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A Method of Measurini

the Development of

the Intelligence of

Young Children

By Alfred Binet and Th. Simon

AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION WITH PREFACE

And an Appendix, Containing an Arrangement of the Tests in Age
and Diagnostic Groups for Convenience in Conducting Examinations

By Clara Harrison Town, Ph. D.

Author of "Two Experimental Studies of the Insane." Formerly
State Psychologist, Lincoln State School and Colony, Lincoln, 111.

Third Edition.

CHICAGO MEDICAL BOOK CO.

Chicago
1915

Copyright igi5

By

Clara Harrison Town.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

The article here translated appeared in the "Bulletin de
la Societe libre pour I'Etude Psychologique de I'Enfant,"
April, 1911. It is a brief but complete statement of the Binet-
Simon method of examining the intelligence and determining
the mental level of children.

The aim of the authors was to present their system of
tests as finally revised with adequate explanation and instruc-
tion for its use, but without the theoretical and philosophical
discussion accompanying its presentation in "L'Annee Psy-
chologique." It is in fact a convenient manual for those who
wish to use the method.

The translator is of the opinion that just such a manual
is needed in the United States at the present time. So much
has appeared in our educational press concerning the Binet-
Simon System and the practical value of its application to
the problems of special education that a widespread interest
has been awakened; indeed the system has become popular.
Unfortunately, this popularity is not paralleled by accurate
knowledge concerning it. The surface simplicity of the method
has encouraged many to attempt its application with little
more knowledge concerning it than that supplied by the list
of tests. This is undoubtedly largely owing to the fact that
none of the Binet-Simon articles on the subject have been
translated in full ; extracts have appeared and many criticisms,
but the articles themselves have never appeared in English
form. To put into the hands of our educational public the
Binet-Simon System in the form and with the instructions and
explanations presented by its authors, this translation has
been prepared.

The series of tests presented in the 1911 article is the
result of a gradual development. The first form of the Scale
was published in "L'Annee Psychologique" in 1905; this itself

35G393

4 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

was the result of much observation and study of the develop-
ing child mind. During extended study many simple tests
Mrere tried, many were discarded, and those that finally sur-
vived did so only by virtue of their intrinsic value brought
out by actual trial. The result was a hierarchy of tests ar-
ranged in the order of their increasing difficulty, one group
adapted to children of one and two years, and other groups
to children of four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven
and twelve years.

In 1904 an educational measure in Paris required the
selection of all the mentally defective children in the public
schools, such selection to be made by means of individual
examinations. There was at that time no definite method of
making such examination, and with the object of supplying
one, Binet and Simon determined to standardize their scale
of tests. In order to do this, selected groups of pedagogically
average public school children were examined — ten each of
the ages three to six, and fifteen each of the ages seven to
twelve, inclusive. The series of tests was finally arranged in age
groups according to the results of these examinations and
those previously conducted.

The Scale was thus standardized. It remained to adapt
it to the diagnosis of feeble-minded conditions. This was
achieved by correlating it with the classification of the feeble-
minded then most generally accepted — the tripartite one into
idiots, imbeciles and morons. (The last term varies in differ-
ent countries ; moron is the accepted term in the United
States.) The idiots are those of least mentality, the imbeciles
those of next higher grade, and the morons those more closely
approximating the normal in type. There was, however, no
distinct line of demarkation between the mental condition of
the idiot and the imbecile, or between that of the imbecile
and the moron. The criteria most generally used were dif-
ferences in ability to dress, to eat, and to perform various
kinds of work. There, however, was no certainty that a case

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 5

would be diagnosed in the same way by different examiners ;
the personal equation necessarily entered into all diagnoses.
Binet was of the opinion that uniformity of diagnosis should
be secured, and he succeeded in devising a plan which, if
generally accepted, would doubtless secure it. Being a stu-
dent of language development, and holding the opinion that
in intellectual development language is so intimately involved
that it may be considered as one criterion of intellectual level,
he used three great planes of language development to differ-
entiate between the mental conditions of idiots, imbeciles and
morons. According to this classification the idiot never
reaches the plane of spoken language; he is limited to the
use and understanding of gesture; the imbecile understands
spoken language and talks himself in varying degrees of flu-
ency; the moron, in addition to using spoken language, is
capable of learning to read and write. Applying this differ-
entiation to the Scale, the idiots fall to the age groups one
and two, the imbeciles to the age groups three, four, five, six
and seven, and the morons to the age groups eight, nine, ten,
eleven and twelve. Further than the twelve year level the
feeble-minded individual seems not to develop.

The feeble-minded patients at the Salpetriere were exam-
ined by the Scale and it proved to be a most satisfactory
means of diagnosis, for the reason that each diagnosis carried
with it a distinct idea of the child's mental status.

In 1908 the first revision of the Scale appeared, published
as the result of further experimental work with the method.
This is the form of the Scale most used in the United States.
Between 1908 and 1911, the Scale was applied by various
experimenters as well as by the originators, and as a result
of the combined findings the final revision of the Scale was
published in 1911. It appeared in "L'Annee Psychologique"
in the article entitled "Nouvelle Recherches sur la Mesure
du Niveau intellectuel chez les Enfants d'Ecole," and in
the "Bulletin de la Societe libre pour I'Etude psychologique

6 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

de TEnfant/' in the article here translated — "La mesure du
Developpement de I'lntelligence chez jeunes Enfants."

In conclusion the translator wishes to express her sincere
thanks to M. Th. Simon and to Mile. Giroud, editor of the
"Bulletin de la Societe libre pour I'Etude Psychologique de
I'Enfant" for their kindness in granting permission to publish this
translation.

Clara Harrison Town.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN

A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG

CHILDREN.*

ALFRED BINET AND T. SIMON.

The method here presented is one by which the intelli-
gence of a child may be estimated. The method consists in
asking the child some precise questions and having him per-
form some simple experiments; these questions and experi-
ments are called tests.' As much research has revealed which
of these tests a norraal . clyld passes successfully at a given
age, it is easy to ascertain whether the child under examina-
tion gives results equal to the normal child of his age, or
whether he is advanced or retarded in relation to this norm.

The series of tests used in the method, grouped accord-
ing to age, are as follows:

THREE YEARS.

Shows nose, eyes and mouth.

Repeats two digits.

Enumerates objects in a picture.

Gives family name.

Repeats a sentence of six syllables.

*We explain here very succinctly our method for measuring the
level of the intelligence of a child. We omit all theory, philosophy,
and discussion, referring the reader interested in these questions to
L'Annee Psychologique, 1908, p. 1, and 1911, p. 145. In the Bulletin
only those details will be given which it is necessary to know in order
to apply the method.

The present brochure completes that of M. Vaney (No. 68 of the
Bulletin, February, 1911) on the "Classes for Backward _ Children."
The two brochures sum up all which concerns the recruiting, organ-
ization and instruction of these classes.

8 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

FOUR YEARS.

Gives own sex.
Names key, knife and penny.
Repeats three digits.
Compares two lines.

FIVE YEARS.

Compares two weights.
Copies a square.

Repeats a sentence of ten syllables.
Counts four pennies.
iy Game of patience with two pieces.

SIX YEARS.

Distinguishes between morning and afternoon.

Defines in terms of use.

Copies a lozenge.

Counts thirteen pennies.

Compares faces from the aesthetic point of view.

SEVEN YEARS.

Right hand ; left ear.

Describes a picture.

Executes 3 commissions.

Gives value of 9 sous, three of which are double.

Names 4 colors.

EIGHT YEARS.

Compares two remembered objects.
Counts from 20 to 0.
Indicates omissions in pictures.
Gives day and date.
Repeats 5 digits.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 9

NINE YEARS.

Gives change from 20 sous.
Defines in terms superior to use.
Recognizes all the pieces of our money.
Enumerates the months.
Understands easy questions.

TEN YEARS.

Arranges five weights.
Copies drawings from memory.
Criticises absurd statements.
Understands difficult questions.
Uses 3 given words in two sentences.

TWELVE YEARS.

Resists suggestion (length of lines).
Composes one sentence containing 3 given words.
Says more than sixty words in 3 minutes.
Defines abstract terms.

Discovers the sense of a sentence the words of which
are mixed.

FIFTEEN YEARS.

Repeats 7 digits.

Gives 3 rhymes.

Repeats a sentence of 26 syllables.

Interprets a picture.

Solves a oroblem from several facts.

ADULT.

Solves the paper cutting test.

Rearranges a triangle.

Gives dififerences of meanings of abstract terms.

Solves the question of the President.

Gives the resume of the thought of Hervieu.

10 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

We give first the description of the tests and the instruc-
tions necessary for their application. In a second part we
point out the general conditions to be observed in holding
examinations, and the methods of calculation used in esti-
mating the intelligence of children.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 11

PART I.

DESCRIPTION OF TESTS.

CHILDREN OF THREE YEARS.

I. Shows nose, eyes and mouth. — To perform the test
one should look steadily at the child, attract his attention,
and repeaj: several times: "Show me your nose," or "Put
your finger on your nose," and follow this by repeating the
same order for the eyes and the mouth. Sometimes the child
does not comply because he is distracted, or because he is
timid and too bashful to do that which is desired, but usually, with
a little insistence, a response is secured. Sometimes a child shows
his nose by thrusting it forward, without making any hand
movement, or shows his mouth by opening it, as would an
animal. This is, in fact, an animal stage, when the hand is
still a paw, and not an organ used for significant or expressive
movements.

As this test and the following ones are especially applic-
able to very young children, it is necessary that the experi-
menter be warned that many very young children, especially
those of three and four years, remain voluntarily mute and
motionless when questioned. Some consent to do little acts,
such as showing where the nose is, but they refuse to speak;
speech seems to require a greater efifort than gesture. The
directors of the Ecole maternelle can always point out chil-
dren who, in class, never answer the teacher, sometimes even
after two years of attendance; the majority of these mutes
chatter away with their comrades ; they are mutes only in

12 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

class. Others, fewer in number, never speak in school either
to teachers or comrades; but their parents testify that they
talk at home. Teachers experience great difficulties in the
effort to encourage sociability in such children. We recall
a charming director who told us that for a period of two
years all her efforts to make a certain little boy of four years
speak were in vain ; she finally succeeded, thanks to the help
of a cat. One day she left the child alone playing with the
cat, and gradually he began to talk to it. He said : "Good
morning, Minet." The miracle was wrought, the child's tongue
was loosed.

Imagine the difficulties of an experimenter who, wishing
to make an examination of intelligence, is met by such a
silence. What should be done? The help of the teacher is
often useful. If she is intelligent, she knows what to say to
her children to reassure them and arouse their courage. A
caress to one, a reprimand to another, and all goes well. We
have seen children who persistently refused to perform a
test, declaring themselves unable; for example, they stood
before some ribbon, refusing to make a bow or even to touch
it; after a sharp reprimand they decided to work and pro-
duced a beautiful rosette.

II. Repeats two digits. — The repetition of numbers re-
quires very nearly the same sort of effort as the repetition
of sentences; however, as numbers have so much less mean-
ing than sentences, they make little appeal to the intellect
or interest, and therefore require a greater effort of attention.
As a result, a child of three years who can repeat a sentence
of six syllables can repeat only two digits. The association
of ideas triples the memory span.

The experiment is performed as follows: The experi-
menter tells the child to listen, and begins by pronouncing a
single digit. The child repeats it. Two digits, not consecu-
tive, are then given; for example, 3-7, or 6-4. They should
be pronounced slowly, an interval of half a second being

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 13

allowed between the two. If an error is made, or some speech
defect prevents the understanding of the repetition, another
beginning should be made. It suffices that an exact repeti-
tion be made once in three trials. When the repetition of
two digits is possible, three are tried, always at the rate of
two per second, and always avoiding special emphasis; one
success in three is still sufficient. Many children of three
years who repeat two digits with ease are incapable of re-
peating three; one additional digit greatly increases the diffi-
culty. When the repetition of three digits is possible, five
are tried, always under the same conditions of rate and of
pronunciation, and still considering one success in three suffi-
cient. It proves much more difficult to repeat five digits than
three. A great variety of errors are made by the children;
first a complete silence, then a sort of vagueness and uncer-
tainty of pronunciation; then a partial repetition in which
only the last numbers and sometimes only the last number
are given; next a tendency to give numbers which have not
been mentioned. Such numbers are not a chance choice, but
depend upon the natural order of numbers; thus, a subject
to whom one gives the series 5-8-2-7-4, says 5-8-2-3-4, the two
naturally calling up the three. Sometimes the phenomenon
is still more clear, so striking that it implies a very feeble
critical sense; as when a child who has completely forgotten
the figures 0-8-2-7-9, says 1-2-3-4-5-6.

III. Enumerates objects in a picture. — Pictures are in-
valuable in the examination of children. The most inatten-
tive child brightens up when shown a picture. It is an almost
sure road to their confidence. Pictures may be used for many
purposes; the child may be asked to point to the various pic-
tured objects as the examiner mentions them ; if he succeeds,
he has the ability of immediately associating the auditory
impression of the word with the object for which it stands.
In this test we use the picture to make the child talk. We
reverse the former method, having the child name the objects
which he sees pictured before him, thus testing his ability to
recall the name of an object which he sees. It is much more

14 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

difficult for the child to pass in thought from an object to
its name than from a name to the corresponding object. Be-
fore the child is placed a picture on which appear many ob-
jects with which he is familiar and which are interesting to
him. He is then asked to tell us what he sees. He thus has
the opportunity to use what language ability he may possess
in expressing his ideas, and also the liberty of choosing those
objects which please him most; the response will show us
what interests the child and will also give us an idea of his
mentality, of his manner of perceiving, interpreting and reason-
ing. The test has the remarkable advantage of serving as a
diagnostic test of three different intellectual level|^ The re-
sponses of the subject indicate whether he is a#^he level of
three, seven, or twelve years. There are very few tests which
yield such rich results. If we add that the test is one of
those which amuse children the most, and is most useful in
combatting the persistent silence of the little ones, it seems
reasonable to conclude that we have found by chance a test
of exceptional value. We place it above all others; and were
we limited to one test, we would without hesitation choose
this one.

We use three engravings which are reproduced in the ap-
pendix (Fig. 1, 2 and 3). If care is taken other analogous
pictures may be substituted, but ours have a certain standard-
ized difficulty, and therefore it is better to use them ; all
of ours contain people and suggest a story; these are
the essential conditions. The engravings are mounted on
cards, and are presented one after the other to the child, who
is asked: "What is this?" Then, if the child is very young,
he may respond naively: "It is a picture," or "It is a postal
card." The question is then put in another form: "Tell me
what you see there." It is very rare, quite exceptional, for
the child to remain silent. Even at the age of three they are
curious about the picture, and this leads them to reflect, as
it does the older and wiser. The responses obtained by us
are of three distinct kinds, each of which is characteristic of
a different intellectual level.

