THE MENTIMETER TESTS
Test for Infants
1. Typical Performance
Tests for Non-English-Speaking Persons
2. Pictorial Absurdities 3. Maze Threading 4. Dot Pattern Correction 5. Dividing Geometric Figures
Individual Tests for English-Speaking Persons
11. Memory for Numbers 12. Repeating Numbers Backward 13. Memory for Sentences 14. Speaking Vocabulary 15. Word Discrimination
Group Tests for Persons Who Read English
16. Naming Opposites 17. Spelling Tests 18. Range of Information 19. Reading: Vocabulary 20. Reading: Directions 21. Reading: Interpretation 22. Disarranged Sentences 23. Completion of Sentences 24. Analogies or Mixed Relations 25. Handwriting Tests 26. English Composition 27. Poetic Discrimination 28. Arithmetic Reasoning 29. Practical Judgment 30. Logical Conclusions.
Mentimeter No. 1
TYPICAL PERFORMANCES OF YOUNG CHILDREN
Character of the Test.
The mental capacity of adult persons is indicated rather accurately by the number and variety of things they have learned from the school of life, omitting from the count so far as possible those things directly taught by the formal schools. The intellectual capacity of an infant is likewise indicated roughly by the changes which his brief experience in life has brought about in his ability to control himself and his immediate surroundings. At birth the child is practically without control of his own body, except for certain sucking reflexes, certain crying reflexes, and the reflex which causes it to grasp with its fingers or toes the finger or pencil which is brought into contact with them. These reflexes can hardly be said to be a part of the child’s control of his own body, for the child could not avoid obeying them if he so desired. The new-born infant is practically helpless even so far as his own body is concerned. Any degree of control he may later develop over his body or over other things outside is attained because he has a system of nerve and brain cells capable of forming connections and being modified by these connections and their results.
The degree to which the child’s nervous system is organized and supplied with potential connections by inheritance is reflected very early in life by the quickness with which it learns to control itself and its immediate environment. The most ready method of testing this inherited capacity is therefore to determine at any particular age just how complex and adequate a system of control has been developed. The tests for measuring infants and young children consist, then, in those performances under specified standard conditions, which are typical for children at various ages.
The Mentimeter for young children is based directly upon the findings of Prof. Lewis M. Terman and his students in their investigations of children from three to twenty years of age. This investigation was so carefully devised and executed that to improve on the product, the Stanford Revision of the Binet tests, would be almost impossible. The tests for children three and four years of age presented in the following pages are therefore not claimed to be new or original with the present authors, who hereby express to Doctor Terman their admiration for his excellent contributions in the field of psychological measurements. The tests here suggested for children under three years of age are modifications of those suggested by Doctor Kuhlmann. All investigators in this field are, of course, indebted to the pioneers, the French psychologists, Binet and Simon.
The method of this test series consists in putting the child into a well-defined situation and observing how he acts. The situation may consist partly in words or other noises impressing themselves upon his ears, or it may consist largely in visual sensations, or even in sensations of physical well-being in his own body. Under a given situation a normal child of a given age or older will act in a certain standard way. The measurement then is in terms of the age for which a given child’s reactions are typical.
The test can best be given by one who is fairly familiar with the infant to be tested, although interest in having the child make a good showing should never be allowed to change one’s judgment of the facts as to the child’s performance. Another danger of too great familiarity is that the examiner may, without intention to do so, drill the child upon those things which are later to be required in the test. In so far as the parent knows what performances are to be included in the tests there is real danger that the child will be “coached up” on these things, even at as early an age as six months.
List of Typical Performances.
Three Months (3 tests, credit 1 month each)
1. Control of eyes (Both eyes look in same direction. Follows with eyes the movement of bright objects). 2. Hearing (Reacts with sudden start or scream to loud noises, such as slamming of door, hand clapping. Turns eyes or head in direction of less startling noises, such as opening of door, footsteps).
Six Months (3 tests, credit 1 month each)
1. Muscular Control (Balances head without support. Sits ten minutes or more when supported). 2. Self-Direction (Attempts to catch self when beginning to fall from sitting posture. Reaches out for toys and near-by objects. Attempts to pull self to sitting posture if given a hand to grasp). 3. Enjoyment (Plays longer and more persistently with one toy than with another. Laughs aloud when bounced on bed or when familiars indulge in strenuous exercise).
One Year (6 tests, credit 1 month each)
1. Imitation of Movements (Can learn in half dozen trials to “wave bye-bye,” put hands above head, or hide face in hands). 2. Locomotion (Creeps toward desired objects, or stands beside a chair without other assistance). 3. Understanding (Looks at frequently observed objects when names are mentioned: dog, ball, mama, flowers). 4. Obedience (Understands and usually obeys simple commands: “Lie down! No, No! Spit it out!”). 5. Speech (Repeats simple syllables: “go, go; da, da; ma, ma; bye-bye”). 6. Calls attention (Shouts exclamations, looks or even points to objects of special interest: dogs, cats, train, carts, etc).
Two Years (6 tests, credit 2 months each)
1. Speech (Names articles of food desired: milk, cracker, rice, etc). 2. Pictures (Points out familiar objects: boy, dog, cat, cow, man).
Three Years (6 tests, credit 2 months each)
1. Parts of Body (Points to nose, eyes, mouth, hair). 2. Familiar Objects (Names key, penny, knife, watch, pencil). 3. Pictures (Enumerates objects in pictures: Dutch Home, Canoe, and Post Office). 4. Able to tell own sex. 5. Gives last name. 6. Repeats sentences of 6 or 7 syllables.
Four Years (6 tests, credit 2 months each)
1. Discriminates between circles, squares, and triangles. 2. Counts four pennies. 3. Copies a square. 4. Comprehension of described situation. 5. Repeats four numbers in order: 4739 2854 7261 6. Repeats sentences of 12 or 13 syllables.
Directions for Giving the Test.
A very large part of this test must be given informally. It will be necessary to spend considerable time with each child examined in order to make certain that the reactions observed are not merely random movements which are not typical. For the tests of children three years of age and above the reader should very carefully study the detailed directions given by Professor Terman in his book, “The Measurement of Intelligence,” published by Houghton Mifflin Company, if scientific accuracy of results is necessary. The materials called for may be secured from C. H. Stoelting and Company, 3037 Carroll Ave., Chicago. The directions given below are intended to be elementary and to indicate what is typical of children at each age rather than to serve as a perfect guide for the most scientific examinations.
Three Months
At the age of three months an infant should be able to coördinate his eyes; that is, to direct both eyes in the same direction and to move them simultaneously. When bright objects are brought into his field of vision and moved slowly from one side to the other, he should be able to follow with his eyes. As a matter of fact, many infants have attained this degree of control within the first week of their lives, but lack of control to this extent at the end of three months is an indication that special medical attention should be sought.
For several days after birth the infant does not ordinarily hear any of the sounds or noises which occur in his vicinity. By the time he has become three months old, it should be apparent, from the sudden start or scream of the child when a door is slammed or someone in his neighbourhood suddenly claps his hands, that the child actually hears these noises. The average child at three months has become so familiar with life and its evidences that he will be able to turn his eyes in the direction of such noises as the opening of a door or the sound of footsteps near his bed.
The first evidences of the child’s recognition of sounds or sights are very difficult to interpret because they consist almost entirely in awkward, random moving of the hands and feet. Gradually the child develops some control over these movements and by the age of three months should be able to move his hand, or a toy in his hand, directly to his mouth without striking other parts of his body or face in the process. The early tendency of the infant to curl his fingers about a pencil or rattle which is placed in contact with them seems almost to disappear during the first month, but by the age of three months the child is again able to grasp such objects sufficiently to hold them for periods ranging from thirty seconds upward.
Six Months
The control of his body has so improved by the time he has reached the age of six months that the average child can balance his head without support for several minutes. It is usually possible also for the child to sit in a chair or on the bed with the support of pillows and bed clothing for as much as ten minutes. Occasionally, of course, the child will be able to sit alone as early as six months, but it is not wise to encourage this practice. The lack of ability to sit when supported at the age of six months is not necessarily an indication of lack of intellectual power but may be due entirely to physical weakness.
