would expect that a child reared in a cage and denied all intercourse with other human beings could by any system of mental measurement test up to the level of normal children. There is, however, no reason to believe thatordinarydifferences in social environment (apart from heredity), differences such as those obtaining among unselected children attending approximately the same general type of school in a civilized community, affects to any great extent the validity of the scale.
A crucial experiment would be to take a large number of very young children of the lower classes and, after placing them in the most favorable environment obtainable, to compare their later mental development with that of children born into the best homes. No extensive study of this kind has been made, but the writer has tested twenty orphanage children who, for the most part, had come from very inferior homes. They had been in a well-conducted orphanage for from two to several years, and had enjoyed during that time the advantages of an excellent village school. Nevertheless, all but three tested below average, ranging from 75 to 90 I Q.
The impotence of school instruction to neutralize individual differences in native endowment will be evident to any one who follows the school career of backward children. The children who are seriously retarded in school are not normal, and cannot be made normal by any refinement of educational method. As a rule, the longer the inferior child attends school, the more evident his inferiority becomes. It would hardly be reasonable, therefore, to expect that a little incidental instruction in the home would weigh very heavily against these same native differencesin endowment. Cases like the following show conclusively that it does not:—
X is the son of unusually intelligent and well-educated parents. The home is everything one would expect of people of scholarly pursuits and cultivated tastes. But X has always been irresponsible, troublesome, childish, and queer. He learned to walk at 2 years, to talk at 3, and has always been delicate and nervous. When brought for examination he was 8 years old. He had twice attempted school work, but could accomplish nothing and was withdrawn. His play-life was not normal, and other children, younger than himself, abused and tormented him. The Binet tests gave an I Q of approximately 75; that is, the retardation amounted to about two years. The child was examined again three years later. At that time, after attending school two years, he had recently completed the first grade. This time the I Q was 73. Strange to say, the mother is encouraged and hopeful because she sees that her boy is learning to read. She does not seem to realize that at his age he ought to be within three years of entering high school.The forty-minute test had told more about the mental ability of this boy than the intelligent mother had been able to learn in eleven years of daily and hourly observation. For X is feeble-minded; he will never complete the grammar school; he will never be an efficient worker or a responsible citizen.Let us change the picture. Z is a bright-eyed, dark-skinned girl of 9 years. She is dark-skinned because her father is a mixture of Indian and Spanish. The mother is of Irish descent. With her strangely mated parents and two brothers she lives in a dirty, cramped, and poorly furnished house in the country. The parents are illiterate, and the brothers are retarded and dull, though not feeble-minded.It is Z’s turn to be tested. I inquire the name. It is familiar, for I have already tested the two stupid brothers. I also know her ignorant parents and the miserable cabin in which she lives. The examination begins with the 8-year tests. The responses are quick and accurate. We proceed to the 9-year group. There is no failure, and there is but one minor error. Successes and failures alternate for a while until the latter prevail. Z has tested at 11 years. In spite of her wretched home, she is mentally advanced nearly 25 per cent. By the vocabulary test she is credited with aknowledge of nearly 6000 words, or nearly four times as many as X, the boy of cultured home and scholarly parents, had learned by the age of 8 years.Five years have passed. When given the test, Z was in the fourth grade and, as we have already stated, 9 years of age. As a result of the test she was transferred to the fifth grade. Later she skipped again and at the age of 14 is a successful student in the second year of high school. To assay her intelligence and determine its quality was a task of forty-five minutes.
X is the son of unusually intelligent and well-educated parents. The home is everything one would expect of people of scholarly pursuits and cultivated tastes. But X has always been irresponsible, troublesome, childish, and queer. He learned to walk at 2 years, to talk at 3, and has always been delicate and nervous. When brought for examination he was 8 years old. He had twice attempted school work, but could accomplish nothing and was withdrawn. His play-life was not normal, and other children, younger than himself, abused and tormented him. The Binet tests gave an I Q of approximately 75; that is, the retardation amounted to about two years. The child was examined again three years later. At that time, after attending school two years, he had recently completed the first grade. This time the I Q was 73. Strange to say, the mother is encouraged and hopeful because she sees that her boy is learning to read. She does not seem to realize that at his age he ought to be within three years of entering high school.
The forty-minute test had told more about the mental ability of this boy than the intelligent mother had been able to learn in eleven years of daily and hourly observation. For X is feeble-minded; he will never complete the grammar school; he will never be an efficient worker or a responsible citizen.
Let us change the picture. Z is a bright-eyed, dark-skinned girl of 9 years. She is dark-skinned because her father is a mixture of Indian and Spanish. The mother is of Irish descent. With her strangely mated parents and two brothers she lives in a dirty, cramped, and poorly furnished house in the country. The parents are illiterate, and the brothers are retarded and dull, though not feeble-minded.
It is Z’s turn to be tested. I inquire the name. It is familiar, for I have already tested the two stupid brothers. I also know her ignorant parents and the miserable cabin in which she lives. The examination begins with the 8-year tests. The responses are quick and accurate. We proceed to the 9-year group. There is no failure, and there is but one minor error. Successes and failures alternate for a while until the latter prevail. Z has tested at 11 years. In spite of her wretched home, she is mentally advanced nearly 25 per cent. By the vocabulary test she is credited with aknowledge of nearly 6000 words, or nearly four times as many as X, the boy of cultured home and scholarly parents, had learned by the age of 8 years.
Five years have passed. When given the test, Z was in the fourth grade and, as we have already stated, 9 years of age. As a result of the test she was transferred to the fifth grade. Later she skipped again and at the age of 14 is a successful student in the second year of high school. To assay her intelligence and determine its quality was a task of forty-five minutes.
The above cases, each of which could be paralleled by many others which we have found, will serve to illustrate the fact that exceptionally superior endowment is discoverable by the tests, however unfavorable the home from which it comes, and that inferior endowment cannot be normalized by all the advantages of the most cultured home. Quoting again from Stern, “The tests actually reach and discover the general developmental conditions of intelligence, and not mere fragments of knowledge and attainments acquired by chance.”