\

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 15

1. Enumeration. — These responses are the most element-
ary. The child enumerates separately the persons and objects
which he recognizes in the picture, without establishing any
connection between them. He names only common objects.
In the most elementary form the responses are limited to the
following: "a gentleman," "a man," "a woman," "a papa,"
"a carriage," "a little child." Some very young children use
the article the, "the child," "the gentleman," "the woman."
Sometimes, instead of naming people, the child chooses ob-
jects: "a bed," "a table." Notice it is the objects which are
named and not the action. When shown the second picture
a child oighree will say: "a gentleman;" we never found
one who,«a^^'he sleeps," or one who mentioned the action
or descrj^d We people. A child of three who would make
such aj remark would be much in advance of its age. At
three years one is at the stage of recognition, or identification
of objects; this is the important, fundamental work in the per-
ception of the external world, in comparison with which all
other processes of perception are only complementary. The
degree of development of this fundamental process of identi-
fication shows itself in different ways ; it is revealed by simple
addition; the number of objects named increases; instead of
one — two, three or four are named. When several are men-
tioned, the question of order arises. Most often with our
three pictures the children mentioned the people first; but
there were exceptions to this rule, and sometimes inanimate
objects were first chosen. Thus, for the third picture : "two
tables, a chair, a bed, a man," for the second picture : "a man,
a woman, a bench," for the first: "a wagon, a gentleman, a
bucket, a basket." Sometimes a curious error is produced
by suggestion when using the first picture ; noticing the wagon,
the child says : "a wagon, a horse."

In a third variety, scarcely superior to the preceding, the
objects are not named separately, but are related, in a very
feeble manner it is true, by the conjunctions, and, with or
and then. "A gentleman and a lady," "a wagon, and then a
gentleman," "a gentleman with a lady."

16 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

This type of response by enumeration is sometimes met
with in older children who are retarded; it therefore is dis-
tinctly characteristic ; there is a persistence of the form of
enumeration, but it is used in conjunction with a large num-
ber of words, while the enumeration of a young and normal
child is, on the contrary, very brief. This difference is ex-
plained by the fact that the retarded child of eleven years who
is still at the mental level of a child of six or seven years,
has the advantage over the latter of a much longer experi-
ence; having lived longer, he possesses a larger vocabulary.
Example: Mad. . . .a child of ten and a half who has an intel-
lectual development of seven years (we explain Jjter how we
fix the intellectual level with such precision) ^^^<is the fol-
lowing enumeration in reference to the first^pctufe : / see
an old man, and then a child, there is a flood, ther^ is water,
a zvagon, a basket, a brush, a pail, two wheels, a carpet. An-
other example of fluent enumeration, still more characteristic,
is found in the following response of Lau...,, child of thir-
teen years, four years retarded intellectually : A gentleman, a
wagon, a child, a pail, a basket; behind, a piece of zvood; be-
hind, some rocks.

In all cases the most frequent type of response is cred-
ited.

2. Description. This is the level of seven years, while
the response by enumeration corresponds to the level of three
years. The dift'erence is great. Here the characteristics oi
the people and the nature of the objects are mentioned; more-
over, attention is called to their relations ; with the result
that phrases are substituted for simple words.

Print 1 : There is a man and a little boy, zvho are pulling
a wagon.

Print 2: A man and then a zvoman, zcho are asleep on a
bench.

Print 3 : There is a man standing on his bed to look out
of the zvindow. A man looking at himself in the glass.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 17

3. Interpretation. The meaning of the picture or the
nature of the people is told either by a brief word or by an
explanatory remark, and often there is even an emotional
note, of sadness or of sympathy; it is possible that this emo-
tional note exists with children who make a more simple re-
sponse, but they are unable to express it. We call these re-
sponses interpretations, because they go beyond the visual
impression; there is a real effort to explain the situation de-
picted. Examples :

Prmt 1 : A rag picker. — A poor man moving. — There are
some people moving without paying the rent. — There is a man
in trouble. '

Print 2: They are in want. — A miserable creature. — They
are poor creatures sitting on a bench, and they have no home to
sleep in. — It is night, they are poor and needy.

Print 3 : A prisoner. — That represents a prisoner, a man
who is in prison, zvho climbs on his pallet to look through the
prison window which is barred.

If the words moving, miserable and prisoner are used
in the descriptions, it is safe to conclude that the pictures
have been interpreted. The hierarchy which we have intro-
duced in classifying our responses can not be defended phil-
osophically. An observer, hostile to all theory, would claim
that descriptions are superior to interpretations because they
are less subject to error; they state exact facts, adding noth-
ing, while interpretation is conjecture, and may be purely
fanciful. "Hypotheses non fingo," such a critic will say.
Such discussions will arise. The point which we have made
as a result of our studies with children, certainly merits use
as an argument in the debate. As only the older children use
interpretation we conclude that a higher intellectual level is
necessary for its production. But the question is a compli-
cated one ; it is necessary not only to take into account the in-
tellectual level, but also the possible deviations and errors
peculiar to the same level. We recall having shown our pic-

18 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

tures to an adult, known to be rather foolish. He made
many interpretations, but most peculiar ones. For example,
the first print inspired the following response: It is a scene
taking place in the month of February. Let us analyze this
conjecture. It is evidently an interpretation, but an alto-
gether gratuitous one, which it is impossible either to confirm
or to refute. The scene could just as well be placed in Octo-
ber, November, December, January or March. Why, then,
this precision, which is at the same time useless and unjusti-
fiable? This response is an interpretation, and in our classi-
fication it is superior to the descriptive response of a child of
seven years; but in addition it betrays a lack of judgment;
this lack of judgment is independent of the hierarchy of re-
sponses.

IV. Gives family name. — We now ask for a piece of in-
formation which a child of three certainly should possess ; its
family name. All children of this age know their first names,
that goes without saying, or the pet name by which they are
usually called ; but the family name is not so familiar. How-
ever, they are expected to know it at school, and at the "Ma-
ternelle" they are habitually called by their family name.

The child is asked: "What is your name?" If he only
gives his first name, the last is insisted on. "Roger? And
then? And then what? etc."

It sometimes happens that the child gives a name differ-
ent from the one under which he has been entered. This often
happens with illegitimate children, and also when a child's
mother has had several husbands and changed the child's
name with her own.

If a child fails to give his family name, he is asked what
his mother's name is. But this question is too difficult for
three years, and the answer: "Her name is Mamma," cannot
be considered a bad response for this age.

V. Repeats a sentence of six syllables, — After the com-
prehension of words, the next step in the development of

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 19

language is not, as one might think, the verbal expression of
thought, the naming of desired objects, but a repetition of
words heard. It is easier, apparently, to echo a word than
to use it independently — to pass from an idea to a word. We
have observed this to be the fact with both imbeciles and nor-
mal children. A child of three, if he will make the effort,
can easily repeat a word or a phrase; it is sometimes difficult,
however, to decide whether the repetition is correct, because
such young children have a natural defect of pronunciation
which we will call simply a vagueness, a baffling quality;
this is produced by a stumbling over the words and by their
incomplete production. This vagueness is not an actual de-
fect of pronunciation, due to anatomical or functional defect
of the speech organs; it is simply a lack of skill; therefore,
this vagueness must be taken into consideration in the diag-
nosis of the intelligence. On closer study we find that this
awkwardness, this lack of skill, is not limited to articulation,
but appears also in the choice of words and in the formation
of sentences; for the adult forms are substituted more child-
ish ones.*

For this test the following sentences are used, which have
been chosen with the intention of using words very easy to
understand:

/ am cold and hungry. (6 syllables.)

My name is Gaston. .. .Oh, the naughty dog. (lo syl-
lables.)

Let us go for a long walk .... Give me the pretty little

bonnet. (i6 syllables.)

These sentences should be given expressively. No error
is allowed in the repetition. If the child is timid and remains
silent, shorter sentences should be used ; we use the fol-
lowing:

♦TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.— The examples in the text are omitted
here because they are applicable only to the French language. Ana-
logous mistakes made by American children are the confusion of the
gender and number of pronouns and misplaced prepositions.

20 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

Papa. (2 syllables.)

Hat. Pair of shoes. (4 syllables.)

/ am cold and hungry. (6 syllables.)

/ have a handkerchief with me. (8 syllables.)

My name is Gaston. Oh, the naughty dog. (10 syllables.)

It rains in the garden. John has finished his task. (12 syl-
lables.)

We are enjoying ourselves greatly. I have caught a mouse.
(14 syllables.)

Let us go for a long walk. Give me the pretty little bon-
net. (16 syllables.)

Charlotte has just torn her new dress. I have given two
cents to that beggar. (18 syllables.)

It is not (necessary to hurt the birds. It is night, all the
world rests in sleep. (20 syllables.)

A child of three can repeat a sentence of six syllables ;
it cannot repeat one of ten.

CHILDREN OF FOUR YEARS.

I. Gives own sex. — "Are you a little boy or a little girl?"
This is the very simple question which we use. Three-year-
old children do not all succeed in answering it. The correct
response is: "A little boy" or "A little girl." Sometimes the
child merely says yes or no. It is then necessary to ask two
distinct questions: "Are you a little boy?" "Are you a little
girl?" It takes very little to confuse at this age.

Children of three years may fail, but a normal child of
four always answers this question of sex correctly. How-
ever, we expect a great change in the mental state to take
place between the third and the fourth year.

II. Names key, knife, penny. — Another test of spoken
language, but differing from the language suggested by pic-
tures; it is much more difficult. In a picture the child chooses
what he wishes to name, and names those objects which he

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 21

recognizes ; here we choose the object ; that is, we force him
to name some one object and no other. These are differences
which on a priori judgment seem insignificant; but in reality
they are great. The proof is that the majority of children of
three years succeed with the picture test and fail when asked
to name the objects. It is true that the objects are a little
less familiar than men and women, for which children show
a preference in the picture test. The child is shown success-
ively three familiar objects — a key, a closed knife and a cent —
and is asked: "What is that? What is it called?" The key
is properly named, sometimes with a defective pronunciation.
The penknife is usually called a knife, and the penny, pennies.
Such little errors are excused, but it is necessary that the
names of the objects be known.

In our choice of objects we are guided by the fact that
all experimenters are Hkely to have a penknife, a key, and a
penny about them, and our endeavor is to use as little special
apparatus as possible.

III. Repeats three digits. — This test is conducted in the
same manner as that calling for the repetition of two digits.
No further remarks are necessary.

IV. Compares two lines. — Here are some tests which
present unexpected difficulties. An imbecile who understands
when one says : "Go and open the door," when the words are
not supplemented by either a gesture or a glance in the right
direction, is unable to compare two lines in regard to their
length. Does he see that the two lines are of unequal length?
It is quite possible. If it were two biscuits, would he take
the longer or the shorter? That is yet to be determined. But
he does not comprehend the words: "the longer;" he does
not understand that he is asked to compare two lines, and,
pointing at random, he foolishly puts his finger on the space
between the two lines. The child of three years does the
same thing. Not until its fourth year does a normal child
succeed with this test.

'\ I I

<^i

22 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

The test is conducted as follows: Two lines, one 5 centi-
meters in length, -t;::d';e:rJer:y:tt"ft::

^A^. '^^r^ :: r: to t e c^M. Jon s e
these lines. Tell me w^-h .s the -ger. No hesU ^^ ^^^

:^-.^™^^^£^5;-jr:s^s^^^

for any hesitation is considered a tailure.
one, easy to perform and easy to interpret.

CHILDREN OF FIVE YEARS.

T romoares two weights.-This is a comparison similar

"i "s," r- C" s« — rs:i =-

the length of the lines.

Four boxes are used, the same in appearance and volume
and 17X -spectively 3 grams and 1^ ^-s 6 gr^ms and
It: rvrarrTQ First thc two boxcs of 3 and 12 grams are useu.
TheTa^ 'pla "on the table before the child with a distance
If 5 or 6 centimeters between them. The ch.ld .s asked Yon
.ee these boxes Tell me which is the heavier. The correct
:: ponse cons s s ;„ taking the boxes and heftmg them one
ler the other in the same hand, or at the --yi^U To
hands, and pointing out the box wh.ch -';'gh^ ^^ f ams^ lo
make sure that the choice is not the result °f hanc^> t^^^ '^°
boxes of 6 and 15 grams are then presented, then the hrst
two boxes are again used and the results -^-^^^'f^^^'^^^l
remains the least doubt, repeat the test. A very yo""g ^^'^'1
behaves differently. When asked the question, he ■'"ponas
a once by pointing, quite at random, at a box, without thmk-
f yJhTn^it We overlook this naive error, which may
ir:i::f.re:ia- led-by thoughtlessness and sometimes
by suggestibility or a desire to please us, and «e say to

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 23

child: "No, that is not the way. You must take the boxes
in your hands and weigh them." This supplementary instruc-
tion is sufficient to orient most subjects; so much the worse
for the others. We have observed curiously the errors made
by these last. Here are some of them : To lift only one box
and declare it to be the heavier; to place the two boxes side
by side in the same hand and declare that one is the heavier;
in this case the weighing is much more difficult without being
impossible; finally, to place them one on top of the other in
the same hand. This is still more defective as a method of
weighing; however, it is still possible to detect the difference
in weight.

This test includes two quite distinct operations ; one con-
sists in understanding that the weights of the two boxes are
to be compared, and the consequent act of comparing them ;
the other consists in appreciating the difference in the two
weights. The first operation is much more difficult than the
second; one can even say that it depends on the general in-
telligence and presupposes a high intellectual level, while the
second depends on the much more simple faculty of feeling
a difference in weight, and exists at a much lower intellectual
level, perhaps one of only two years ; this is proven by the
fact that when a child, in spite of all possible explanations,
fails to take the weights and compare them, it is often suffi-
cient to place the weights one in each hand and ask him
which is the heavier to secure from him the correct gesture.
The awkwardness with which a child takes the weights,
hefts them and compares them, and the surety with which
he shows that he feels the difference in weight, is always an
interesting contrast.

II. Copies a square. — This is the first time that we have
put a penholder into the child's hand.

A square with a diameter of from 3 to 4 centimeters is
drawn with ink, and the child is asked to reproduce it, using
pen and ink. The use of pen and ink increases the difficulty
of the task and a pencil must not be substituted. Young sub-

24 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

jects reduce the size of the figure; this is of little importance
if it is recognizable. We give (Fig. 4 of the Appendix)
some specimens of reproduction which v^e consider as toler-
able (1, 2, 3) and other reproductions which seem to us so
defective that they constitute a failure (4, 5, 6).