Not only has the child at six months arrived at the stage where he can balance his head and sit quietly when supported, but he has usually begun to try to assist himself in various ways. Very frequently this attempt at self-help will be evidenced by pulling movements intended to bring him to a sitting posture when a hand is offered to him. There is no hesitation in the ordinary child at six months in his reaching out for toys or for a hand which is held toward him. Very frequently it will be observed that such a child puts out its hand to catch itself if it is beginning to fall from a sitting posture.
The child has usually begun to show signs of pleasure and displeasure long before he has reached six months. This phase of development may be indicated by his playing longer and more persistently with one toy than with any other. It may be shown by much more animated activity when certain familiar individuals are present than would be evidenced in the presence of others equally well known. Very frequently children at this age indulge in amused laughing aloud when bounced on the bed, or when some well-known individual indulges in strenuous exercises accompanied by vociferous exclamations while the baby is watching.
One Year
By the time a child has become twelve months old it will be possible to teach it many little tricks and movements of a simple nature. The child seems to imitate almost spontaneously the actions which are often repeated by its parents or nurse. Six to twelve trials should be sufficient to teach the average infant of one year how to “wave bye-bye” when told to do so, or how to hold its hands above its head when asked “How big are you?” or to hide its face behind its hands or behind one of its covers when someone exclaims “Peek-a-boo.”
Some children never learn to creep before learning to walk. As a matter of fact, it seems fairly certain that the child who creeps rapidly may thereby postpone learning to walk. At the age of one year a child should be able to stand beside a chair without other assistance than the support given by the chair, or it should be able to creep very rapidly toward its toys or any other desired objects. Frequently, of course, children have learned to walk fairly well by the time they have attained twelve months, but this is rather unusual and is not particularly an indication of the degree of mental capacity.
The child of one year understands many common words applying to frequently observed objects which have been repeatedly called to his attention. When asked “Where is the dog?—where is the ball?—where are the flowers?” and such questions the average infant will turn its head and look toward the object mentioned, sometimes pointing, although this is somewhat unusual.
Simple commands such as “Lie down! No-no! Spit it out!” and the like, can be understood and are usually obeyed by children of this age.
The speech of a child at this age is of course very simple, consisting of one syllable words, usually repeated. Such expressions as “ma-ma,” “bye-bye,” “da-da,” “go-go,” may be expected in the average child. It is unusual for an infant to combine two such expressions into a crude sentence at this age.
The child at one year quite frequently has begun to attempt manipulation of his environment as well as of his own body. Very frequently this will be observed in shouts or exclamations accompanied by looking or even pointing to objects which his familiars have previously pointed out to him, such as dogs, cats, trains, carts, etc. These objects will ordinarily not be named by the child, although peculiar sounds fitting each one may frequently be distinguished. Another manifestation of this same attempt at altering his environment will be the crying in which the child will indulge when he desires to change his resting place or to have something to eat.
Two Years
By the time a child has become two years of age its speech has developed to such an extent that it will be able to name, although frequently not with clearness and distinct pronunciation, many of its toys and articles of food. “Milk,” “rice,” and “cookie,” are examples of the most frequently named objects. Many children have by this age also progressed to the point where two or three or more words may be joined together to form a crude sentence. There are on record children who by two years of age were able to frame fairly good sentences and even to read from simple books, but such records are very unusual.
At this time the child should be able to distinguish pictures of familiar objects, such as dogs, cats, horses, men and boys. This will be manifest not only in the child’s being able to name the objects to which other people point in the picture, but when asked, “Where is the dog?” the infant should be able to point to it if the picture is at all clear.
Simple commands should be thoroughly understood and the well-trained infant will be able to obey without much delay such directions as “Put the ball in the basket,” “Close the door,” “Bring me the doll,” and “Show me the book.”
The average child at two years of age has become distinctly aware of other children as persons more nearly related to itself than are the adults with whom it is ordinarily associated. This reveals itself in imitation of the actions of other children, such as waving the arms when other children do so, hiding the face against the wall when other children are playing hide and seek, and stepping rhythmically when other children dance.
By the age of two years the average child can distinguish accurately between that which is food and that which is not fit for eating. The wrapping from candy or cookies or other well-liked food will be removed or torn away before an attempt is made to eat the food. Frequently this will result in great annoyance when the child opens sacks and packages to which he is not entitled.
The child at this age has usually learned to walk quite erectly without hesitation to any desired location. If the child is placed upon a “kiddie-kar” his first reaction is to run it backward, but by the age of two years he should be able to guide it well in going forward. Some attempts will be made at running and a great many attempts at climbing by the time the child has reached this age.
Three Years
At three years of age a child when asked to point out different parts of its body (nose, eyes, mouth, and hair) can do so without hesitation. Familiar objects, such as a key, a penny, a pocketknife (closed), a watch, and a pencil (common wooden) will be named at once if held out to the child with the question, “What is this?”
The pictures used in the Stanford Revision of the Binet test may be shown to the child with the direction “Tell me what you see in this picture,” or “Look at the picture and tell me everything you can see in it.” In response to such questions the child should be able to enumerate different objects, such as the little girl, the window, the chair, and the woman in the picture of the Dutch Home; or the men, the basket, and the newspaper in the picture of the Post office.
At this age the child has had enough experience to be able to repeat its last name and to know whether people call it a “girl” or a “boy.” The question should be asked in the following fashion: “What is your name?” If the answer is in terms of the given name only, then the question should be amplified as follows: “Yes, but what is your other name? Walter what?” If the surname is still not given, a fictitious one may be framed and the question asked in some such fashion as follows: “Is your name Walter Smith?” If the child is still unable to reply then it is probable that he does not know the family name or is too frightened to give it. In finding whether the child knows his sex the formula for a boy should be: “Are you a little boy or a little girl?” For a girl the question should be: “Are you a little girl or a little boy?”
At the age of three years a child should be able to repeat sentences containing six or seven syllables. Those used by Terman are: (1) “I have a little dog.” (2) “In summer the sun is hot.” (3) “The dog runs after the cat.” In leading up to these repetitions it is well to ask the child first to say single words, such as “school.” “Can you say school?” “Now say, ‘I go to school.’” Then ask the child to say “I have a little dog.”
Four Years
By this time the child should be able to distinguish between circles, squares, triangles, and other geometric forms. Ten drawings of circles, squares, and triangles should be presented to the child and he should be able to find one or two others just like the one to which the examiner points.
The child should by this time be able to count pennies or buttons, at least up to four, without any error. The child should be able to handle a pencil well enough so that a square one inch each way could be copied fairly well. The child’s memory has developed to such an extent that if four numbers are repeated to him at the rate of one per second he should be able to repeat them in correct order at once. Three trials should be allowed and at least one of the three should be right. By this time, also, a sentence of twelve or thirteen syllables should be remembered correctly. The sentences used by Terman are: (1) “When the train passes you will hear the whistle blow.” (2) “We are going to have a good time in the country.” (3) “The boy’s name is John. He is a very good boy.” The method of getting the child’s attention and leading up to these longer sentences is the same as was described under Year Three.
The child’s judgment has developed by this time through experience and precept to the point where an inquiry from the examiner as to “What must you do when you are sleepy?” will bring forth a response indicating that one should go to bed and sleep. The question of “What must you do when you are cold?” should bring forth some such reply as, “Put on a coat,” “Build a fire,” or “Stand next to the radiator.” The question, “What must you do when you are hungry?” should bring forth such answers as “Buy some lunch,” “Drink some milk,” or “Eat something.”
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The method of scoring is briefly indicated in the list of typical performances printed on pages [115]–117. The three tests at age three months are each to be given one month credit. The three tests at six months are likewise to be given one month credit for each successful performance, as are the six tests at one year. The six tests at two years, the six at three years, and the six at four years, are in each case to be given a credit of two months each. The child who did everything in the entire test correctly would then have demonstrated the mental ability of the average child of four years or older. The child who completes all of the tests at three months and one of the tests at six months would then be rated as having mental ability typical of a four-months-old-child. If the child were to fail on only one of the tests at one year but to pass all those previous to one year, his mental age score would be eleven months, according to this system of assigning credits. It will frequently be found that a child does not pass all of the one-year tests before being able to do one or two of the two-year tests and so on. This should not make it more difficult to score the test, for each particular performance has its value indicated in the list which was given above.