III. Repeats sentences of ten syllables. See above,

IV. Counts four pennies. — The objection is made that
enumeration is a test of scholarship which implies instruc-
tion rather than intelligence. The objection is just; but
where is the being so deprived of tutelage that no one has
ever taught him to count? We have studied many imbeciles
in the asylums ; all those who have sufficient intelligence to
count have learned to do so. In spite of the compulsory
education laws, there still remain many illiterate people ; it
is said that there are more than five per cent, among the
soldiers, but has one ever met an individual who has never
learned to count if his intelligence permitted it? Such an
one would be very rare.

The study of the act of counting is very complicated, and
it will be seen by what follows that this little test, which is
of great practical importance, appears many times in our
Scale. To be able to count it is necessary to know many
things; first, it is necessary to be able to recite the numbers
in serial order correctly; it is necessary, also, to be able to
apply each number to a different object. We have not used
as a test the simple recitation of the figures because this is
an afTair of memory ; we prefer the act of counting, which
presupposes some judgment. We ask the child to count four
pennies.

Four pennies are placed on the table ; they are placed in
a row, not in a pile. The experimenter says : "See these pen-
nies. Count them. Tell me how many there are." Some
children, without counting, answer at once, giving any num-
ber at random. Whether it be correct or not, such answer
should not be noted. The child must be made to count them,

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 25

pointing with his finger. Any error constitutes a failure.
At three years a child cannot count four pennies ; at four
years nearly half the children succeed ; at five years only re-
tarded children fail. It is truly a test for five years.

V. Game of patience with two pieces. — This is a game
demanding an arrangement, a combining of pieces, which
pleases children ; they often amuse themselves at school by
constructing objects with cubes. It is a game and at the same
time a work for the intelligence, operating with the given
material, some sensations and some movements. If the oper-
ation is analyzed, it is found to consist of the following ele-
ments : 1. To keep in mind the end to be attained, that is
to say, the figure to be formed ; it is necessary to comprehend
this end; it is necessary also to think about it, not to lose
sight of it. 2. To try different combinations, under the influ-
ence of this directing idea, which often guides the efforts of
the child, though he be unconscious of the fact. 3. To judge
the formed combination, compare it with the model, and de-
cide whether it is the correct one.

t is at once seen that the game of patience can be
complicated so that its difficulty may be varied at will. There
are some games which a child of five can solve, and others
which try the skill of an adult. We commenced by choosing
a very difficult game, and we think that it will be of interest
to explain why we abandoned it; it was because success in it
is too much a matter of chance. If in a game consisting of
a dozen pieces of card, the subject was fortunate enough to
pick up at once two or three cards which belonged together,
the completion of the task would be easy; on the other hand,
were he not so fortunate, the problem would be much more
difficult. It also happens that the number of successes are
altogether independent of age. This objection, which obtains
with some kinds of tests, led us to give up this type of game.

That which we finally adopted is much more simple,
it consists of two pieces only and is adapted to children of
five years.

26 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

An oblong card is cut along the diagonal, making two
triangular pieces. An intact card is placed on the table,
and by its side, nearer to the child are placed the two trian-
gular pieces, arranged so that the two hypotheni form a right
angle, and we say to the child: "Put these two pieces to-
gether, so as to make something like this." {This refers to the
intact card which lies before him.)

Children of four years do not succeed in forming the
oblong. Only one-third are successful. As for the others,
they do not understand what is required, and they move the
cards about at random; fail to touch them at all; put them
together incorrectly; place them side by side but not facing
each other ; cover one by the other ; or finally form a figure which
has nothing in common with the model.

At five years there is a decided progress; we found that
scarcely one child in twelve failed. The others performed
the task well.

Some precautions must be taken with this test. We
point out the three following: 1. Some little ones do not
wish to take the trouble to move the cards or even to touch
them. It is then necessary, without giving any precise sug-
gestions, to scold them a little in order to arouse them from
their apathy. They do not succeed beyond those who fail
to bring two cards together, in whatever form, or those who
cover one piece by the other. 2. In this test one should try to
prevent the child from turning one of the cards over when he
is bringing them together, for if he does it will be impossible
to form a figure like the model. If he inadvertently turns
the card and is unconscious of it, it is permissible to begin
again, or to consider the test passed if the two cards are so
placed that their longest sides are in juxtaposition. 3. When
the child makes a combination he is apt to stop and turn to the
examiner for an assurance that it is correct or otherwise.
Our attitude towards his work then determines whether he
will remain content with it or make another effort. It is

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 27

essential that no opinion be expressed; that we wait, and wait
in silence.

CHILDREN OF SIX YEARS.

I. Distinguishes between morning and evening. — The
perception of time is a slow development with a child; for
a long time yesterday and tomorrow are confused.
The distinction of our test is brought out by the following
question: "Is it morning or afternoon now?" Some chil-
dren give a chance answer, others simply say "yes"; not until
the age of six is a child absolutely sure whether it is morning
or afternoon. Before reaching this age they can often tell,
however, whether they have or have not eaten their mid-day
meal.

Apropos of this finding, our readers will doubtless make
a remark which they will often repeat in reading the tests
which follow; it is that children are much less advanced,
much less intelligent than they are thought to be. We answer
that an examination such as ours, a rapid one which takes the
child by surprise and obliges him to tell and tell immediately,
what he knows, tends toward a low grading of the child. But
even taking this into account the preceding observation still
holds. One expects, we ourselves expected, more brilliant
results. We would have judged that children could distin-
guish between morning and afternoon long before the age of
six. It is a distinction which appears so easy! Think of
the fact that six-year-old children are the oldest in the "ma-
ternelles" schools. Recall that the programs of these schools
provide for the teaching of history and of geography; "the
principal irregularities of the earth's surface, brief biographies
from national history," read the rules of the schools "mater-
nelles" of the department of the Seine. Is it not rather ridicu-
lous to talk about national history to children who cannot
yet distinguish between morning and afternoon ?

II. Defines in terms of use.— Thus far the verbal re-
sponses required from the little ones have all been short; a

28 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

word or two sufficed. Now we are about to ask for a phrase,
for an object can not be defined without forming one. The
definition is not solely an exercise and test for language ; it
serves to show us the idea which a child has formed of an
object, the manner in which he has conceived it, the point
of view which is to him the most interesting.

The child is asked successively : "What is

1 — a fork? 2 — a table? 3 — a chair? A — a horse? 5 — a
mamma?" These objects have been chosen from many because
we have found that they lend themselves to a useful classifi-
cation of responses.

It is not easy to perform the test with very young
children. They often respond by stubborn silence. We have
said to them in vain : "You know well what a table is, a
chair, you have used a fork," and concluded a little rashly,
that knowing these objects they should be able to tell what
they are ; this does not always succeed in breaking their si-
lence ; some point to a nearby table and say, "It is that."

If our purpose was a study in general psychology a good
classification of responses could be made. For the purpose
of diagnosis we have only three distinctions to establish :

1. — Silence, simple repetition, designation by gesture. We
have just given an example of designation by gesture. As
to repetition, it is self explanatory ; it consists in repeating the
given word. "What is a fork?" — "It is a fork." Sometimes
the child takes it into his head that in this way he will avoid
all difficulties, one can be certain that he will use it for the
whole series of definitions; he has found a path of least re-
sistance and he is faithful to it. There is not the least spirit
of malice. The child believes that he has responded seriously
and suitably to the questions asked him, and he even feels
quite pleased with himself. Do not undeceive him. With a
perfect optimism say to him : "That is very good," and mark
the result as being a complete absence of response. This re-
sult is not extraordinary in psychological experimentation; for

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 29

example in the experiments on the association of ideas with
young children and defectives the subjects frequently simply
repeat the stimulus word.

2. — Definition in terms of use only. — Examples : Horse,
it is to pull carriages, — it is to run, it is to sit on. The frequent
visits to the butcher shops where horse or mule meat is sold,
which are customary among the class of people to which our
children belong, explain the following response : "Horse, it is to
eat." We asked the child whether he ate the meat of the horse,
and he said, "Yes." Fork, it is to eat — to eat zvith. Table, it
is to eat on — or, a table is used to eat on; it is the table ivhere
the plates are put, — it is where zve eat. Chair, it is for ns to
sit on, — it is to sit on, — it is used to sit an, — it is that which zve
sit on. Mamma, she is to take care of little children, — she is to
kiss, — she sends on errands, — she cooks the food.

All these answers are clearly infantile, not only in their
incorrect form, but also in their conciseness, and finally in
the state of mind which they reveal; scarcely any children
of seven years are exclusively utilitarian in their definitions.

3. — Definition in terms superior to use. These are so
varied in form that it is impossible to cite all the varieties;
but this is unnecessary for the essential point is not the char-
acter of these definitions, but the fact that they diflfer from
the definitions in terms of use. The distinction is made diffi-
cult by certain responses in which the subject is chiefly con-
cerned about the use of the object but describes it in less
infantile terms than those quoted above. Examples : Table
■ — It is an object used for eating, or it is an instrumemt for
eating; it is a utensil for eating; it is a piece of furniture for
eating. Horse — It is an animal zvhich pulls carriages. Mam-
ma — She is a woman zvho cooks the food; she is a woman
zvho takes care of the children. The use of the expressions:
It is an object, it is an animal, it is an instrument, it is a thing,
indicate that the definition is less infantile. Definitions
learned at school are also given, they are curious in their

30 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

brevity ; a table, it is a thing; a horse^ it is an animal, it is a
domestic animal; a mamma, she is a person; she is a woman.
In other cases children try to describe the object; a fork is a
little fork with four points; a table, it is a board zvith four
feet; a horse, that has four legs; a horse that runs, that bites,
etc. Or still another series given by a child of nine years :
A fork has four prongs, — a table has four legs, — a chair has
four legs, — a horse has four feet, — a mamma has two hands
and two feet. Older children think of the character of the
object and of what it is composed: A fork is made of copper; a
fork is a white metal; a table, it is wooden; a chair, it is some
pieces of wood and some straw; it is of waxed wood; a horse,
it is meat, etc. Another point of view is the ' grammatical :
Table is of the feminine gender, chair also; horse is of the
mascidine gender. We think it useless to give examples of
more intelligent responses, because this test occurs in our
scale at the ages of six and nine. The intellectual develop-
ment of these two ages can be distinguished by the kind of
definition give by the child. The value of the definitions is
judged by the character of the majority of the definitions.
Five are required of each child. We note the character of
responses common to three of them.

Half of the children of four years of age define in terms
of use only ; the proportion is a little greater for the five-year-
old group; and practically all of the six-year-old children use
this form. We have found that not until the ninth year are
the majority of definitions given in terms superior to use,

III. Copies a lozenge. — Hospital experience suggested
this test. We were surprised to find imbeciles who could
copy a square and yet failed in the attempt to copy a lozenge.
These figures are not very different in form, but the direction
of the lines of the lozenge is much more difficult to reproduce.
We found the same true of the children in the regular schools ;
at five years of age a child can copy a square; not until six
can he copy a lozenge; and even at seven one-fifth of the
children fail. At six years one-half fail. In the appendix we

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 31

give a drawing (Fig. 5) which contains examples of good
copies (1, 2, 3) and of bad copies (4, 5, 6), so that all may-
adopt the same criteria.

IV. Counts 13 pennies. — The difficulty of counting is so
much increased by the addition of objects that it is necessary
to wait until the sixth year before requiring a child to
count thirteen pennies. The thirteen pennies are placed in
juxtaposition, not one upon another. The child is instructed
to point to each with his finger and count aloud. It is neces-
sary that the solution thirteen be given; and sometimes this
is not sufficient, when one feels certain that it is given by
chance, or as the result of several errors. Three conditions
are necessary to the successful solution of the test: 1. That
the subject knows how to count to thirteen, and makes no
mistake in the enumeration ; one can imagine the many errors
possible in this process. 2. That the subject touch a piece
and at the same time pronounce a number ; for the correspond-
ence of the pointing and of the counting is often at fault.
There are, for example, young children who name only one
figure while touching, by two movements, two different pen-
nies. As a rule, the hand moves more quickly than the
speech. 3. That the subject forgets no piece and that he
counts no piece twice. This last error, which can be avoided
only by employing some method, can be committed even by
adults. We have seen some children of six years who took
the precaution to remove each penny as they counted it. This
is the perfection of method ; these are the good traders.

At seven years there are no failures.

V. Compares faces from the aesthetic point of view. — It
is incontestable that all young children have the sense of the
beautiful, and that it can be brought out by presenting the
problem in a simple form; for example, as a comparison, a
choice between two faces, one of which is pretty, the other
ugly ; it is necessary that the contrast between the two faces
be very great. This question is very interesting from the

32 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

philosophic point of view, and clearly shows that there is
no faculty of the adult which does not exist to some degree
in the child.

This is our method. We use six drawings (Fig. 6, of
the Appendix) representing heads of women ; some are pretty,
the others are ugly or even deformed ; the faces are com-
pared two at a time, and each time the child is asked : "Which
is the prettier of these two faces?" The child must respond
correctly all three times. Care has been taken to place the
pretty face sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left, in
order to avoid the possibility of a success due solely to the
habit of pointing every time to a picture on the same side.
It is very necessary to guard against this automatic tendency
to go in the same direction ; it is very common with children.
At six years children compare the three pairs of faces with
ease ; at five they are not very successful, one-half only giv-
ing at this age correct answers.

CHILDREN OF SEVEN YEARS.

I. Right hand, left ear. — Another notion gained through
instruction, but so easily acquired that the lack of it is con-
spicuous. The child is asked : "Show your right hand," and
this done; "Show your left ear." The last question is almost
a trap, for having commenced by asking for the right hand,
a tendency is created to show the right ear.

Sometimes the child shows both hands ; or rather, he uses
one hand to show the other, but the gesture is so obscure
that one can not tell which is the hand indicated. The ques-
tion is decided by telling the child to raise his right hand.
The children may be divided into three categories according
to their manner of response: 1. There are some who have
absolutely no knowledge of left and right. They present the
right hand because there is a tendency to use it rather than
the left; then they touch the right ear. We will not pause
to consider those who understand still less, do not know where
their ear is. 2. There are those who have a notion of right

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF VOUXG CHILDREN 35

and left, but they are not yet sure. They present the right
hand and touch the right ear, then correcting themselves
touch the left ear. 3. Finally, a third group is formed by
those children who, without error and without hesitation, pre-
sent the right hand and touch the left ear. We consider suc-
cessful the children of the two last groups, those who hesitate
and correct themselves as well as those who do not hesitate
m^r have to correct themselves. But it is important that the
experimenter watches himself and gives no suggestion ; it
would be very natural to do so. It is evident that if, when
the child touched his right ear, one said : "Are you sure of
it?" or even looked disapproval of the gesture, the child would
be led to touch the left ear, for, if it is not the one, it is the
other.