It cannot be claimed that these tests, especially those below the three-year-old level, have been fully standardized. They are, however, very much better than the average parent or relative would be able to prepare for him or herself. The mental age score which will result from the use of these tests is not as reliable as will result from the use of the Stanford Revision of the Binet tests with older children, but its reliability is sufficient to point out cases of retardation in intelligence or of distinct brilliance of mind.
Three Months
Control of Eyes. Both of the eyes should look in the same direction and the child should be able to follow with its eyes the movements of bright objects in order to obtain credit in this test.
Hearing. It will not be necessary for the child to react with a start or scream to loud noises and also to react by turning the eyes in the direction of less startling noises in order to obtain credit for hearing. Either evidence, if clear, will be sufficient to warrant giving credit.
Muscular Control. The grasping of a pencil or rattle should not be taken as sufficient evidence of muscular control. The ability of the child, however, to move his hand directly to his mouth as described above will be in itself abundant evidence that the child merits a credit in this test.
Six Months
Muscular Control. Either balancing the head or sitting with some support for as much as ten minutes should be accepted as worthy of credit.
Self-direction. The attempt to pull himself to a sitting posture should not be taken by itself as evidence of credit in this test. Only when it is accompanied by one of the other two evidences should it be credited.
Enjoyment. Any two of the evidences of pleasure or displeasure listed may be taken together as indication of credit being deserved.
One Year
Imitation of Movement. Any one of the movements described, which the child learns within a short time by imitation, should give credit in this test.
Locomotion. Either of the two methods of demonstration will be sufficient.
Understanding. At least three familiar objects should be used in this test with success before credit is allowed.
Obedience. At least two simple commands should be understood and obeyed before allowing credit.
Speech. Not less than three different syllables should be used before credit is allowed.
Calling Attention. No credit should be given at this point unless the child very evidently attempts to excite interest and attention in two or three different objects.
Two Years
Speech. Any four distinct articles mentioned by the child when it desires them should be sufficient evidence to give credit here.
Pictures. At least four different objects should be recognized and pointed out before credit is allowed.
Obedience. Two simple commands of the type mentioned should be sufficient to bring credit at this point.
Imitation. Only after repeated evidences of imitation of other children should credit be given here.
Discernment. Repeated evidences should be required before credit is allowed for this test.
Self-direction. Any one of the evidences described is sufficient.
Three Years
Parts of the Body. Three out of four parts mentioned should be pointed out before allowing credit.
Familiar Objects. Three out of five of the objects mentioned must be named in order to obtain credit here.
Pictures. The child should name at least three objects in one of the three pictures in order to obtain credit.
Sex and Name. Accuracy is necessary here.
Repeating Syllables. One of the three sentences should be repeated absolutely without error.
Four Years
Forms. Out of ten trials, at least seven should be correct in order to obtain credit.
Counting. No error should be allowed.
Copying. Out of three attempts, at least one should be fairly regular and distinctly recognizable as a square.
Comprehension. Success must be attained in two of the three questions in order to receive credit.
Repeating Numbers. One out of three trials should be absolutely correct.
Repeating Syllables. One of the three trials should be without error or two of the three trials with not more than one slight error in each.
The matter of nourishment and physical well-being may retard a child to such an extent that his intellectual development is delayed. Great care should, therefore, be taken not to interpret a low score on this test too seriously. It should also be noted that familiarity with the test is quite certain to cause parents to put forth special effort to instruct the child along the lines required by the test. The test itself is thereby invalidated. Only when no special instruction has been given at any point covered by the test can one be satisfied that he is obtaining a fair measure of the child’s ability.
The test booklet supplied for this test is not for the use of the candidate being examined but for the examiner to use as a guide and record of the examination. One such booklet should be used for each individual examined, in order to be certain that no test is omitted or wrongly scored and in order to have a record for comparison with future tests of the same individual or of other individuals.
Mentimeter No. 2
PICTORIAL ABSURDITIES
Nature of the Test.
One of the most popular tests in the Army Beta series was the mutilated pictures test, in which the soldiers were to draw into each picture what had been omitted. One great difficulty with this test was the tendency of intelligent men to spend far too much time trying to draw artistically the missing parts. The present test is a modification of that test, so arranged that instead of the candidate being required to draw a missing part he is only asked to make a check mark at the point where there is something that does not fit the remainder of the picture.
The test booklet is arranged with two samples on the title page to show clearly what is to be done when the candidate opens his booklet. By having these samples painted on the wall or blackboard, it would be possible to give the test to large groups of persons at once, although the directions given below are for testing one individual only at a time. Although listed as a test for non-English-speaking persons, some oral direction should accompany the motions by which the test is to be given, and English-speaking persons may be examined by this test as readily as those who speak a foreign language.
The graduation of the pictures according to their approximate difficulty makes the score in this test a real measure of the degree of absurdity which an individual can detect. The pictures themselves were chosen from as wide a field as possible in order to avoid undue advantage to persons of one type of experience rather than another. Only intelligent persons of fairly wide general experience will be able to make a perfect score in the time allowed.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The examiner and the candidate to be examined should be comfortably seated at a table with the examination booklet between them. If it is discovered that the candidate is left-handed, the examiner should sit on the left, although under ordinary circumstances the examiner should sit on the right. The blanks on the title page of the booklet should be filled out by the examiner from any records he may have of the name and age of the candidate (if persons who read and understand English are being examined, several may be tested at once and each may be asked to fill out the blanks for himself). For persons who do not understand the English language the words which are used in the following explanations will be more suggestive than informing. The chief part of the demonstration will be the motions through which the examiner goes, and therefore great care should be taken that these be as suggestive of what is wanted as the examiner can make them. To secure uniformity of procedure the routine outline below should be carefully followed.
The booklet should be opened by the examiner and the pictures exhibited for not more than twenty seconds to the candidate, the examiner pointing from one to another of the first half dozen pictures. He should then close the book and call the attention of the candidate to the picture of the rabbit on the title page. He should point to the rabbit’s ear and then point to the inappropriate ear and shake his head. This pointing to the two ears and shaking the head when pointing to the wrong type of ear may be repeated as many as three times in order to impress on the candidate that one of the ears is inappropriate. He should then take his pencil and make a check mark above the ear which is incorrect.
Mark (✓) the thing that is wrong
The examiner should then point to the second picture on the title page and look questioningly at the candidate. He may then point to the chin of the face represented and nod his head, “yes.” He may next point to the nose and nod his head, “yes,” but when he points to the place where the eye should be he should shake his head, “no,” and pretend to look for the missing eye. When found, he should make a check a mark over the misplaced eye and smile at his achievement. If special emphasis seems necessary he may point again to the eye in its inappropriate position, and shake his head, repeating the check mark above it.
If the candidate understands but does not read English the examiner may trace with his finger while reading aloud the directions printed above the test pictures. “Mark (✓) the thing that is wrong.” Exactly three minutes (180 seconds) should be allowed from the time the examiner opens the book and furnishes the candidate with a pencil.
Mark (✓) the thing that is wrong
At the end of the three minutes the paper should be removed and scored according to the following directions.
Direction for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of pictures in which the absurd element has been identified and checked. The stencil furnished with the test booklets shows exactly where each check mark should be made thereby saving some time for the person who marks the test. Where the proper element has been checked and the check mark later removed, no credit should be given. Credit should only be given where the final judgment as expressed by the check mark corresponds to the key furnished with the booklets.
A score from 0 to 6 indicates Inferior Ability
A score from 7 to 10 indicates Low Average Ability
A score from 11 to 17 indicates Average Ability
A score from 18 to 20 indicates High Average Ability
A score from 21 to 24 indicates Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 3
MAZE THREADING
Nature of the Test.
A great many experiments have been made upon different types of animals to determine how long it would take them to learn to secure their food by going through an unusual “stunt” or travelling over a circuitous route. Mice have been taught, for example, to travel a long distance and through complicated mazes to secure their food, which is in such cases usually placed at the centre of the maze. The effectiveness of learning to thread a maze as a test of the intellectual capacity of the lower animals is probably not superior to the effectiveness of the same sort of learning as a measure of the intelligence of human beings. It is not possible, however, to include in a book the long passageways and blind alleys which would necessarily have to be built out of pretty substantial material in order to keep men from breaking over its sides, but the idea has so far as possible been carried out in the tests which follow. It is quite certain that the ability to trace through a printed maze with a pencil is not equal to the ability to walk through a specially constructed maze of steel, but it is as near the same problem as can be arranged on paper and printed in quantity.