II. Describes a picture. — We have seen that at three,
four and five years enumeration is the rule and description
quite unusual. At six years a very small number of children,
scarcely a sixth, try description. At seven years such prog-
ress in language has been made that description has become
quite general; there are very few exceptions, and this test
shows the enormous advance from the point of view of lan-
guage which takes place between six and seven years.

III. Executes three commissions. — Among the people
quite young children are sent on little errands to the stores,
to kiiy milk, bread, to the butcher's more than all, and to
bring home a bottle of wine. Physicians who frequcit the
clinics for retarded children recognize that these children,
though they can be trusted to perform one commission, can
not be given several at the same time. The mothers often tell
the doctors of this interesting peculiarity. Here is the series
of commissions which we give with the directions given with
them: "Do you see this key? Go and put it on that chair,
there" (pointing to the chair). "Then close the door. After
that you will see a box on a chair near the door. Take the
box and bring it to me. First, put the key on the chair; then
close the door; then bring me the box. Do you understand?

34 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

Now go !" Very often the child only performs two of the
three commissions, or on reaching the door closes it on him-
self. Some are satisfied with themselves and others realize
that they have forgotten something and remain thoughtful.
The test is passed successfully when all three commissions
are executed spontaneously without the necessity of such help
as, "Well, and now? You forget something, etc." It is evi-
dent that the commissions may be varied a little to suit the
surroundings. They should, however, always be simple and
easily executed. Nothing that would intimidate the child
should be asked. If the experimenter placed his hat on a
chair, it would not do to use it in one of the commissions as
an object to be moved, for many a child would not dare to
touch it.

IV.* Counts nine sous (3 single, 3 double). — On a cor-
ner of the table are arranged side by side three single and
three double sous. The subject is shown the money and
directed : "Count that money and tell me how much is there."
Some children do not touch the money ; it is necessary to
find some way to induce them to count. The difficulty of the
test lies in the mixing of the single and double sous. No
error is allowed. The slightest error constitutes a failure ;
and the child should not be allowed to repeat the test. The
only precaution necessary is to arrange the money so that
all the pieces are visible. The test takes from 5 to 10 sec-
onds. If it takes longer, there is a strong probability of a
failure. It is useless to wait 15 seconds. Children behave in
three different ways: 1. They count exactly, in the follow-
ing manner: 1-2-3-5-7-9; that is to say, they add 2 for each
double sou. 2. They count exactly, but for the double sous
they do not add by twos ; they say: 1, 2, 3, — then 4 and 5 (for

♦TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.— As there is no two-cent piece circu-
lating in American currency, Dr. Goddard has substituted one and
two-cent stamps for the single and double sous. The test seems to
be an equivalent one, provided the experimenter makes sure that the
child knows the value of the stamps before he gives the test question.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 35

the double sou), 6 and 7 (for the second double sou), 8 and
9 (for the third). 3. They count the double sous as single
sous. The last is a failure. At seven years there is already
a great majority who succeed. All succeed at eight years.
This is, then, rather a test of the transition period between
the two ages.

V. Names four colors. — Tests with colors can be indefi-
nitely multiplied. We have chosen the fundamental colors,
red, blue, green and yellow, and have omitted those the names
of which are less familiar to children; for example, violet and
orange. The test is not of the perception and distinction of
colors, but the naming of them, which is quite different. Young
children recognize, distinguish, and match the most delicate
shades; they are quite equal to adults in color sense; it is
the verbalization of this color perception, if one can so ex-
press it, which is defective with children.

Four pieces of paper, red, yellow, blue and green, respect-
ively, and 6 by 2 centimeters in size (smaller pieces should
not be used), are arranged on a piece of cardboard. Each
color is pointed to in turn, and the child asked : "What is
this color?" No error is excused. The least error is con-
sidered a failure. This test takes about six seconds.

CHILDREN OF EIGHT YEARS.

I. Compares two remembered objects. — This is a valu-
able test because it does not depend in the least on instruction,
and brings into play the natural good sense of the subject.
It consists in investigating whether the subject can, in think-
ing of two objects, distinguish a difference between them ;
the perception of a difference is in fact the habitual and the
most natural result of a comparison. We prepare for the test
by talking to the child as follows : "You have seen butter-
flies, you know what they are? — Yes. — And flies, you know
them also? — Yes. — Are they alike, a fly and a butterfly? —
No. — In what way are they not alike?" This is not expressed
in the best style, but it has the advantage of being easily

36 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

understood. Similar questions are asked about wood and
glass, and paper and cardboard. We always begin by asking
the subject whether he knows the objects in question, and
whether he finds that the objects "are not alike." Then atten-
tion is given to the response and above all to the value of the
response. A mere naming of the object is considered insuffi-
cient. The child is asked: "In what way are the cardboard
and paper not alike?" If the child responds: the cardboard,
it evidently proves that he has not understood. A bad re-
sponse, though somewhat better than a mere repetition, is :
A fly, it is a fly. More often the difference noted is one of
size: The butterfly is larger, and the fly is smaller; the card-
hoard is larger; the zvood is larger. Often details are noted:
The butterfly has the largest wings — the butterfly has zvhit^
wings — the butterfly is yellow — they are not the same color — ■
the fly is black, the butterfly is many colored — it is that butter-
flies fly on the flowers and flies fly on the food — paper is soft,
cardboard is harder — cardboard does not tear — wood does not
break — zvood is not transparent — glass is used for windows, and
wood is used to make floors.

For success, two at least of the three comparisons must
be correctly given. To be considered correct the difference
must be exactly given. It often happens that having found a
differential character for the first pair, the subject repeats it
for the other two ; having said that the butterfly is larger,
the repetition of this for the cardboard and the wood is not
a sufficiently good response. It often takes a child as long as
a minute to respond ; so much the worse if at the end of this
time the response is incorrect. At six years one-third of the
children make the correct comparison; at seven, almost all;
at eight, all.

It is very difficult to distinguish between the intellectual
levels of seven and eight years, and we use some tests de-
pending upon instruction, introducing them because they are
also valuable as tests of intelligence.

II. Counts from 20 to 0. — This is partly a test of school

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 37

knowledge; one must have learned to count to be able to re-
verse the process. We say to the subject: "Will you count
from 20 to 0, descending?" If he does not understand, we
add : "Count this way : 20, 19, 18 — " but we do not proceed
any further. Some children do not know how to count in
this way and will not try. Others, obstinately, in spite of the
instructions, count in the usual way either at once or after
having made an effort to count as requested : 20, 19, 18, 17,
19, 20, 21, 22, 23, etc. Others understand very well in what
way they are asked to count, but they avoid doing so by
going back and counting up again to find each figure. Thus,
being at 15, they count rapidly 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., as far as 15,
and find in this way that 14 precedes 15. The method is be-
trayed by the words murmured by the subject, and by the time
consumed in thinking of each succeeding number. All the re-
sponses so far described are considered failures. To be con-
sidered correct the process of counting must not take more
than twenty seconds, and there must be no more than one
error (omission or inversion).

III. Indicates omissions in pictures. — Four pictures are
shown successively (Fig, 7, Appendix) ; in one an eye is lack-
ing, in one the nose, in one the mouth, in one the arms. The
child is asked each time: "What is missing in this picture?"
Often the child does not answer, or if he does, makes some
incorrect remark. For the first picture which represents a
head he will say, for example, that the neck is missing, or
the stomach, or the ears, or even the legs or the feet ; and
having thought of this response, he does not fail to repeat it
for all the other pictures (automatism and repetition). All
these statements are true, but they do not fulfill the require-
ments of the test — to show what the picture lacks to make
it complete. Three correct answers are required.

IV. Gives the day and date. — Four facts are required
in answer to this question : the day of the week, the month,
the day of the month, and the year. In this connection we
wish to make a remark: We found that in the schools "ma-

38 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

ternelle" a language lesson is given each day at the opening
of school, in which the day and date are taught. The children
are told the day, date and year, and then made to repeat it.
However, not one child in the school was able to give us the
complete information, nor one the name of the year alone ;
for the month many answers were given, January, even
when it was in reality February 8th. Referring to our Scale,
it will be seen that the complete idea is not attained until the
age of eight. The great majority of children do not possess
it until they reach this age. These findings lead us unexpect-
edly to an interesting conclusion on precocious teaching. The
aim of instruction should be to aid the natural course of de-
velopment of the child by hastening it a little; but it is a vain
effort that gives it information three or four years beyond
its level. In the present case this is demonstrated by the
ignorance of these children of five or six years in regard to
the facts taught them, facts that boys of eight are juct able
to retain.

An error of three or four days is allowed in the day of
the month. A very intelligent person might think it the 17th
of February when it is in fact the 14th., but he would scarcely
make a mistake in the day, still less in the month, and never,
unless he be suddenly amnesic, in the year. It is a curious
fact that children fail most often to give the year. They give
no year, they remain silent, for they do not know it. Perhaps
a year is for them so great a lapse of time that they can form
no idea of it. Then a glance at a calendar is sufficient to
learn the day of the week and month, but not the year, which
everyone is supposed to know. School calendars should make
very conspicuous the number of the year.

V. Repeats five digits. — The method is described above.
Three digits are used at four years; it is necessary to post-
pone increasing the number to five until we reach seven-year-
old children, and still but three-quarters pass the test.

CHILDREN OF NINE YEARS.

1. Gives change from 20 sous. — This is a test which

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 39

presupposes some little instruction ; but it has so great a prac-
tical value that we use it.* We think it well to make the test
under the guise of a game ; we thus amuse the child and put
him at his ease. Some money is spread out on the table ; the
nine pieces of current money (0 fr. 05 — fr. 10 — fr. 25 — fr.
50—1 fr.— 2 fr.— 5 fr.— 10 fr.— 20 fr.)— and in addition a sum
of fr. 65 ; fr. 30 in fr. 10 pieces and the rest in fr. 05
pieces. We say to the subject: "Would you like to play
store with me? You be the storekeeper." Then show him
the money: "Here is the money which you will use to make
change for your customers." Then, showing him some boxes:
"These are the articles which you will sell. They are boxes.
I will buy this box. I will pay you four sous for it. Would
you like to play?" The subject always consents, smilingly;
the proposal pleases him. We then hand him a 1 fr. piece,
saying: "I wish to spend four sous. Now, you give me the
change." Then the hand is held out to receive the money.
The only correct response is the following: The subject takes
from the money fr. 80, offering it as change. Sometimes
the child responds, "I should give you 16 sous," but does
not give the exact number, giving instead 15 or 17 perhaps;
this is counted an error. Of course, still graver mistakes,
such as returning 2 fr. or 4 fr., are also considered failures.
We had one subject, a school child of ten years of age, give
us back 35 fr.; this, however, is quite exceptional. It will be
noticed that in this simple act of making change many varia-
tions occur. The quickest and most adroit at once pick out
a 10 sou piece and add to it 6 sous. Sometimes, like real
storekeepers, they say, "4 sous and 10, that makes 14 sous,
plus 6 sous, that makes 20 sous;" sometimes they count by
centimes. These are the bright ones. The others follow the
suggestion of the 13 sous on the table; they begin by gath-

*TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.— As nearly an equivalent a test as
can be made with United States Money is the problem of giving change
from a quarter when four cents are spent. The change pile should
consist of ten pennies, two nickels, two dimes, one quarter, one half
dollar.

40 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

ering up all the sous and counting them ; then they arc con-
fused because this does not give them the necessary sum ;
they are obliged to begin again and take away some of the
sous, replacing them by either a 10 sou or a 5 sou piece. The
most ignorant, it seems, are attracted by the sous, v.'hich they
can count most easily ; one must be used to handling money
to take at once the 10 sou piece, then the 5 sou, and finally
the 1 sou. There are shades of difference in the perform-
ance of this test of which our method takes no account. Is
the change given equal or not to fr. 80? That is all it notes.
At most, in analyzing the results, one can call an error of
one sou slight and an error of five sous great.

At seven years scarcely any children succeed in giving
the correct amount of change when trying to take four sous
from twenty sous. At eight years a good third succeed. At
nine years they all succeed.

II. Defines in terms superior to use. — This test is ex-
plained above. At seven and at eight years one-half of the
children give definitions of this kind. At nine years they
all do.

III.* Recognizes all the pieces of our money. — These are
the following: fr. 05—0 fr. 10—0 fr. 25—0 fr. 50—1 fr.—
2 fr.— 5 fr.— 10 fr.— 20 fr.

The greatest difficulty is distinguishing between the 1 fr.
and 2 fr. pieces, and the 10 and 20 fr. pieces. The various
pieces are all placed on the table, and as each is pointed to
in succession, the subject names it without touching it. Care
should be taken not to show in immediate succession the 1 fr.
and 2 fr. pieces or the 10 fr. and 20 fr. pieces.

We propose the following order: fr. 10 — 2 fr. — 10 fr. —
fr. 50—20 fr.— 1 fr.— 5 fr.— fr. 25.

*TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.— For the French coins we substitute
in United States Aloney — a penny, a nickel, a dime, a quarter, a half
dollar, a dollar, a two-dollar bill, a five-doliar bill and a ten-
dollar bill.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 41

The coins should always be turned so that the child may
see the effigy.

Frequently a child calls a 1 fr. piece 2 fr. and a 10 fr.
piece 20 fr., or vice versa. These are due to slight confusion.
Absurdities consist in inventing new pieces — 3 fr., for ex-
ample, or 15 sous. A curious error made occasionally is the
confusion of 10 and 5 fr, pieces. The test should not last
longer than 40 seconds. Finally, sometimes one suspects that
an error is merely a chance one. One of our children, aged
twelve, named all the coins readily excepting the 5 fr. piece,
which he called 10 fr. We made no sign, but some time after-
ward we took the trouble to have him name again all the coins on
the table. He repeated his error, and therefore failed. We
cite this example to show that the results must not be taken
automatically. It often happens that one suspects a chance
error after later responses are given ; it is then necessary to
repeat the test and watch for a repetition of the error. In other
terms, in spite of the system of marking which we have de-
vised, we believe that the experimenter must judge of the
responses which are made. Our method is not an automatic
weighing machine, such as the scales of the railroad stations,
which print an individual's weight entirely unaided.

IV. Enumerates the months. — The subject should name
the months in 15 seconds without omission or inversion. We,
however, allow the error of one omission or one inversion.

V. Understands easy questions. — We give the text of
the questions and some good and bad responses :

1, — What zvould you do if you missed a train? Correct
answers : Wait for another train. — Take the next. Incorrect
answers: / should try not to miss it. — Run after it, — Go home
again. — Buy a ticket.

2. — What zvould you do if one of your playmates shoidd
hit you without meaning to do so? Correct answers : Do noth-
ing to him. — Excuse him. — Pardon him. — Tell him to he more
careful another time. Incorrect answers, which show that the

42 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

reservation, "without meaning to do so," has not been under-
stood: Tell the teacher. — Have revenge. — Punish him.