The arrangement of mazes in this member of the Mentimeter family is such that the number of mazes successfully threaded is a distinct indication of the complexity of maze which the individual can successfully negotiate. The test is intended to measure the ability of any individual whether he can read or understand the English language or not. If the two examples shown on the title page are presented on a blackboard, or other large surface, the test may very easily be given as a group test by a skilful examiner, although the directions which follow are prepared for the examination of one individual at a time.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The examiner should be seated at a table at the right side of the candidate to be examined. He should first of all secure the information regarding the candidate’s name, age, and other important items, and should then exhibit the mazes which appear inside the booklet, pointing from one to the other in the first half dozen. Not more than thirty seconds should be allowed for this part of the instruction. Turning back to the title page the examiner should point to the first example, pointing first at the entrance and then to the exit. By a motion at each of these two cardinal points, made in the direction in which the arrow points, he should make it clear that the idea is to move in the direction indicated by the arrows. He should then trace his way fairly slowly from the entrance to the exit.
Show by a line how you would pass through the drawings below without touching any line
Pointing to the second maze, first to the entrance and then to the exit, the examiner should again signify that motion is to occur at these two points. With his pencil as before he should trace his way from the starting point to the finish, making not more than one error, which he should correct by returning over the same route to the point where it was made without lifting the pencil from the paper.
If the candidate can understand the English language the examiner should then read the directions above the examples. “Show by a line how you would pass through the drawings below without touching any line.”
Show by a line how you would pass through the drawings below without touching any line
The examiner should then open the booklet and give it to the candidate with the instruction to begin at number 1 and trace his way from the starting arrow to the finish. No demonstration should be made on the mazes which appear inside the booklet.
Exactly four minutes after starting the test the examiner should stop the candidate and remove the pencil.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The total score in this test is the number of mazes correctly threaded without error. Where a line has been crossed through accident or unsteady holding of the pencil no penalty should be taken, but if a line has been crossed and not recrossed to correct the defect, no credit should be given for that particular maze. Full credit should be given for the maze as being complete if the line stops at a point somewhat before reaching the finish arrow, provided there is a straight path from the end of the line drawn to some part of this sign of the exit.
Scores from 0 to 5 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 6 to 10 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 11 to 16 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 17 to 18 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 19 to 20 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 4
DOT PATTERN CORRECTION
Nature of the Test.
The ability to recognize small elements of discord in an otherwise symmetrical pattern is the feature which this test is planned to measure. The test is very simple, even the most difficult elements in it being very easy of solution. A pattern composed of dots is presented, one dot being included which does not fit the remainder of the pattern. The candidate is required to locate this extra dot in each pattern and to draw a circle around it, indicating that it should be removed. Although an attempt has been made in this test to arrange the elements in the order of their difficulty, the last one in the series is so simple that almost any one can locate the defect in a short time. For this reason the test will not have wide usefulness except as a means of diversion. The method for this test is borrowed directly from the work of Doctor Pressey of Indiana University.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The directions herewith presented are intended to be used by the examiner in testing one foreign-speaking individual at a time. It would be easily possible to paint on the wall the examples given on the title page or to put them on a blackboard in such a manner as to enable the examiner to test quite a large number of persons at the same time.
Draw a ring around the extra dot
The examiner should demonstrate to the candidate first of all the nature of the contents of the booklet and then should take up the two examples appearing on the front page. He should trace the direction of the different lines in the pattern with his pencil (without touching the point of the pencil to the paper) and should finally draw a small circle about the extra dot. After this circle has been drawn it would be suggestive to the candidate to trace out again the pattern of the example. When the candidate seems to get the idea, or when both examples have been demonstrated, he should be given a pencil and the opened blank with directions to go ahead. Only two minutes should be allowed for this work, at the end of which time the blanks should be taken from the candidate and scored according to the following directions.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the total number of patterns in which the extra dot has been correctly pointed out. In many cases the extra dot is located in the centre of the pattern so that there is no really unsymmetrical element in the test, but this should not interfere with the scoring. The stencil provided with the test booklets makes it somewhat simpler to score than it would otherwise be.
Scores from 0 to 8 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 9 to 14 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 15 to 20 indicate Average Ability
Scores of 21 or more indicate High Average or Superior Ability
Draw a ring around the extra dot
Mentimeter No. 5
DIVIDING GEOMETRICAL FIGURES
Character of the Test.
This test is very easily used as a group test with people who can understand spoken English. The test is also capable of being given to groups of illiterate or foreign-speaking individuals, if the examples used in the explanation are painted on a large blackboard to be placed in the front of the room in full view of all those taking the examination. In the absence of such a special blackboard, the test may be used as an individual test with illiterate or foreign-speaking persons.
Fifteen geometrical figures, such as squares, circles, triangles, and the like, are presented on three pages of the examination booklet. To the left of each figure are two or more small figures which, when properly arranged, form the large figure on the right. The problem of the candidate is to draw a line or several lines in the large figure on the right to indicate how it might be divided to make up the small pieces shown on the left. The first figures are quite simple and may be very readily done by drawing one or two lines. The problems on the third page require from three to five lines to be drawn and are distinctly more difficult than the problems appearing on the previous pages.
It is very difficult to say exactly what functions of the mind are measured by this test. The greatest difficulty with the test is that a rather high minimum of intelligence is required in order to understand what is necessary or desired. The two examples appearing on the title page of the test booklet are not sufficient to demonstrate clearly to the dull person just what he is to do. It is probable that dull people will succeed very much better in this test if it is given as a test for foreigners, using the special blackboard. The examiner could, in that case, draw a line with chalk to show what is expected. The printed directions on the test blank have been made as simple as possible, but they are not wholly satisfactory for the lower ranges of intelligence.
The scoring of this test is somewhat more difficult than for the majority of the other Mentimeter tests. It is intended that one point of credit shall be given for each large figure properly divided. The difficulty comes in being sure that the candidate has intended to draw his lines at exactly the proper place. Inaccuracy may be the result of not knowing where the lines should be placed, or it may be the result of careless execution. If a line is misplaced through careless execution, when it is perfectly clear that the right idea was present in the candidate’s mind, full credit should be given for that element of the test. If it is not certain that the candidate understood where the line should be drawn, no credit should be given for that particular figure.
The stencils, which are supplied with each package of test booklets, should be placed to the left of the five geometrical figures and comparison should be made between the dotted lines of the stencil and the marks made by the candidate in the corresponding figure on the examination sheet. In the first square, for example, full credit should be given whether the line is drawn horizontally or vertically through the figure. The important thing is that two equal rectangles should be created by drawing a single line. Similarly, for each other figure, the important point to be considered is whether or not the lines drawn do form the geometrical figures shown on the left. A little practice will make it possible for the clerk who scores these tests to lay aside the key itself and to carry it in memory.
Various forms of this test have been used by psychologists for a number of years, although its most extensive use was in the Beta series of the United States Army. The same test in modified form was used by Prof. E. L. Thorndike in his tests of mental alertness in the air service. Many individuals were found who could do this test fairly well without being able to succeed with some of the others which were supposedly equally as good for general purposes. On the other hand, many individuals of good general ability were found who seemed lacking in the particular type of ability necessary properly to divide these geometrical figures. On the whole, however, the more intelligent men made higher scores than the less intelligent men. Such low relationship between this particular test and other tests of intelligence makes it particularly useful as one of a series to be used for measuring the intelligence of men entering certain mechanical trades where the recognition of the size and shape of objects is of prime importance. Draftsmen, architects, supply clerks, and candidates for similar positions would probably be rated more accurately by this test than would writers, musicians, and academic students.
In the public schools such a test might give some indication of the ability of children to succeed in mechanical or mathematical courses of study. In social gatherings, a great deal of amusement might be found by giving prizes to the individuals completing the entire fifteen figures correctly and in the shortest time. It would seem desirable, however, to omit the time limit when it is used for pure entertainment and to measure with a stop-watch the exact amount of time required for the individual. When all had finished the fifteen elements of the test, the papers could be checked up for accuracy and the prize could be given to the one who had finished correctly in the shortest length of time. This will add an element of interest for it is quite certain that some of those who finished first will have made errors, probably through careless execution, and that someone who finished later in the game will have drawn each line correctly.
Directions for Giving the Test.
a. As an individual test.
The individual to be tested should be seated at the left side of the examiner at a convenient table. The examiner should show the inside of the test blank to the candidate and should then point to the similar figures in the explanation on the title page of the booklet. He should then point to the large figure in the first example, possibly tracing its outline with his pencil. Then the attention of the candidate should be called to the parts appearing on the left-hand side. (Their outlines may be traced if it seems desirable.) Next, a movement should be made with the hand as though one were placing the parts upon the larger figure. This may be repeated two or three times, pointing first to the various parts in order and then to the large figure with a rather broad sweep of the hand. After such a study of the situation, the examiner should draw the proper line and exhibit a smile of pleasure at having successfully done the thing. He should point then to the parts of the large figure which are thus created and by jumping his pencil from one of the parts to the corresponding part on the left, he may fairly clearly demonstrate that he has constructed, by his line, elements which are similar to the elements appearing at the left.
Similar pantomime may be used for the second example, possibly introducing a variation by getting a line incorrectly drawn at the first trial, erasing it as soon as it is apparent that the parts do not correspond exactly with the parts appearing in the problem, and redrawing the line so that the correspondence will be exact. The pencil should then be handed to the candidate and the pamphlet opened up for him to begin work. The candidate should be allowed to work for four minutes with occasional signals to “Go ahead,” “Work fast” or “Hurry up.”
b. As a group test for illiterate candidates.
A blackboard containing the two examples should be placed in full view of all the candidates in the room. The test blanks should be passed to the candidates, with well-sharpened pencils or pens and ink. The examiner should then hold up in full view of the group a test blank showing the three pages of figures on which they are to work. He should then get the attention of everyone to the work by saying “Look” or “Watch.” With a piece of chalk, he should then go through the pantomime described above for giving the examination to an individual. Care should be taken that none of the brighter candidates begins work before the signal for everyone to work. When the two examples have been thoroughly demonstrated on the blackboard, the examiner may turn to the group, open up his test blank, and point to the first page of work to be done and say, “Begin here,” “Go ahead,” “Work fast.” At the end of four minutes, he should call “Stop,” should collect all papers, making certain as he does so that some identification mark is present on the paper to show to which candidate it belongs. No special explanation should be given and no person in the group should be allowed to sit idle while the examination is going on. If it is clear that the individual has not understood, the examiner may say, “Do what I did,” pointing to the board and then to the paper. Individuals may be told during the course of the examination, if they seem to be doing nothing, to “Make your marks.”
c. As a group test for candidates who can read English.
Place each candidate at a table or chair with a writing surface, supply him with a test blank and pencil or other writing instrument. While the candidates are being supplied, the examiner should make the following statement: “Do not open this booklet until you are told to do so. I shall make explanations as soon as everybody is supplied.”
When all are ready, the examiner should hold up a copy of the test and speak as follows: “There are three pages of work to be done. The page before you shows two samples of the kind of thing you are to do. You will notice at the right a large figure and at the left several small figures. When properly placed together, these small figures will make one of the large figures at the right. You are to draw a line, or several lines, through the large figure at the right in such a way as to make of it the small figures at the left.
“Now look at the examples before you. Is there any one who does not see what line ought to be drawn in order to make the large figure show the pieces which appear at its left? You will have four minutes in which to do the work on the three pages. Work quickly, but be sure to draw your lines correctly. If you complete the fifteen figures before I call ‘Stop,’ look back over your work to see that you have made no mistakes.”
If any candidate signifies that he does not understand, the examiner might draw an imaginary line with his hand to show the direction in which the line should be drawn in order to divide the figure properly. As soon as it is certain that everyone understands how to divide the sample figure, the examiner should say: “Now work rapidly and draw your lines on the next three pages.” The time limit of four minutes should be followed exactly.
Make the small figures by drawing lines in the large one
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The examination score, if each figure of the series is correctly divided, will be fifteen points. The stencils give but one solution to each problem although solutions are possible in practically every case by drawing the same lines in a different direction. The angle or direction is unimportant and there is no need that the lines drawn by the candidate correspond exactly in this respect with the lines on the stencil. The important thing is to see that the proper lines are drawn to make the necessary parts. The final score obtained by counting the number of figures in which lines are properly drawn should be entered at the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the booklet.
Scores from 0 to 2 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 3 to 5 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 6 to 10 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 11 to 13 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 14 to 15 indicate Superior Ability
In interpreting these results, it should be recalled that inferior ability in this line of work may be found in individuals who have average ability in some other intellectual fields. This test should not be used extensively until it has been proven to have a high degree of relationship with the characteristics required in the group for which it is used as a selecting agency.
Mentimeter No. 6
COMPLETION OF FORM SERIES
Character of the Test.
The Completion test is always very satisfactory because it shows in itself just what should be done and does not require a great deal of special explanation. The Form Series Completion test is particularly valuable in that it does not depend upon the English language either in its content or in the explanations to be made of it.
As with the majority of the other tests for non-English-speaking persons this test is here described as a test of one individual at a time, although it will be found very simple and easy to test a large group at the same time if the examples which appear on the title page of the test booklet can be painted on the wall or reproduced on a blackboard in such a way that the examiner can demonstrate to everyone at once just what is to be done. It is very desirable to examine large groups at the same time if the provision for such demonstration can be made.
Previous Form Series Completion tests have required the candidate to fill in the last characters of each line, everything being printed in order up to within a few sections of the end. The present form, in which the elisions are distributed through the series rather than being grouped at the end, has the advantage that it may be made more difficult by far than the previous forms. Although this test probably measures a rather specialized type of intellectual ability, it is nevertheless sufficiently well graduated in difficulty so that the result obtained by it will show a close relationship to the result obtained in other more general tests.
The problem of the candidate who is given this test is chiefly that of solving, from the rather meagre data presented, just what the serial order of the different forms may be. This undoubtedly calls for a complex variety of special mental qualities, including imagination and abstract reasoning ability. Nevertheless, it is hardly possible for the authors to make any sort of estimate of just where this test will be most valuable or just what it measures. It will certainly be interesting and entertaining whether it works out to have any particular usefulness or not.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The candidate should be seated at the left of the examiner in order that he may conveniently work upon the test booklet which should be placed on a table between them. After filling out for the candidate the information blanks giving name, age, and the like, the examiner should show for fifteen or twenty seconds (not more than 20 seconds) the inside of the booklet. He should then turn back to the title page and demonstrate the nature of the test by means of the examples printed there.
Probably the best and most effective method of demonstration is that of “jumping” the pencil rhythmically from one block to the next corresponding one to show the rhythmic sequence of the same symbols. When a block is reached in which the symbol has been omitted (but in which the samples have been crudely marked with a fine pen), the examiner should make an appropriate heavy mark such as is used in the printed sections of each series. After any symbol has been written on the explanation samples it would be very much worth while to skip rhythmically along the line making certain that the sequence is correctly followed. When it seems fairly certain that the candidate has grasped the rhythmic nature of the forms, the examiner should open the booklet, give him a pencil, and say “Put them in.” “Fix it up.” “Go ahead.”
Allow exactly five minutes for this work. At the end of this time the examiner should take the paper and score it as directed below.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is determined by the number of lines in which the candidate has entered the correct forms to complete the line perfectly. No credit should be given if any one of the sections remain unfilled or be filled incorrectly. The stencil which is furnished with the test booklets makes the task of marking the errors very much simpler than it is without such aid. The total score obtained should be entered in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the booklet.
Fill in the missing forms
Scores from 0 to 2 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 3 to 5 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 6 to 12 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 13 to 15 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 16 to 20 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 7
CHECKING IDENTITY OF NUMBERS
Character of the Test.