3. — What would you do if you broke something belonging
to someone elsef Correct answers: Pay for it. — Ask to be ex-
cused. — Replace it. — Confess it. Incorrect answers are gener-
ally unintelligible : / would have to make it pay. — / woidd have
to cry. — Go to the commissary.

It will be noticed that these three questions are easily
understood and present no difficulties of vocabulary. It some-
times happens that children of only six answer them satis-
factorily, but this is rare. At seven and eight years one-half
of the children answer correctly ; at nine years, three-quar-
ters; at ten years, all. The test is considered passed correctly
if two of the three questions are answered satisfactorily.

CHILDREN OF TEN YEARS.

I. Arranges five weights. — An excellent test which pre-
supposes no schooling or acquired knowledge, and expresses
intelligence in its most natural form ; but it is a special intel-
ligence, a sensorial intelligence, not at all verbal ; and some
children who use words easily fail to arrange the weights.

For this test we use five little pasteboard boxes, of identi-
cal size and color and indistinguishable one from the other
by the eye alone. These are loaded, the filling being wrapped
in cotton, and weigh respectivly 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 grams.
Each experimenter can construct his own. All that is required
is a letter-scale and five small match boxes, the weights of
which are varied by removing matches or adding sous ; a set
of boxes weighing 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 grams can easily be
made in this way, and may be substituted for our series.

The five boxes are placed in a pile before the subject.
We say to him: "The boxes which you see here do not
all weigh the same. Some of them are heavy and some are
light. Place the heaviest one here, and at its side the one
which is a little less heavy, then the one a little less heavy,

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 43

then the one still a little less, and finally the lightest of all."
While giving these directions we point to the place on the
table where each box should be placed. This form of expres-
sion is not elegant, but we know that it is easily understood.
Three trials are allowed, and after each the boxes are mixed,
and the subject asked to begin again. The weights of the
boxes may be written on the faces of the boxes which rest
upon the table; it is easy to see whether the subject distin-
guishes the difiference in the weights or not. To pass the
test it is necessary that a child succeeds in two of three trials.
Many children do not understand the explanation and remain
motionless; so much the worse for them. Others place the
boxes in any order without lifting them; and from the little
attention that they give them, it is easy to see that they
make no comparison. Others understand that the heaviest
box must be placed first; and they distinguish between the
weights of the others most accurately, but they are incapable
of arranging the other boxes in the order of their decreasing
weight; this idea of decreasing weight is unintelligible to
them. They do not lack in sensibility to weight, but in the
ability to arrange. Others finally grasp the idea of the de-
creasing order, and they come a little nearer to applying it;
they arrange such series as 15, 12, 9, 3, 6, where a single box
is misplaced ; they can do better, they fail from lack of atten-
tion and care. This is not a grave error. Nevertheless, we
exact two absolutely correct arrangements. The time should
not exceed three minutes.

We have already said that this test is one of those which
best detect intelligence without culture, as it is absolutely in-
dependent of all instruction. We also remarked that the kind
of intelligence indicated by it is of a very special nature.
There are some children, very intelligent otherwise, who fail
to arrange these boxes, while others do so accurately and with
facility.

II. Copies drawings from memory. — The child is asked
to draw from memory two drawings (Fig. 8, Appendix) after

44 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

being allowed to look at them for ten seconds. The atten-
tion of the subject is prepared in advance; he is told that he
will be asked to reproduce the drawings from memory, and
that he will have but 10 seconds to look at them, and that 10
seconds is but a short time. It is difficult to estimate the
exactitude of the reproduction without taking a number of
measurements, which for our purpose would be unnecessarily
troublesome. We have adopted the following rule, which
is in practice quite convenient: The test is considered passed
when one of the designs is reproduced exactly, and half of
the other is correctly drawn ; the section of the prism is
always presented at the left; the subject's attention is usually
attracted first by this picture, and it is doubtless for this rea-
son that it is usually reproduced more correctly than the
other one.

III. Criticises absurd phrases. — This is not the test of
which we first thought. Our aim was to test the judgment
of the child. For this purpose we employed a method used
by some foreign alienists; we made absurd statements in or-
der to see whether the child would assent to them. Here are
some examples of absurd phrases which we used at first:
"Why is there often a yellow dog when two men quarrel in
the street?" "Why is a master often decorated when he plays
billiards?" German alienists put questions of this kind to the
insane: "Is the snow red or black?" We have found by ex-
perience that if children of very limited intelligence accept
these absurdities, and try to find an answer for our strange
question, other children, very intelligent ones, are also taken
in by the trick. We have concluded that the acceptance of
an absurd statement by a child does not depend entirely upon
feebleness of judgment ; it depends largely upon timidity, def-
erence, confidence and automatism. We remember having
dictated our absurd phrases, together with others which were
not absurd, to a class of backward children at the Salpetriere.
Of course imbeciles and defectives were not lacking among
them; but there were about fifteen children who could answer
in writing. They formed a crowd, and the crowd is not timid

-21

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 45

nor deferential. Every time that we pronounced one of our
"Why" absurdities, it was saluted by an explosion of ironic
laughter, which came from all the pupils. The defectives
comprehended the absurdity of our questions, and not being
held back by reserve, they expressed their feelings noisily.
All these reasons decided us to change the form of the test.
Instead of asking the child to discover whether there is an
absurdity or not, we tell him plainly that there is one, and
that we want him to discover it and point it out to us; with
this method no feeling of reserve, timidity or deference para-
lyzes the judgment of the child, if he is endowed with it.

The only difficulty about the test is to grasp the meaning
of the child when he expresses himself badly by obscure
phrases. Often the child has the feeling that our statement
is absurd, but he cannot give the reasons for this feeling, can-
not express himself in words. To feel is one thing, to explain
the feeling another. It often happens that a child simply re-
peats the phrase, or the part of it containing the absurdity,
without further commentary than his insistence on that part
of the phrase, and his air of disapprobation. All this gives
opportunity for much interesting analysis on the processes
of comprehension and explanation. We will return to this
elsewhere.

In making the test we begin with the following explana-
tion : 'T am going to read you some sentences, each of which
contains something foolish. Listen attentively, and tell me
each time what it is that is foolish." Then each sentence is
read slowly, very slowly, in an impressive tone, and immedi-
ately afterward, in a changed tone, the child is asked : "What
is foolish in that?" This test generally proves interesting on
account of its novelty.

1. — An unfortunate bicycle rider fell on his head and zvas
killed instantly; he was taken to a hospital and they fear he
zvill not recover. Correct responses : As he is dead it is certain
that he cannot recover. — // he is dead he cannot recover. — See-
ing that he is dead, he cannot he cured. — You say that he is

46 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

dead, then that he is taken to a hospital, and that they fear he
will not recover! Incorrect responses: It is foolish to go bi-
cycling. — It is foolish, to recover. — Hospital — There is nothing
foolish in that.

2. — / have three brothers — Paid, Ernest and myself. Cor-
rect responses: You have but two brothers. — You are not your
own brother. — // you have three brothers you must have three
brothers, you must not count yourself. You should say, I have
two brothers. Incorrect responses : The foolishness is that you
say myself. — You shoidd say your name. — That which is fool-
ish is Earnest. — The foolishness there is you. — There is nothing
foolish.

3. — The body of an unfortunate young girl, cut into eighteen
pieces, was found yesterday on the fortifications. It is thought
tliat she killed herself. Correct responses: She could not cut
herself into eighteen pieces. — // she cut off her arm she could
not cut up the rest. Incorrect responses : It zvas foolish to kill
herself. — The eighteen pieces are the foolish thing. — One can-
not tell whether she killed herself. — There is nothing foolish. —
It is that it is not true. — She had no quarrel with herself that
she shotdd cut herself up.

4. — There was a railroad accident yesterday, but it was not
a bad one; the -number of dead is only 48. Correct responses:
It is bad if there are 48 dead; it is very bad. — It is not bad and
the number of dead are 48! Incorrect responses: 48 dead. —
There is nothing foolish. — It is that there were <no deaths. One
should say many dead bodies.

5. — Someone said: "If I should ever grow desperate and
kill myself, I will not choose Friday, because Friday is an un-
lucky day and will bring me unhappiness. Correct responses :
// he kills himself, it makes (no difference whether it be Friday
or any other day. — It makes no difference if he is dead. — // he
killed himself on Friday it could not bring him bad luck. — He
might as well kill himself on Friday as on Saturday; that is of
no importance. Incorrect responses: Friday is just like any

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 47

other day, it does >not bring had luck. — Friday is no worse than
any other day. — The foolishness is killing himself. — The fool-
ishness is the had luck. — It is Friday. — There is nothing foolish.
— One shoidd not he superstitious. — Because one knows nothing
about it.

Five sentences are enough to test the critical faculty.
To pass the test a child must make at least three satisfactory-
responses. The test requires about 2 minutes. It is one of
those which reveals very well the intelligence of a child.

IV. Understands difficult questions. — These questions
are similar to the preceding ones, but more subtle, and pre-
sent in addition some difficulties of vocabulary.

1. — What woidd you do if you were delayed in going to
school? Correct responses: / zvoidd have to hurry. — / woidd
have to run, etc. A misunderstanding of the question is shown
in many of the incorrect replies. The subjects often answer
as if they had understood; what will happen? They say: Be
punished. — Be put in the corner. — The teacher zvould slap me.
Some even think of the future, and how they can best avoid
a repetition of the tardiness : / zvould not do it again. —
/ zvould leave earlier. Another misunderstanding is more
subtle. The question which we ask implicitly signifies this:
You are retarded ; how make this retardation as little as pos-
sible? This is clearly the thought, but it is possible to miss
it, and some have understood that they were asked how they
would adapt themselves to the circumstances if they were
actually too late. / would have to ring the bell (the door of
the school is closed and the late pupils ring). / zvould bring
an excuse from my parents. We consider, by convention, only
one response correct; the first one: hurry.

2. — What zvould you do before taking part In an important
affair? Correct responses: Think over the affair. — Reflect. —
Ask advice. Incorrect responses are not very intelligible. The
subject usually has not understood the expression, "taking part."
/ shoidd take care of the sick. — / should considt the doctor. — I
should go away.

48 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

3. — Why is a bad action do>ne when one is angry more
excusable than the same action done when one is not angry f Cor-
rect responses : Because an act done in anger is not inten-
tional. — An angry person is not responsible. — An angry person
does not realize ivhat he does. The incorrect answers result
either from a total failure to compreliend the question, or from
the fact that the child's attention is arrested by the word anger,
which suggests to him disapproval of that state. When one is
angry one will not listen. He should not allow himself to get
angry. This question is the most difficult of all, and often the
c'hild understands without being able to express his thought.
The expression is not important if the experimenter is able to
assure himself that the child has the thought that anger consti-
tutes an excuse.

4. — What would yon do if you were asked your opinion of
someone zvhom you did not know well? Correct responses: /
coidd not give any. — / coidd not speak without knowing. — /
would have to be silent for fear of giving incorrect information.
The incorrect responses are usually unintelligible. / should have
to ask. I should have to answer. Say to him, Be wise. Say
that I did not know his name.

5. — Why should one judge a person by his acts rather
than by his words? Correct responses: Because zvords lie
and acts speak the truth. Because one is more sure of acts
than of words. Incorrect answers, unintelligible: It is un-
necessary to lie. Because one does not knozv. With the
two preceding tests, one is often met by the silence of the
child, and the difficulty is to know what this silence covers ;
it may be that the child can think of no reply or that he has
thought of an incorrect one which fails to satisfy him, or even
that he has thought of a good answer which does not satisfy
his judgment. The experimenter is often quite puzzled. Con-
sideration of the whole group of a child's answers assists
much in the judgment of each. The examiner should have the
patience to allow the child at least 20 seconds for reflection
on each question. Two incorrect responses in five are allowed.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 49

At seven and eight years the majority of the questions
in this second series are never answered correctly ; at ten
years scarcely half of the children succeed. This test is then
for the transition period between ten and eleven years.

In a general way this is the best test of intelligence, as
commonly understood, in the whole series. Sometimes, after
an examination one hesitates on a diagnosis. The child has
failed in one or two tests, but this does not seem convincing.
Failure to give the day and date and the months of the year
are excusable errors, which may be caused by distraction or
by lack of education. But the questions for comprehension
dissipate all doubts. We recall several instances when teach-
ers brought us children, desiring to know whether or not they
were abnormal. Occasionally, in this way they set a trap for
us, but we did not object; it was fair play. Our questions
for comprehension decided us every time. We remember
one child who was very slow in answering, as though dull ;
his face was expressionless and unprepossessing; he knew
neither the day nor date, nor what day comes after Sunday,
and he was W/i years old; his reading was still syllabic. But
when we asked question 5: Why do we judge a person by
his acts rather than by his words? he gave the following
answer: Because words are not very sure and acts are more
sure. This was enough — our opinion was formed ; that child
was not so dull as he seemed.

V. Uses three given words in two sentences. — This is
the first time that we have asked for an invention. This one
is verbal. It presupposes that the child talks, writes, and
understands the meaning of the expression "a sentence."
Three words are written on a piece of paper — Paris, Fortune,
Stream. They are read to the child several times, then he is
told: "You make a sentence and use in it these three words."
He is then given a pencil. Some declare that they do not
understand ; often it is the expression "make a sentence" which
confuses them. No other explanation should be given them, but
the first instruction may be repeated. Others understand, but

50 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

either think of no sentence whatever, or one that fails to satisfy
them. As these last may be purists, it is necessary to insist
that they write some sentence. The sentences written may be
divided into three principal groups:

1. Three distinct ideas are given. — Examples: Paris is a
city, someone has a fortune, the stream flows. — Paris is a small
citv, a fortune is mcmy cents, a stream is a little river running
through a gutter at the side of the pavement.

2. Two ideas are given. — Examples: In Paris there are
some streams and men who have large fortunes. — Paris pos-
sesses streams and a fortune.

3. Onl\ one idea is given. — Example: The Seine is a
stream which brings a fortune to Paris. — In a stream at Paris
I found a fortune. — A drunken man without fortune has been
found in a stream at Paris.

Another type of sentence, somewhat similar to this uni-
fied form, is that in which several phrases are used, but well
co-ordinated. / live in Paris; a gutter carrying a stream of
water to the sezver runs through the street on which I live. I
know a man living a few doors from my father who has a large
fortune. — In my youth I was in Paris; for a month I drifted
with the stream, then a man took pity on me, he adopted me,
and at his death I inherited his fortune.

We find in these sentences a means of distinguishing
several stages of mental development. We retain but two,
the last two. The three vvrords in two sentences and the three
words in a single sentence. The first of these tests, the three
words in two phrases, is never passed at seven years, an age
w^hen a child does not write sufficiently well to succeed. At
eight years, none, or almost none, succeed. At nine years,
one-third of the children, and at ten years, one-half succeed.
We allow one minute to write the sentence. If at the expi-
ration of one minute the sentence is not written, or at least
three-quarters written, the child fails. Note that this is one
of the rare tests the results of which may be influenced by

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 51

information carried from child to child. We have had such
experience.

A second remark: We have already said, apropos ot
pictures, that it is necessary to make a distinction between
the level of intelligence and the judgment, and have cited the
example of an adult who had reached an advanced mental
level, being able to interpret pictures, who nevertheless gave
expression to ridiculous ideas in the midst of his interpreta-
tions. This distinction between the judgment and the intel-
lectual level appears subtle, but it is not. We again find it
in this test. There are children who compose a single sen-
tence containing the three given words, but the sentence is
devoid of sense and they fail to see it. Examples: Paris is
a city of fortune by the stream. — At Paris, zvhere there are
streams, they make fortunes. — Paris is a great fortune, tvhich
has a large stream.

These sentences are correctly constructed, and prove their
authors to be of the mental age of twelve years, but they at
the same time prove them to be very weak in judgment. Ulte-
rior researches will doubtless show how much importance
should be attached to these facts.

CHILDREN OF TWELVE YEARS.

I. Resists suggestion (length of lines.)— This test be-
longs to the twelfth year. A little white paper book of 6
pages is made. On the first page two lines are drawn with
ink a and b ; the first, that is, the one on the left, is four centi-
meters long, and the second five centimeters ; they are placed
in line with each other and one centimeter apart; on the sec-
ond page two similar lines are drawn, the first five centimeters,
the second six; on the third page the first line is six centi-
meters and the second seven. On each of the three following
pages two lines are drawn in the same position, but all are of
the same length, seven centimeters. We have, then, if we
designate the lines by the letters of the alphabet, the follow-
ing order:

52 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

a

<b

c

<d

e

< i

9

= h

i

= k

I

= m

In showing the first three pairs of lines, the experimenter
says to the child: "Which is the longer of these two lines?"
When the three last pairs are reached, the form of the ques-
tion is slightly changed, and he limits himself to the words,
"And these?" The child succeeds in the test if he judges
two of the last three pairs of lines to be equal. Experience
proves that very young children, even those of seven years,
are capable of distinguishing the difference between the lines
a and h, c and d, e and ;. When the equal lines are
reached, the child is played upon by two influences ; first is the
influence of training. Until now, during three trials he has
seen that the line to the right was the longer; it is then nat-
ural to suppose that this will continue ; it is a supposition, a
generalization, in such cases where the operation is a con-
scious and reflective one; but we think that most often there is
no conscious process, but an unreflective tendency, a budding
automatism, a habit. It is rather a sketch of a habit, a
habit in the making, certainly not very strong or resistant;
but, nevertheless, it exists, and can determine alone the kind
of response, if no cause for a contrary response comes up to
oppose and frustrate it. The second influence is that of re-
flection, founded on the perception of the lines; a single glance
suffices to show that that on the right has ceased to be longer
than that on the left. And if the child reflects, he will resist
his automatism and no more say that the line on the right
is the longer. He will, on the contrary, declare them to be
equal. Thus analyzed theoretically, the test appears to be a
revelation of the suggestibility of the child ; the most suggest-
ible are those who are led by the automatism in judging the

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 53

three pairs of lines; the least suggestible are those who de-
clare equal the three pairs of lines; and finally we count, fol-
lowing our accustomed rule, two correct responses in three
sufficient for success.

As the term suggestibility has several meanings, it is
important to add that it signifies here not that suggestibiHty
due to defect of character or judgment, but that resulting
from heedlessness, from lack of attention. It is because the
child depends upon habit and does not pay attention to the
real length of the new lines which are shown him, that he
falls into the trap. But we are not sure that this analysis of
this particular form of suggestibility is entirely correct. Sug-
gestibility rarely depends upon intelligence alone; character
and feeling have also an influence. The child who has formed
the habit, under his master's eye, of answering that the long-
est line is the one to the right is emotionally excited to persist
in this answer, to the right; he is actually forced to do so;
sometimes he perceives that he has erred, blushes and is
ashamed and ill at ease, but he does not correct himself, he
persists in his error. There is some emotional trouble — a
strange one, not yet well analyzed.

II. Uses three given words in one sentence. — This test
is explained above. All children succeed at twelve years and
scarcely a third at ten.

III. Says more than sixty words in three minutes. — The
child is told to name in three minutes as many words as he
possibly can. Such words as table, beard, shirt, carriage, etc.
His ambition is aroused by telling him that some children
have named more than 200 words, which is perfectly true.
This test is very interesting, for it is fertile in suggestions;
besides the number of words, one can note their relations;
some subjects give only detached words, each of which re-
quires an effort to recall. Others give a series of words, the
furnishings of a school, various articles of clothing, geological
terms, etc. Some use only names of common objects; others

54 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

cite abstract qualities or rather far fetched words. All this
gives an idea of the mentality of the subject. The use of
series of words and of abstract terms indicates a certain
amount of intelligence and culture. But in our test we take
account only of the number of words. At least 200 words
may be given without hurry in three minutes' time, provided
no efifort is required to think of them. But such effort is
necessary, and everyone has not the same power of recall.
Little children exhaust an idea in naming it. They say, for
example, hat, then pass on to another object 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. Their lack of skill in
the use of language and in the analysis of ideas is very strik-
ing. Some children of ten years spend as much as 30 seconds
trying in vain to think of a word. By this test we are able
to estimate, according to observations which we have made
elsewhere, both the intellectual activity of an individual and
his verbal type. Those who have many words at command,
those who think in words, those who habitually think of
abstract subjects, or those who are fond of puns appear to
have the advantage over others. Sixty words is the minimum
requirement. Children of twelve years succeed, sometimes
giving as many as 150 or 200 words; one of our subjects
gave 218.

IV. Defines abstract terms. — Definitions are required
for three abstract terms — charity, justice and kindness. The
formula used is very simple: What is ?

Charity. — A good definition should contain two ideas : that
of unfortunate people and that of kindness shown them. — Good
responses: It is the act of aiding people zvho are in trouble. —
It is giving money to the old zvho are tumble to zvork. — It is to
give alms. — Charity is to have pity for the poor people one meets,
and if one has some money, to give them some. Bad responses:
It is to be good. — It is to be charitable. — It is to beg. — It is a
person zvho is good. — It is a poor person. — It is to ask pardon.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 55

Justice. — A good definition contains the idea of law, that is
to say, of rule, of protection accorded to people and their in-
terests, or the idea of people being treated according to their
merits. Good answers : Justice is an act which consists in sen-
tencing persons zvho are guilty and in dismissing those who are
innocent. — It is a law which rules. — Justice is to punish the
zvicked even though they he rich. Incorrect responses: Justice
is that which judges. — Justice is a judgment. — It is ivhere people
are judged. — It is to cut the throat. — It is agents.

Kindness. — A good definition should express the idea of
affection, of tenderness, or simple acts of kindness where no
inequality of condition exists between those who give and those
who receive. Good definitions: Kindness is to be polite to
others. — Kindness is to wait when a person cannot pay, and not
to beat other people. — It is to return good for evil. — Kindness
is to share with others. Incorrect responses : Kindness is to
be kind. — It is to do something good. — Kindness is to be very
tvell dressed. — It is to lift one's hat. — Kindness is diligence. —
Kindness is to be presumptuous.

Two correct definitions are required. This test is some-
times difficult to interpret. At eight and nine years some
children give good definitions, but this is quite rare. At ten
years one-third succeed, at twelve years the majority.

V. Derives the sense of a sentence the words of which
are mixed. — This test is suggested by the tests of Ebbinghaus
which require the subject to supply missing words in sen-
tences. We use the three following groups of words which
we present to the child, saying: "Put those words in their
proper order and find the sentence which they make."

1 . For — an — the — at — hour — early — we — country
— started.

2. To — asked — exercise — my — I — teacher — correct — my.

3. A — defends — dog — good — his — master — bravely.
Solutions: (1) JVe started at an early hour for the coun-

56 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

try, or. At an early hour we started for the country. Incorrect
responses: We started country

(2) / asked my teacher to correct my exercise.

(3) A good dog defends his master bravely. Another ar-
rangement not so good is : A dog defends his good master
bravely. Incorrect arrangements : A master defends his good
dog bravely. — A dog defends his master bravely good.

It is a puzzle which interests many children. There is
much individual difference in the rapidity with which the
solution is formed. Some only take 5 seconds, others 20 and
sometimes even 50 seconds. The time limit is one minute for
each sentence. Two correct solutions are required.

Some children, failing to comprehend the instructions,
supply words or compose sentences having no connection
with the given words. For example, one gave the following
sentences: The dog runs. — / defend my country. — / bought
some candy.

CHILDREN OF FIFTEEN YEARS,

I. Repeats seven digits. — This test is made in the same
manner as that calling for the repetition of five digits. The
child is told in advance that he will have seven numbers
to repeat. One success in three trials suffices.

II. Gives three rhymes. — We begin by asking the subject
whether he knows the meaning of the word rhyme. Whether
he knows it or not (and often he thinks that he knows it
when in reality he does not) we give him the following explana-
tion : "Two words which rhyme are two words which end
with the same sound. Thus, pumpkin, napkin — pumpkin! napkin!
They both end in kin. In the same way mutton rhymes with
button; they both end in ton. Do you understand? I am go-
ing to say a word and then you will try to think of all the
other words which rhyme with it. It is the word obey. Find
all the words which rhyme with obey." One minute is
allowed for reflection and the child is required to find three

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 57

rhymes in this time. He can be urged but not assisted. He
usually begins by giving disobey. Sometimes a series of
words are given which do not rhyme. Sometimes words are
coined with the required ending or even with some other end-
ing. Finally some children who have understood nothing re-
peat pumpkin, napkin, while others, differently oriented say:
To obey, I obey, I disobey, or punishment, naughtiness. Some
even cite various examples of disobedience: To take things
belotnging to the other children, to kick, etc. This test is one
of the easiest to estimate.

HI. Repeats a sentence of 26 syllables. — We have com-
posed a series of 22 sentences regularly increasing in length,
from 2 to 44 syllables, and each formed of words very easy
to understand. By the use of these we can easily measure
an individual's ability for verbal repetition. When the sen-
tences are presented to a subject in the order of their length
the following facts are always noticed : Certain sentences are
exactly reproduced, then, as their length is increased, insig-
nificant changes are made in the reproduced phrases; the place
of a word is changed, a nonessential word is omitted or
replaced by a synonym. These slight alterations occur in a
zone corresponding to an increase of 6 to 10 syllables. Finally
grave omissions occur; an essential part of the sentence is
forgotten or modified. We think it best to allow no error.

We will remark in passing that the memory for verbal
repetition does not increase much from the sixth to the tenth
year in spite of the immense intellectual difference which sepa-
rates these two ages.

Thus a series of children six years of age, taken from the
school Maternelle, gave the following series of maxima for
repetition: 22—18—20—18—20—24, A series of children of
nine and ten years gave: 16 — 22 — 22 — 22 — 22 — 22 — 22. One
would expect a much greater difference. Decidedly the power
of memory does not increase greatly with age.

58 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

At 15 years we require the correct repetition of a sentence
of 26 syllables. These are the sentences which we use :

24 syllables : My little children, you must work very hard
for your living; you must go to school every morning.

26 syllables : The other day I saw on the street a pretty
yellow dog. Little Maurice has stained his nice new apron.

28 syllables : Ernest is frequently punished for his bad
conduct. I bought at the store a pretty doll for my little sister.

30 syllables : There was a severe storm last night zvith much
lightning. My comrade caught cold and he now has a high
fever and coughs a great deal.

32 syllables : The car is less expensive than the omnibus, it
costs but two cents. It is strange to see women acting as coach-
men in Paris.

IV. Interprets a picture. — See above.

V. Solves a problem from several facts. — Another prob-
lem, but one which requires good sense rather than insight.
We have drawn up two situations each of which presents a
problem. Here they are :

1. A zvornan walking in the forest of Fontainebleau stopped
suddenly dreadfully frightened, hurried to the nearest policeman
and told him that she had just seen hanging to the limb of a tree
(after a pause) whatf

2. My neighbor has just received some singular visitors.
He received one after the other a doctor, a lawyer and a priest.
What is going on at my neighbor' sf

Both of these questions pique the curiosity of the subjects.
To the first some have replied: A bird, a snail, a bird nest
hunter, a robber, an apache, an assassin, a tree trunk, a branch,
a bunch of grass.

The only correct response, implied by the context is : A
person who has been hanged.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 59

For the second question the correct response is : He is very
ill, he is dying. — Someone is very ill there, dead. Incorrect re-
sponses : / do not knozv. An erroneous answer often consists
in a repetition of the question. It happens that he has received
a doctor and a priest.

A correct response to each question is required.

ADULTS.*

I. Solves the paper cutting test. — A square sheet of
paper folded along both diameters is given to the subject; in
the middle of the edge which presents but a single fold, a
small triangle (1 cm. in height and having for its base the
paper's edge) is drawn. We say to the subject: "Here is a
sheet of paper which has been folded in four; suppose that
here (pointing to the triangle) I cut away the little triangle
of paper which is marked out. Now, if I should unfold the
paper, what would I see? Draw the paper, showing how
and where it would be cut" (Fig. 10, Appendix). The sub-
ject is not allowed to touch the paper in any manner, and is
forbidden also to fold another piece of paper. The attempt
to represent the result of cutting the folded paper must be
guided by the imagination alone.

The test is difficult. Most subjects simplify the solution
greatly. They think that only one hole is cut, a square or a
lozenge, sometimes a 5 pointed star, and that its position is
the center of the paper. This position is suggested by the
position of the triangle in the middle of the edge. Some draw
two lozenges side by side. To be correct, two lozenges must

*XOTE. — It is not necessary to take the expression "adult" liter-
ally and to suppose that the tests placed under this rubric indicate the
intellectual level of an adult. Adults have very different intellectual
levels dependent upon the social class to which they belong; there
does not exist a single adult level but several. The tests given here
simply indicate a level which is clearly higher than that of 15 years.

60 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

be drawn in line with each other and each placed in the
middle of one-half of the paper. When a child succeeds in
this test in his first attempt, it is always necessary to ask
him whether he was already familiar with it.

II, Reconstructs a triangle. — A visiting card has been
cut in two pieces along the diagonal (Fig. 11, Appendix).
The pieces are placed on a sheet of paper in their original
position. The subject is directed: "Look well at the lower
piece. Suppose that I turn it around and place this edge
(tracing the edge a — c with the finger) on this edge (a — b
of the upper piece). Suppose further that the point c is
placed just on the point b. Now, I take away the piece ; in
your imagination, place it as I have described and draw its
outline in this position. Commence by following the
outline of the upper piece." The test is very difficult. It is
required that the subject draw a right angle at b, and that the
edge a c be shorter than the edge a b. Often only one of
these conditions is fulfilled.