Bank tellers and other clerical workers find it necessary very frequently to compare signatures or numerical figures as to identity. A test might be arranged in which it was necessary for an individual to compare several sets of numbers all of the same length and general appearance. Such a test would, however, resolve itself very largely into a test of speed. The present form attempts to eliminate some of the speed element and to take to itself as much as possible of the quality of measuring the complexity which is necessary to cause an error in the recognition of identity. There are thirty numbers to be compared with another list of thirty in a parallel column. The first numbers have only two digits but the number of digits is increased fairly regularly until in the last pairs eleven digits in one column must be compared with the eleven digits in another.
This test is probably as useful a measure of ability to notice small details as it is necessary to make. The chief objection to it will come from individuals who are not gifted by nature with the ability to think in terms of numbers. This objection is not serious and will not be as valid even in their own cases as those who make it are inclined to believe. The test may be given as a group test if some means be provided for demonstrating before the entire group at one time just what type of activity is wanted. The directions given below are for giving the test as an individual examination, but with slight modifications the same directions will serve quite well for group examination. It is not necessary, of course, for the candidates to understand the English language if the examiner is thoroughly effective in his pantomimic instructions.
Directions for Giving the Test.
As soon as the proper record has been made of the age, the name, and location of the individual being examined, the examiner may turn the test leaflet and exhibit the two columns of numbers which appear on the other side. This exhibition should not be made formally and should last not more than twenty seconds. The pamphlet should then again be placed title page up in front of the candidate.
| 1ST COLUMN | 2ND COLUMN | SAME | DIFFERENT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 356 | 356 | ☐ | ☐ | A |
| 738 | 758 | ☐ | ☐ | B |
The examiner should then compare the identity of the numbers in the first example. The best way to do this would be to point first at the 3 in the first column then at the corresponding 3 in the second column, nodding his head, “Yes.” The same pointing from one column to the other should be done for 5 and for 6, the second column part of the pointing to be accompanied in each case by nodding the head, “Yes.” As a summary of this first example, the examiner may place his hand over the entire three digits of the first column and then transfer it to the entire three digits of the second column and nod his head, “Yes,” making merely a check mark (✓) on that horizontal line under the word, “same.” With the second example the same sort of pantomime may be used until 5 in the second column has been compared with 3 in the first column, which should be accompanied by a shaking of the head and the verbal exclamation, “No, no!” The summary by means of placing the hand over 738 and then over 758, with another, “No, no,” may be omitted if it is quite clear that the candidate has grasped the idea. In either case the examiner should make the check mark under the word “different.” The sheet may then be turned and the pencil handed to the candidate with the direction “Go ahead. Mark them all.” Exactly two minutes should be allowed after saying, “Go ahead.” At the end of two minutes the paper should be taken by the examiner and scored according to the following directions.
If the numbers in the second column correspond exactly with those on the same line in the first column, make a check mark in the square on that line under the word “Same.” If the second set on any line differs in any way from the first, check that line under the word “Different.”
| 1st COLUMN | 2nd COLUMN | SAME | DIFFERENT | LINE NO. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 96 | 96 | ☐ | ☐ | 1 |
| 83 | 88 | ☐ | ☐ | 2 |
| 77 | 71 | ☐ | ☐ | 3 |
| 33 | 35 | ☐ | ☐ | 4 |
| 82 | 82 | ☐ | ☐ | 5 |
| 641 | 644 | ☐ | ☐ | 6 |
| 956 | 956 | ☐ | ☐ | 7 |
| 507 | 507 | ☐ | ☐ | 8 |
| 9572 | 9752 | ☐ | ☐ | 9 |
| 1832 | 1832 | ☐ | ☐ | 10 |
| 19560 | 19360 | ☐ | ☐ | 11 |
| 94083 | 94083 | ☐ | ☐ | 12 |
| 940817 | 940847 | ☐ | ☐ | 13 |
| 329506 | 326506 | ☐ | ☐ | 14 |
| 654938 | 654938 | ☐ | ☐ | 15 |
| 6998701 | 6997801 | ☐ | ☐ | 16 |
| 7105923 | 7105623 | ☐ | ☐ | 17 |
| 2501036 | 2500136 | ☐ | ☐ | 18 |
| 3674462 | 3674462 | ☐ | ☐ | 19 |
| 61558543 | 61585543 | ☐ | ☐ | 20 |
| 38910066 | 39810066 | ☐ | ☐ | 21 |
| 17198591 | 17198591 | ☐ | ☐ | 22 |
| 685342017 | 685342017 | ☐ | ☐ | 23 |
| 317762849 | 317762849 | ☐ | ☐ | 24 |
| 102435867 | 102435867 | ☐ | ☐ | 25 |
| 3484657120 | 3484657210 | ☐ | ☐ | 26 |
| 4686726631 | 4686726631 | ☐ | ☐ | 27 |
| 6571018034 | 6571018034 | ☐ | ☐ | 28 |
| 38797625147 | 38797652147 | ☐ | ☐ | 29 |
| 26557239164 | 26557239164 | ☐ | ☐ | 30 |
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the total number of pairs the identity of which has been correctly checked, minus the total number of pairs in which an error has been made in checking the identity. For example, if the last line checked was the twenty-fifth line while two lines had been omitted and errors had been made in checking three other lines, then only twenty lines had been checked correctly, and three lines had been checked incorrectly; so the resulting score would be seventeen points. The maximum score obtainable is of course thirty points and will be obtained only in case every pair has been checked without error. It is possible with this method of scoring to obtain a score less than zero; for example, if a person had checked correctly ten of the identities and had made errors in checking fifteen others, the number of “rights” minus the number of “wrongs” would be minus five. In such cases the score to be entered on the lower right-hand corner of the candidate’s title page is zero.
The stencil furnished with the test leaflets makes it possible to mark this test with great rapidity and without mental fatigue. The point at which care needs to be taken is in making certain that the total score, computed by subtracting the number wrong from the number right, is correct. For this reason the reader is advised to cross out the “line number” of any pair incorrectly checked and to draw a circle around the “line number” of any pair not attempted by the candidate. If this is done consecutively down the page, there will be little difficulty in calculating the total score.
Scores from 0 to 8 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 9 to 12 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 13 to 22 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 23 to 26 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 27 to 30 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 8
DIGIT-SYMBOL SUBSTITUTION
Character of the Test.
Ability to master a language is usually very closely related to general intellectual ability along academic or abstract lines. The relationship between the age at which a child begins to talk and the length of time required later by the same child to learn to use a foreign language would probably be found fairly close.
The Digit-Symbol test has been used rather extensively and for many years as a form of measuring the ability of an individual to learn a new method of expressing himself. Many experimenters have used a Letter-Symbol test rather than the Digit-Symbol, but there seems to be little difference in the character of the results obtained.
The Mentimeter form of the test follows quite closely the corresponding test in the Beta series used in the Army. At the top of the page there appears a key showing just what symbol should be used to indicate each number or digit. The test itself consists of 100 digits with empty squares appearing below them in which one is to write, beneath each digit, its corresponding symbol as shown by the key on pages [166] and 167. An intelligent person usually begins with the first digit and supplies the proper symbol for it at each place it occurs in the test; then begins with the second digit and goes through the entire test writing the symbol for it, and so on. Those of average intelligence more frequently try to supply the proper symbol for each different digit in order as they appear in the test without going through the entire test with each symbol separately. The method of the candidate in doing the work should not, however, be allowed to influence the rating obtained on the test, except as one method may produce a higher score than another.
Investigations which have been made seem to show that although the symbols used are quite distinctly more difficult to write than the digits themselves would be, it is nevertheless a better test to measure the number of symbols the candidate can write under the digits than to measure the number of digits one could write correctly under their corresponding symbols. The relationship between ability in this test and general ability to handle ideas and abstract notions is rather remarkably close. It is probable, however, that if the test were lengthened so as to require five or ten minutes rather than two and one half minutes the correspondence with intellectual ability would be increased.
This test will be very useful to employers seeking high-grade clerical service and probably in selecting administrative or supervisory officers. In the public schools it will be useful in some instances in classifying pupils for instruction. As a diversion in the home or social group it will have slight value.
Directions for Giving the Test.