III. Gives difiference in meaning of abstract terms. —
"What is the difference between laziness and idleness? — Be-
tween event (evenement) and advent (avenement). — Between
an evolution and a revolution?" These are the questions that
are asked. Correct answers to two suffice. In stating the
difference between idleness and laziness it is necessary to
point out that the former results from external circumstances,
while the latter is an individual characteristic. For the dis-
tinction between event and advent it is hardly necessary to
mention that an event (evenement) is something that takes
place, while an advent (avenement) is a king's ascension to
the throne.* An evolution is a slow progressive change ; a
revolution is a sudden change ; some persons take the word

♦TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.— As it seems impossible to retain
both meaning and similarity of sound of this pair of words, we have
translated avenement, advent, and of course accept a general mean-
ing instead of the particular one noted in the text.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 61

evolution in the sense of the maneuvers of a troop and revolu-
tion in the sense of a grave popular insurrection; in this case
the distinction is not so good, as the two words are different
without being opposites, and it should be understood that we
are asking for oppositions and not simple differences. How-
ever, these responses are considered valid.

IV. Solves the question concerning the president. —
Question : "There are three principal differences between a
king and a president of the republic. What are they?" They
are the following: Royalty is hereditary, it lasts during the
life of the monarch, and it confers very great powers ; a
president of the republic is elected, his term of office is limited,
and his powers are not so great as are those of a king.

V. Summarizes an observation made by Hervieu. — The
following paragraph is read slowly and impressively: We call
it the thought of Hervieu ; the thought only is borrowed ; he
wrote it in three lines, but his arrangement was not adapted to
our needs; we have amplified it to prevent its being retained
absolutely by the memory, as it would be in its original brief
form.

Many opinions have been given on the value of life. Some
call it good, others call it bad. It would be more just to say,
that it is mediocre, for on the one hand our happiness is never
so great as we would have it, and on the other hand our
misfortunes are never so great as others would have them. It is
this mediocrity of life which makes it just, or rather which pre-
vents it from being radically unjust.

Before beginning the reading we tell the subject to listen
with care because he will be asked at the close of the reading
to repeat the selection. In this manner the test is placed in
the field of memory; and those who do not succeed in com-
prehending the rather subtle thought of Hervieu, will be
spared the embarrassment of feeling that they have betrayed
a lack of comprehension ; the failure will be attributed to

62 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

faults of memory and attention, and this is infinitely less
painful. The central thought, which it is necessary to repro-
duce, is the following: "Life is neither good nor bad, but
mediocre, for it is inferior to that which we desire, and su-
perior to that which others desire for us." The terms used
matter little ; the essential thing is that the thought be well
understood ; and this will be the less doubtful, the less the
subject tries to repeat the text verbatim.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN

63

PART II.

Description of the conditions necessary for a satisfactory
^JZll^n the hrst place use an i-lated^ .me roorn.
Be alone with the child as much as possible ^^.^ ^^e a sec
retary to take the child's replies verbatun. A child of ttoe n
or fourteen may be used for this purpose. ^^^ very intelli-
gent one is chosen and some supervision given Meet the
child pleasantly, do not stare at him when quesUoning him
if he seems timid, constantly reassure him, not on y by a
easa^t "Inner, but by using one of the tests wh.hsee^s
most like a game (pictures or making change). Encourage
rc::ta:!:iy in a kin'd'way tl^roughout tbe exammaUot, ; show
satisfaction with the answers whatever they are. f^^^''^'^
cise and do not lose time by makmg a lesson of it. There
a time for all things. The object now .s to judge of he
mental plane of the child, not to instruct it. Above all, never
"d he'child by a supplemental explanation wh.ch may put
him on the right track. One is o'ten tempted to do th,s and
it is wrong: one feels uneasy and fears the chdd has not
underrtood Vain scruple, because the test .s the sort tha
Luld be understood. Hold closely, then, to the ^ormu^ °
each test without addition or retraction. Encouragement
should be given by the tone of voice, or by words wholly
devoid of meaning which serve only to ^'.mulate: Go on
Quickly now! Hurry up! Good! Very good ! Perec ! Mar-
;rus etc " H it is necessary to have a visitor, ms.st upon
htabsolute silence. How difficult to secure! Every teacher
w shes nterfere in the examination, to give a supplementary
Txplanation, especially if the child belongs to her class. Have
the courage to enforce silence.

Commence with each subject by "sing the tests designed
for his age. If too difficult tests are tried at first he is d.s-

64 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

couraged. If on the contrary they are too easy, he grows
disdainful, wonders whether he is being made fun of and makes
no efifort. We have seen manifestations of this misplaced
pride.

In reference to the experimenter, himself, some conditions
are necessary. He must not allow himself to be prejudiced
by information obtained from other sources. He should ban-
ish from his mind all that he has been told concerning the
child and consider him as an X, which he must solve with the
means in his power. He should be firmly convinced that in
using the method one must necessarily gain a profound knowl-
edge of the child, and so entirely ignore all other informa-
tion. But this confidence in one's self often fluctuates. At
first all appears easy ; it is the epoch of illusions. After a
few trials, even the least critical see errors everywhere and
are discouraged. But if one works on, long and patiently,
confidence returns little by little ; it is not now the optimism
of the beginner, it is a reasonable, reflective confidence. One
is conscious both of his powers and of his limitations.

This initiative period lasts for at least 5 or 6 seances
of two hours each ; and represents examinations of twenty
children. All experimenters intending to use the method
should submit to such a preparation.

The tests should be prepared in advance; the little
material required should be close at hand; all the required
coins should be kept in a special purse. Two records should
be kept ; the first recording the numerical results of the
tests, and the second, a note book, recording the responses
in detail.

The first record is a large sheet of paper ruled in squares
on which are written in a column at the left, the names of the
tests, grouped according to age. Following these names as
many parallel columns are drawn as there are children to be
examined, each being headed by the name of the child. After
a child has been examined, the result for each test is recorded

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 65

in the column reserved for that child, and opposite the test
names; the results are expressed by the following symbols:
The sign + indicates that the test is passed; the sign — indi-
cates failure; the sign indicates a silence; the sign ? indi-
cates that the result is doubtful; if a doubtful result is nearer
failure than success the sign — ? is used; if it is nearer
success the sign -|-? When the result is excellent we use
-\- ! and when it is altogether bad ! We advise that the sign
be recorded immediately after the test is completed, not after
the examination upon the reading of the notes. It is easy to
understand why we so advise. In recording a symbol we do
not register automatically what takes place, but we record
a judgment, and this judgment stands a greater chance of
being correct when the occurrence is more recent. No matter
how detailed the notes, they reproduce but very incompletely
the actual experience; an enormous amount of detail is
omitted, as a matter of course, to be supplied by the memory
of the experimenter ; it would be wrong to trust entirely to the
notes.

Having marked the results of the tests by signs, more
extended notes are recorded in the note book. This should
contain the full name of the child, his age, date of birth, the
date and place of examination, the quality of the assistants
and any exceptional circumstances influencing the examina-
tion. Often this information is not recorded; later, on
referring to the record it cannot be supplied. We advise also
keeping a record of the school standing of the child, the
number of pupils in his class, the attitude of the child during
the examination (natural, heedless, timid, dull, undisciplined,
etc.) and finally the social scale of the parents (want, poverty,
mediocrity, ease, riches.) If, by chance, some important fact
in the history of the child is discovered, record it also. If
a little boy of nine coming from a country district has never
attended school, this must be noted.

The notes relative to each test which should be recorded
in this book, vary; experience is the best teacher of what is

66 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

useful to preserve. It is necessary to bear in mind that the
symbol alone is altogether insufficient, and that we should
have sufficient data to enable another experimenter to judge
of them on his own account. Thus, in the responses to the
questions involving the reasoning powers, the manner in which
the child explains or criticises the absurdities of certain
phrases must be given at length; in using the test requiring
the repetition of figures it is well to have model series and
not to vary them ; then the figures the child gives may be
recorded; this precaution will guard against the possible loss
of interesting facts. Example: The experimenter recites:
1 — 3 — 9 — 2 — 7. The child believing himself repeating, says:
1 — 3 — A — 5 — 6. The error is very grave, graver than had he
said : 1 — 3 — 8 — 5 — ; for in the first repetition he has fol-
lowed the natural order of numbers, and by so doing has
implicity admitted the absurdity that he has been asked to
repeat numbers in their natural order. A little commentary
helps to fix the result in memory. The definitions of words
and objects and the resume of the thought of Hervieu should
be written in detail. In the test calling for 60 words it is
sometimes difficult to write all the words given by the child ;
interesting indications can, however, always be secured ; for
example, each word may be represented by a vertical line,
and a new group be started every half minute (the total test
lasts three minutes) ; thus a record is secured of the number
of words written in the first half minute, the number in the
second, the number in the third, etc. ; this shows whether the
subject has increased or decreased in speed as the experiment
progressed, and this in turn gives some indication of his
ability to work; I am also in the habit of dotting the lines
which correspond to the names of objects mentioned, and of
underlining those which stand for an unusual word, one not in
common use. We advise that the rhymes given be recorded
and also the sentence containing the three given words. By
exacting all these notes from collaborators it is possible to
judge with what care the experiments have been made. A
record of the intelligence of a child, presented without other

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 67

data than some symbols, certainly seems subject to doubt;
it can not be tolerated; it would encourage negligence and
even fraud.

Utilization of Notes. — We have recorded a series of signs
in vertical columns; these signs succeed each other irregu-
larly ; here there is a — , there a -|-. How shall we interpret
them? It is at once evident, that no matter how the tests
are arranged it is impossible to find an order in which one
test will mark the limit of achievement, all tests preceding it
being passed successfully and all those following being too
difficult. Such an order can easly be arranged for one in-
dividual, but it would not prove satisfactory for a second and
a third. Let us examine the efifect of the order which we
have adopted, as shown in an examination of 10 children,
nine years of age. In the tests for the ninth year which
amount to 50 (as there are 5 tests and 10 pupils) these ten
children failed in 6 and succeeded in 44. In the tests for the
tenth year, they failed in 14 and succeeded in 36. We do not
find a limiting test, which foils all, and which only foils
children of this age or younger. That would be a useful
criterion, but we have not discovered it and do not believe that
it exists. The reality is less simple. The experiment shows
us the following fact: The nine-year-old children succeeded
in all the very simple tests, they succeeded in none of the
very difficult ones; in the tests of moderate difficulty, some
children succeeded with certain ones, and some children with
others. This varied with each child. This is the fact which
we are obliged to consider. Each child has its own individu-
ality ; one succeeds well with test A and fails with test B ;
another of the same age, fails with test A and succeeds with
test B. How shall we deal with these individual differences
in our experimental results? We have no exact knowledge
concerning them ; it is probable that the mental faculties stimu-
lated by the tests differ and are of an unequal development in
different children. If a child has a better memory than his
companions, it is natural for him to be more successful in a
test of simple repetition. Another who has already a capable

68 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

hand will arrange the weights more successfully. Another
reason is that all of our tests presuppose an effort of attention
and the attention varies during a period of concentration,
especially with young people ; now it is intense ; one minute
later it is relaxed. Suppose that the subject has a moment
of distraction, of embarrassment, of ennui during a test, it
may cause complete failure. One cannot doubt the justice
of this last reason. We are so convinced on this point that
we think it chimerical and absurd to judge the intelligence
of a child by one test alone.

The preceding considerations lead to the conclusion that
the intellectual level of a child can be judged only by a group
of tests. It is success in several distinct tests which alone is
characteristic. Intelligence cannot be estimated as can the
height. For height it suffices to have a table of mean heights for
the various ages ; given a child we measure it, and then turn to
the table of means ; it is very easy by a simple comparison to
ascertain whether the child measures up to the standard height of
children of his age, or whether he is retarded one year, two years,
etc., or, on the contrary is advanced one year, two years, etc.
There is very little artificiality about this method of estimation.

It is altogether otherwise when we estimate the intelli-
gence. If one wishes to apply the same system of comparison
between the intelligence of one child and the mean intelli-
gence of children of different ages one is arrested by the
difficulty which we have mentioned above ; a child is retarded
for certain tests of his age and advanced for others. We think,
however, that this difficulty can be overcome ; but it is on
condition that we adopt some convention ; and the said con-
vention, be it the best possible, will always give to the pro-
ceeding an artificial character. If by chance another conven-
tion had been adopted sensibly dififerent results would have
been reached. We feel it necessary to insist on this fact, be-
cause later, for the sake of simplicity of statement, we will
speak of a child of eight years having the intelligence of a
child of seven or of nine years; these expressions if accepted
arbitrarily may give place to illusions. It is necessary to re-

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 69

member that the estimate of the amount of retardation or
precocity of intelligence depends partially upon the conven-
tional proceeding which we have adopted.

The rules which we apply are two. The first is as fol-
lows : A child has the mtelligence of thai age all the tests for
which he succeeds in passing. Here is a child nine years of age
who passes all the tests for the seventh year, he has then at
least the intelligence of a child of seven. The second rule is
as follows : After determining the age for which a child passes
all the tests, a year is added to the intelligence age, if he has
succeeded in passing five additional tests belonging to superior
age groups, two years are added if he has passed ten such tests,
three years if he has passed fifteen, and so on.

Thus a child passed the five tests for the eighth year;
he has the intelligence of eight years ; in addition he passed
three tests for nine years and two tests for ten years ; we add
one year for the five tests, the record stands 8+1=9, and the
child has an intelligence of nine years. Another example : A
child passed the 5 tests for 6 years ; he has the intelligence of
6 years ; he also passed 3 tests for 7 years, 3 for 8 years, 2 for
9 years, 2 for 10 years, and 1 for 11 years; this gives him
eleven extra tests, and adds two years to his intelligence age,
making it 8 years. A last example: A child passed all the
tests for 4 years; he passed in addition 1 test for 5 years, 3
for 6 years, 2 for 7 years, 4 for 8 years, 3 for 9 years, and 2
for 10 years; he has passed then 15 additional tests which is
equivalent to 3 years and he is accorded the mental age of 7.

The result of this notation is that it qualifies a child as
regidar in intelligence if it has an intelligence age equal to its
age; as advanced in intelligence if it has an intelligence 1 or 2
years greater than its age, and as retarded in intelligence if it
has an intelligence 1 or 2 years inferior to its age. The
symbols used to express the results are = or + 1> + 2, -|- 3,
etc., or — 1, — 2, — 3, etc.

We would add that a child should not be considered de-
fective in intellisrence no matter how little he knows unless

70 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

his retardation of intelligence amounts to more than two
years.