This test has ordinarily been given as a test of several individuals at the same time. It is probable that it will not be as useful when given to one individual at a time as when used as a group test. The instructions are given here, however, as with the remainder of the tests for non-English-speaking persons, with the needs of examining foreigners individually uppermost in mind. By reproducing on the blackboard or on a wall chart the introductory examples one may adapt with almost no change the method of administration here described so that it will work equally well with a group. It is advisable to prepare such introductory charts and to give the tests as group tests rather than as individual tests, not only with the Digit-Symbol Substitution test but also with the other Mentimeters numbered from 2 to 10.
Key: This shows the mark for each number
Make under each number the mark which should be there
Key: This shows the mark for each number
Make under each number the mark which should be there
The individual to be tested should be shown the page on which he is to work, for not more than twenty seconds, and should then be shown the two examples appearing on the title page under the printed instructions, “Make under each number the mark which should be there.” The examiner should then compare his key and the digits appearing in the sample series and should write in the proper spaces the appropriate symbols. The idea of getting the symbol from a key will be emphasized and made clear if the examiner at each point moves his finger or pencil from the digit in the example to the digit in the key, then to the symbol in the key and back to the empty space beneath the digit in the example. When all the spaces of the example have been filled (this should be done very slowly at first and then more rapidly toward the end of the example), the examiner should open the booklet, supply a pencil, and say, “Now! Go ahead! Put them in! Hurry up!”
Exactly two and one half minutes (150 seconds) should be allowed from the time the examiner says, “Go ahead,” to the time he calls, “Stop!” All papers should be closed immediately and handed to the examiner.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of symbols correctly supplied. Marking the errors is very much simplified by the use of the stencils furnished with each package of test booklets. The number of symbols correctly written should be recorded at the end of each line in the test and the total for all lines should be entered in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the booklet.
Scores from 0 to 20 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 21 to 35 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 36 to 65 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 66 to 75 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 76 to 100 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 9
COMPLETION OF NUMBER RELATION SERIES
Character of the Test.
This test may be given to any individuals or groups of persons who can read and understand the arabic numerals. The directions furnished herewith are for the measurement of a group rather than of an individual, although with very slight modifications in instructions the test leaflet may be employed in an individual psychological examination. The title page of the leaflet contains fairly complete directions and three samples of the number series to be completed. Persons who read English readily will have a distinct advantage over those who must depend upon oral instructions, but experience has shown that, even with individuals who do not understand the English language, it is possible to demonstrate on a blackboard, using the sample exercises, with sufficient clearness to enable foreign language-speaking candidates to grasp the idea of the work to be done. No comparisons should be made, however, between results obtained by oral demonstration and results obtained through the use of the instructions printed below, without making allowances for the differences in method of administration.
The Number Relation Series test is so difficult to understand that it is hardly worth while to employ this test with children below ten years of age or with adults whose mental capacity is not equal to or better than that of the ten-year-old school child. The method of marking the test is quite simple when one is supplied with the stencil which is furnished with each package of test blanks. The present form of the test is somewhat different from those used elsewhere and it is difficult to say just what phases of intellectual or mathematical ability are measured by it. The Army intelligence tests included a number relation series test, so arranged that the last two numbers in each series must always be supplied by the person tested. Dr. Agnes Rogers, in her study of the prognostication of mathematical ability, employed a test which is very closely related to the one given here. Her results seem to show that this form of test is a splendid measure of mathematical capacity in high school pupils.
It is probable that this test will have very little usefulness in the selection of employees in general, but that it may be found valuable in discovering within an organization persons whose mathematical aptitude would make them very useful in positions where the handling of figures is an important part of the employee’s duty. In schools the chief value of the test will probably be in assisting in the diagnosis of special mathematical ability or lack of ability among pupils entering high school. As a game for social amusement, it is not probable that this test will be highly popular, except among those who are mathematically inclined.
Directions for Giving the Test.
Having supplied each candidate with writing materials the examiner should announce as follows:
“I am going to distribute to you copies of a test which is intended to measure certain special mental capacities. I shall pass it to you with that side up which contains the directions. Do not turn it over or examine the 20 problems which are to be solved. Write your name where it says ‘Name’ and fill in the other blanks on the title page.”
The blanks should be distributed, taking care that each candidate receives the blank right side up and that no candidate turns it over before the command is given to begin work. When names, ages, and other identifying pieces of information have been entered the examiner should ask the candidates to look at the directions carefully while he reads them aloud.
“The other side of this sheet has 20 series of figures, one or more of the figures from each series being left out. You are to look carefully at each series, to study out what kind of a series it is and then to write on the dotted lines those numbers which have been omitted. Look at the following samples.
| Write on each blank the number omitted | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | .. | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | Sample A |
| 16 | 11 | 7 | .. | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | Sample B |
| 2 | .. | .. | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 5 | Sample C |
“In Sample A each number is obtained from the previous number by adding 2 to it; therefore, 12 should be the number between 10 and 14. In Sample B, each number is obtained from the next previous number by subtracting 1 less than was subtracted from the number before it—that is, 5 is subtracted from 16 to obtain 11, 4 is subtracted from 11 to obtain 7, 3 should then be subtracted from 7 to obtain a 4 which is to be entered on the blank. In Sample C, every other number is a 2 and therefore the second blank space should contain a 2. Between the 2’s appear numbers, each one of which is one more than the one which preceded it. On the first blank in Sample C there should be a 1 in order to carry out this scheme.”
“You will be allowed four minutes in which to complete the 16 series. Begin with the first and complete as many as you possibly can. Ready! Go!” At the end of four minutes after saying “Go” the examiner should call “Stop! Time up! Give me your papers.” All papers should be collected at once.
Unusual care will need to be taken in giving this test to avoid variations in the directions used with the different groups examined. In order to maintain absolutely comparable test conditions, no variations from the language and routine given above should be allowed.
| Write on each blank the number omitted | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | .. | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Series | 1. |
| 10 | 12 | .. | 16 | 18 | .. | 22 | 24 | 26 | 28 | Series | 2. |
| 12 | 11 | 10 | .. | 8 | 7 | .. | .. | 4 | 3 | Series | 3. |
| 1 | 3 | .. | 7 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 17 | .. | Series | 4. |
| .. | 39 | 37 | 35 | 33 | 31 | 29 | .. | 25 | 23 | Series | 5. |
| 4 | 5 | 7 | .. | 14 | 19 | 25 | 32 | 40 | .. | Series | 6. |
| 1 64 | 1 32 | 1 16 | .. | ¼ | ½ | .. | 2 | .. | 8 | Series | 7. |
| 8 | 15 | .. | 29 | 36 | 43 | .. | 57 | 64 | 71 | Series | 8. |
| 10 | .. | 15 | 16 | 20 | 21 | .. | 26 | 30 | 31 | Series | 9. |
| 2 | .. | 8 | 10 | .. | 10 | 20 | 10 | 26 | .. | Series | 10. |
| 7 | .. | 10 | 11 | 13 | 14 | .. | .. | .. | 20 | Series | 11. |
| .. | 4 | 9 | 16 | 25 | .. | .. | 64 | 81 | 100 | Series | 12. |
| .. | 4 | 7 | 14 | 17 | .. | .. | .. | 77 | 154 | Series | 13. |
| 32 | .. | .. | .. | 28 | 29 | 26 | 27 | .. | 25 | Series | 14. |
| 6 | 10 | 13 | .. | .. | .. | 15 | 13 | 10 | .. | Series | 15. |
| 60 | 55 | .. | .. | 46 | 45 | .. | 46 | 48 | .. | Series | 16. |
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of series correctly completed regardless of the number of blanks in the series. The maximum score obtainable will therefore be 16 points. The stencil furnished with each set of test leaflets will make it very simple to count the number of series correctly completed. A convenient way of indicating that a series is not correctly completed is to cross out the serial number of that series. To indicate that the series was not attempted one might draw a circle around the serial number of that series. The final score should be entered on the title page of the leaflet in the lower right-hand corner.
Scores from 0 to 1 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 2 to 4 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 5 to 8 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 9 to 11 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 12 to 16 indicate Superior Ability
It should be borne in mind that the type of ability measured by the above scores is not necessarily a true indication of the general efficiency of the possessor.
Mentimeter No. 10
ADDITION TESTS
Character of the Tests.