Remarks : — The researches which have enabled us to cal-
culate our norms, were made in those primary schools of
Paris which are situated in the poorer disticts. Experience
has demonstrated that the children of persons in easy circum-
stances present in general a higher intellectual development
than that expressed by our means. Thus, in a private school,
frequented by the bourgeoisie, and where the classes con-
sist of from 8 to 10 pupils, the pupils show a mean one
and one-half years in advance of our normal means. It is
important to add that our examinations have been made but
once, and by a stranger, who, without intimidating the child,
inspired him with a certain deference. Other results would
be obtained if the examination were repeated several times
or if it were conducted by a person too well known to the
child to produce a deferential attitude, etc., briefly, if the
very precise conditions which we have indicated, were ignored.

If a child is to be examined the second time, it is best to
allow a period of at least 6 months to intervene between the
examinations, and to guard against the coaching of the child
by his companions.

A last word for those persons who desire to employ the
method. Any one can use it for his own personal satisfaction
or to obtain an approximate evaluation of a child's intelli-
gence; but for the results of this method to have a scientific
value, it is absolutely necessary that the individual who uses
it should have served an apprenticeship in a laboratory of
pedagogy or possess a thorough practical knowledge of
psychological experimentation.

APPENDIX

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 73

TESTS ARRANGED IN AGE AND DIAGNOSTIC
GROUPS FOR CONVENIENCE IN CON-
DUCTING EXAMINATIONS.

IDIOTS.

Mental Age 1 and 2 Years.*

1. Move lighted match slowly before child's eyes. Full
credit given if eyes follow light for briefest period.

2. Place a wooden block in child's hand. Credit given if
block is grasped.

3. Show the wooden block without touching child with it
and say: "This is for you, don't you want it to play with?"
Credit given if child takes it.

4. Offer child a piece of wood and a piece of chocolate
of the same size. Credit given if he eats the chocolate and
does not attempt to eat the wood.

5. Show child a piece of chocolate, then wrap it in paper
and present it to him telling him to eat it. Credit given if he
removes the paper before eating.

6. Make simple movements, clapping the hands, sitting
down, standing up, etc., and tell the child to do the same. Credit
given if one intention is accomplished.

*These tests for children of 1 and 2 years of age are taken from
the 1905 series, Methodes nouvelles pour le diagnostic du niveau
intellectuel des anormeau, L'Annee Psychologique 11, 1905, page 199.

74 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

IMBECILES.

Mental Age 3 Years.

7. Show me your nose. Show me your eyes. Show me
your mouth.

8. Listen well and repeat what I say: 4; 3 — 7; 6 — 4;
5 — 8. Pronounce numbers slowly and distinctly with one-half
second interval between, one pair at a time. Full credit given
for one exact repetition.

9. Place Picture 1 before child and ask, "What is that?"
or "What do you see there?" Follow this by Pictures 2 and 3.
(Figures 1, 2, 3.) Full credit given if some objects are enumer-
ated.

10. "What is your name?" If first name only is given —
"And your other name?"

Surname required.

IL "Listen well and repeat what I say: I am cold and
hungry." No errors of any kind allowed.

Mental Age 4 Years.

12. "Are you a little boy or a little girl?" If necessary—^
"Are you a little girl ?" "Are you a little boy ?"

13. Show child a penknife, saying, "What is that? What
is it called?" Then show penny, and finally key, asking same
questions. Names of three objects required.

14. "Listen well and repeat what I say : A — 9 — 2 ; 3 —
7 — 4; 5 — 8 — 1." Full credit giv&n for one exact repetition.

15. "You see these two lines. Tell me which is the longer,"
(Fig. 12.)

Mental Age 5 Years.

16. Place two boxes weighing 3 and 12 grams, respectively,
on the table before the child, leaving a space of 5 or 6 centi-
meters between them, and say, "You see these two boxes? Tell

I

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 75

me which is the heavier." Repeat, using boxes weighing 6 and
15 grams, and repeat again, using first pair.

// there is still doubt about the child's ability to compare
weights, repeat process.

17. Draw a square 3 to 4 centimeters in diameter with ink
and ask the child to copy it, giving him pen and ink to do so.
(Fig. 19.)

18. "Listen well and repeat what I say : My name is
Charley. O ! the naughty dog."

19. Place four pennies in a row before the child and say:
"Do you see these pennies? Count them and tell me how many
there are."

Child is required to point to each with finger; no error
allowed.

20. Place an oblong card on the table before the child, and
place also, nearer to the child, two triangular cards formed by
cutting another card like the first one in two, along a diagonal.
Place these two triangular cards in such position that their
hypotheni form a right angle one with the other, then say to
the child, "Put these two pieces together so that they will form
one card like this" (indicating the oblong card). If the child
turns over one triangular piece without noticing it, it is permis-
sible to begin again.

Mental Age 6 Years.

I- 21. "Is it morning now?" "Is it afternoon now?"

22. "What is a fork?" "What is a table?" "What is a
chair?" "What is a horse?" "What is a mamma?"

// some use of three of the objects is mentioned the response
is considered correct.

23. Draw a diamond figure with ink and ask the child to
copy it, giving him pen and ink for the purpose. (Fig. 20.)

24. Place 13 pennies in a row on the table before the
child and say: "Count these pennies for me, pointing to each
one as you count it."

25.. Show pictures of faces (Fig. 6). Expose first the

76 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

upper two alone, next the two middle ones, and last the lower
ones, saying each time, "Which is the prettier of these two faces ?"
No error allowed.

Mental Age 7 Years.

26. "Show me your right hand." "Show me your left
ear." No error allowed.

27. Show pictures as in Test 9, asking the same questions.
Full credit given if two pictures are described.

28. "Take this key and put it on that chair, bring me that
book lying on the table and open the door." Give these direc-
tions distinctly twice.

29. Place three two-cent and three one-cent stamps on the
table before the child. Make sure that he knows the 2's from
the I's and then ask him to count how much they would all
cost.

30. Have four pieces of colored paper, red, blue, yellow
and green., Point to each asking, "What is this color?" (Fig.
21.) No error allowed.

MORONS.
Mental Age 8 Years.

31. (a) "Do you know what paper is:" "Do you know
what cardboard is?" "Are they alike?" "In what way are they
not alike?"

(b) "Have you ever seen a fly?" "Have you ever seen a
butterfly?" "Are they alike?" "In what way are they not alike?"

(c) "Do you know wood when you see it?" "Do you know
glass when you see it:" "Are they alike?" "In what way are
they not alike?" Two satisfactory answers required.

32. "I want you to count backward from 20 to 0. Like
this — 20 — 19 — 18." This must be accomplished in 20 seconds.
One error allowed.

1

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 17

33. The four pictures in Figure 7 are shown one at a time
and the question asked with each, "What is missing in this pict-
ure?" Three correct replies required.

34. "What day is today?" "What date is it?"

y.. 35. "I am going to say five numbers. Listen well and re-

peat them exactly: 3, 8, 5, 7, 1 ; 9, 2, 7, 3, 6; and 5, 1, 8, 3, 9."
One group given at a time. One exact response required.

Mental Age 9 Years.

36. In a pile before the child place the following coins: —
Ten pennies, two nickles, two dimes, one quarter, one half-dollar.
Then propose a game of store keeping, the child to keep the
store and use the pile of money to make change, the experi-
menter to be the customer. Add some articles for sale. Then
buy something for four cents. Give the child a quarter and
require the change.

37. Test No. 22. Credit given for No. 37 if three definitions
superior to use are given.

38. Show the child successively a penny, a dime, a dollar,
a quarter, a nickle, a half-dollar, a two dollar bill, a ten dollar
bill, a five dollar bill. Ask, "What is this?" with each.

39. Name the months of the year in order. One error
allowed; time 15 seconds.

40. (a) "If you were going away and missed your train,
what would you do?"

(b) "If one of the boys should hit you without meaning to,
what would you do about it?"

(c) "If you broke something belonging to someone else,
what would you do about it?" Two good responses required.

Mental Age 10 Years.

41. Place on the table before the child five boxes weighing
3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 grams respectively. Say to him, "These little
boxes all weigh different amounts. Some are heavier and some

78 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

lighter. I want you to place the heaviest here and by its side
the one which is a little less heavy, and next to it one still a little
less heavy, and then one a little less heavy than that, and finally
here the lightest." Three trials made, the boxes mixed after
each. Two successes in three are required.

42. "I am going to show you two drawings, and after you
have looked at them I shall take them away and ask you to draw
them from memory. You must look at them closely because
you will only have them for ten seconds, and this is a very short
time." (Drawings shown in Figure 8.)

Fidl credit is given if the zvhole of one drawing and half
of the other is reproduced exactly.

43. "I am going to read you some sentences ; in each one
of them there is something foolish or absurd. You listen care-
fully and tell me each time what it is that is foolish."

(a) "An unlucky bicycle rider fell on his head and was
instantly killed ; they took him to the hospital and fear that he
cannot get well." After a pause — "What is foolish in that?"

(b) "I have three brothers — Paul, Ernest, and myself." —
"What is foolish in that?"

(c) "The body of a young girl cut into 18 pieces was
found yesterday. People think that she killed herself." — "What
is foolish in that?"

(d) "There was a railroad accident yesterday, but not a
serious one ; only 48 persons were killed." — "What is foolish in
that?"

(e) "A man said: Tf I should ever grow desperate and
kill myself, I should not use Friday, because Friday is an unlucky
day and might bring me unhappiness/ " — "What is foolish in
that?"

Correct solution of three of the five statements required.

44. (a) "If you were delayed on your way to school, what
would you do about it?"

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 79

(b) "Before taking part in something very important, what
would you do?"

(c) "Why do we more easily pardon a bad act done in
anger than a bad act done without anger?"

(d) "If someone should ask your opinion of one whom you
did not know very well, what would you say?"

(e) "Why should we judge a person by his acts rather than
by his words?"

Two errors allowed.

45. Write the words Paris, fortune, stream. Show them
to the child, reading them to him several times. Then give him
pen and ink and tell him to write a sentence containing all three
of these words.

Full credit is given for two sentences containing the three

words.

Mental Age 12 Years.

46. "Which is the longer of these two lines ?" (Figure 13,)
"Which is the longer of these two lines?" (Figure 14.)
"Which is the longer of these two Hnes?" (Figure 15.)
"And of these?" (Figure 16.)

"And of these?" (Figure 17.)
"And of these?" (Figure 18.)

Full credit given if suggestion of longer line to the right
does not hold in tzvo of last three pair.

47. Test 45. Credit given for one sentence containing the
three words.

48. "I want you to say just as many words as you can in
three minutes. Some boys say as many as two hundred. Now
you must try and see how many you can think of."

Sixty words the minimum accepted.

49. "What does charity mean?" "What does justice

80 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

mean?" "What does kindness mean?" Two correct answers
required.

50. "Find the sentences which these words make. Fix the
words in their proper order." (Fig. 9.)

( a ) For-an-the-at-hour-early-we-country-started.

(b) To-asked-spelling-my-I-teacher-correct-my.
(e) A-defends-dog-good-his-master-bravely.

NORMAL
Mental Age 15 Years.

51. "I am going to say seven numbers. Listen well and
repeat them exactly: 4, 9, 2, 6, 1, 3, 7; 9, 3, 5, 1, 8, 2, 6;
2, 7, 4, 9, 3, 8, 5." One success m three required.

52. "Do you know what the word 'rhyme' means? Two
words which rhyme are two words which end in the same sound.
Thus, pumpkin rhymes with napkin. Pump-^m, nap-fem. They
both end in kin. The same way mutton rhymes with button.'
Mut-ton and hut-ton. They both end in ton. Do you under-
stand ? Now I am going to give you a word, and you try to find
all the words which rhyme with it. The word is money. Find
all the words which rhyme with 'money.' "*

Three words required in one minute.

53. "Listen carefully and repeat exactly what I say: The
other day I saw on the street a pretty yellow dog. Little Morris
has soiled his nice new apron."

54. Tests Nos. 9 and 27. Ask the same questions. Full
credit given if two pictures are intepreted.

*Money is substituted here for the French word, obeissance,
the English form for which, obedience, is not adapted to rhyming,
while the word obey, our first substitution, leads to such rhymes as,
Stay, hay, day, etc., which are not satisfactory.

OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 81

55. (a) "A woman was walking through a park in Chi-
cago. Suddenly she stopped, dreadfully frightened. She ran
to the nearest policeman and told him she had seen hanging to
the limb of a tree" — After a pause — "A what?"

(b) "My neighbor has just received some singular visits;
one after another, a doctor, a lawyer, and a priest called. What
is happening at my neighbor's?"

Full credit given only if both problems are answered satis'
factorily.

ADULT.

56. "Here is a paper folded in four; suppose that here
(pointing to a small triangle whic'h has been drawn in the middle
of that edge which consists of but a single fold) I cut out this
little triangle of paper. Now if I unfold the paper, how would
it look? Draw the paper as it would appear if unfolded, and
show how and where it would be cut." (Fig. 10.)

Requirements: Two diamonds drawn in line with each other
and each in the center of one-half of a square.

57. An oblong card cut in two along a diagonal is placed
in position before the subject. "Look well at the lower piece
of card. Suppose that I lift it and place this edge (tracing the
edge a-c with the finger) on this edge (a-b of the upper piece).
Suppose further that this point (r) is placed just on this point
(b). Now I take away the piece; in your imagination, place it
as I h?ve described and draw its outline in this position. Com-
mence by following the outline of the upper piece." (Fig. 11.)

It is required that a right angle be represented at (b) and
that the edge a-c be shorter than the edge a-b.

58. "What is the difference between laziness and idleness?"'
"What is the difference between event and advent?" "What is
the difference between evolution and revolution?" Two correct
responses required.

59. "There are three principal differences between a King
and a President of a Republic. What are they?"

\

82 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT

Required answer : Royalty is hereditary, the tenure of office c ^

is for Hfe, and its powers are very great; the president is elected, ,^ ■^'
his tenure of office is limited, and his powers are less extensive.' U-

60. "Listen attentively to what I am about to read. After
finishing, I shall ask you to repeat the sense of the selection:
Many opinions have been given on the value of life. Some call
it good, others call it had. It zvould be more just to say that it
is mediocre, for on the one hand our happiness is never so great
as we would have it, and on the other hand our misfortunes
are never so great as others would have them. It is this medi-
ocrity of life which makes it just, or rather, zvhich prevents it
from being radically tmjust.

It is required that the thought of this selection be under-
stood.

3

bfl

I

Figure 3.

a

Figure 4.

A

Figure 6.

i

Figure 6.

Figure 7.

£nj-

Figure 8.

\

For An The

At Hour Early

We Country Started

To Asked Spelling
My I Teacher
Correct My

A Defends
Dog Good His
Master Bravely

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

Figure 11.

Figure 12.

3

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a

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Figure 19.

Figure 20.

Fig;ure 21

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