This Mentimeter is composed of two parts, one of them measuring the difficulty of the addition problems which a candidate can solve, and being therefore a fairly good test of intelligence, the other measuring the speed at which one can add fairly easy problems and therefore having less relations to intellectual ability.
Teachers in school furnish the children with certain information and knowledge or guide their pupils to the sources from which this information and knowledge may be obtained. In Addition, this information takes the form of “2 and 2 make 4,” “9 and 5 make 14” and such sums. The instruction also involves such things as how to carry in addition, how to add when a decimal point enters into the calculation, and all such problems. The teacher also undertakes a somewhat different task, which is the review and drilling of the pupils in order to make the combinations which have been explained automatic in the minds of the children. It is not sufficient for John to know that “3 and 5 are 8,” but he must be able to write or say “8” without any hesitation whatever when 3 and 5 are to be added.
In order to test the extent to which teachers have explained addition, one would measure the pupils with a test which increased in difficulty from the first problems to the last, undertaking to determine how difficult a problem can be solved. In order to test the rapidity with which the pupils have learned in their drill exercises to make the different combinations, one would measure the speed with which they can make the simple combinations. The first addition test which is given on page [175] measures the extent of the information which the candidate has gained, while the second measures the speed which the candidate has developed by drilling upon addition problems.
Teachers in the public schools will undoubtedly wish to measure both the speed with which their pupils do simple problems as a result of drill, and the difficulty of the problems which the child can solve correctly as a result of instruction. Of course the test for difficulty of problems solved is not absolutely independent of the effect of drill, although it is relatively much less dependent upon drill than is the other test.
In industrial organizations the first test given will probably be found most useful, while in social groups the greatest amount of entertainment will probably be obtained from the second test. The reliability of the results from the first test is very much higher than the reliability of the results from the second test, for in the second case a difference of one second in time allowed may make as much as one or two points difference in the score obtained.
As with all of the other tests listed in this series of “Tests for Non-English-Speaking Persons,” the Addition tests will bring more satisfactory results, with much greater economy of time, if they are administered as group tests. They are here described, however, as tests for individual candidates in order that they may be given to foreign language-speaking candidates without any other apparatus than that furnished by the test booklets themselves. Any teacher or employer who has a number of persons to be examined should prepare a blackboard or wall chart on which to exhibit an enlarged copy of the examples used in the introduction. By placing this at the front of the room in full view of all candidates, the pantomimic instructions here described may be used for non-English-speaking candidates, or simple verbal explanations may supplement them for English-speaking persons.
Directions for Giving Mentimeter 10a.
The examiner, after securing from the candidate his name, address, age, and other pertinent information, should turn the examination leaflet and exhibit, for ten or fifteen seconds, the addition tests which are to be solved. The leaflet should then be turned over to the title page again and attention should be called to the examples appearing on the middle of this page under the heading “Add.” The examiner should point to the first example
2
2
and placing his pencil on the lower 2 and then upon the upper 2 should seem to hesitate for an instant and then write 4 underneath the line. Looking at the second example
15
3
he should place his pencil on the 3 and then on the 5 and, with only an instant’s hesitation, should write 18. Similarly, looking at the third example,
23
25
16,
he should place his pencil first on the 6, then on the 5, then on the 3, and write a 4 underneath the line; then place his pencil on the 1 and then upon the two 2’s in order and write 6 at the left of the 4. With this explanation the examination booklet should be opened and a pencil supplied to the candidate with the instructions “Go ahead! Add them all!”
| Mentimeter No. 10a. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Add: | ||||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) |
| 3 | 2 | 14 | 45 | 13 | 23 | 14 |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | 34 | 21 | 35 | 45 |
| 1 | 22 | 30 | 83 | |||
| (8) | (9) | (10) | (11) | (12) | ||
| 34 | 197 | 374 | 796 | 7065375 | ||
| 67 | 225 | 49 | 867 | 8688256 | ||
| 95 | 659 | 623 | 745 | 2315553 | ||
| 52 | 316 | 5 | 933 | 1947272 | ||
| 548 | 542 | 3583419 | ||||
| 65 | 213 | 5224362 | ||||
| 564 | 6869021 | |||||
| 235 | 8518488 | |||||
| 676 | 3493625 | |||||
| 2657176 | ||||||
Four minutes’ time should be allowed for this test. At the end of the four minutes the examiner should call “Time up” and take the paper.
Directions for Scoring Mentimeter 10a.
The score in this test is the number of problems correctly solved. No credit should be given for any problem unless each digit in the answer is present, correct, and in its right place.
Scores from 0 to 5 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 6 to 8 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 9 to 11 indicate Average Ability
A score of 12 indicates High Average or Superior Ability.
Directions for Giving Mentimeter 10b.
The examiner should open the booklet and demonstrate to the candidate, for ten seconds, with just what nature of test he is to be confronted. Then, after securing the necessary identifying information, the examiner should point to the problems on the title page under the word “Add.” Pointing to the 1 in the first example and then to the 2, he should write 3 under the line. Pointing to the 4 and then to the 5, in the second example, he should write 9 under the line. Pointing to the 4 and then to the 7 in the third example he should write 11 under the line, and should then pass his pencil and the opened booklet to the candidate with the instruction, “Go ahead! Add them up!”
The most important point in this test is to make absolutely certain that exactly thirty seconds (no more and no less) is allowed from the time the examiner supplies the candidate with a pencil until the time he calls “Stop!” Unless this time is kept absolutely uniform the results of the test will be hardly worth considering. Whether the candidate begins work or not, the time should be calculated from the instant he receives his pencil and the opened booklet.
Directions for Scoring Mentimeter 10b.
The score in this test is the number of correct answers obtained in thirty seconds. Unless an answer is absolutely correct, it should have no credit. If an answer is only partially finished when time is called, it should not be credited as being the correct answer unless it is sufficiently complete in both digits to prove that the right answer had been obtained.
Scores from 0 to 9 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 10 to 21 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 22 to 32 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 33 to 44 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 45 to 60 indicate Superior Ability
| Mentimeter No. 10b | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Add: | ||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) |
| 2 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 1 |
| 4 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| (6) | (7) | (8) | (9) | (10) |
| 8 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
| 3 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 8 |
| (11) | (12) | (13) | (14) | (15) |
| 6 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 2 |
| (16) | (17) | (18) | (19) | (20) |
| 3 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 6 |
| 2 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| (21) | (22) | (23) | (24) | (25) |
| 7 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 6 |
| 6 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 8 |
| (26) | (27) | (28) | (29) | (30) |
| 3 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 5 |
| 3 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 8 |
| (31) | (32) | (33) | (34) | (35) |
| 9 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 5 |
| 6 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 8 |
| (36) | (37) | (38) | (39) | (40) |
| 6 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 7 |
| 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
| (41) | (42) | (43) | (44) | (45) |
| 8 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| 3 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 8 |
| (46) | (47) | (48) | (49) | (50) |
| 6 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 7 |
| 5 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 7 |
| (51) | (52) | (53) | (54) | (55) |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 4 |
| 1 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 7 |
| (56) | (57) | (58) | (59) | (60) |
| 1 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 7 |
| 6 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 5 |
Differences between Mentimeters 10a and 10b.
In connection with these tests of ability in addition, a few additional words should be said to make somewhat clearer the differences between educational tests and tests of intelligence. There is, of course, no sharp line to be drawn between these two types of tests. Mentimeter No. 10b may be classified very certainly as an educational test because it involves primarily the element of speed in simple additions which is not an accurate index of intellectual capacity but depends almost altogether upon specific drill. Improvement in ability to make a score in Mentimeter No. 10a will come much more slowly than in the case of the speed test in addition. Before a child can make progress sufficient to carry him from problem 5 to problem 6 in Mentimeter 10a, he must be instructed in the mysteries of adding zero to the sum of two other numbers. Before he can make progress from problem 6 to problem 7 he must learn to put down the 2 under the right-hand column of figures and carry the 1 to the next column and add it with the digits printed there. Each additional problem that he solves involves some new elements of arithmetic knowledge which can be learned only by careful study and one at a time.
In the speed test a larger score does not indicate ability to do anything more difficult or to understand anything more complicated, but merely more rapid doing of the things which are already fully understood. In the other test, however, a larger score indicates greater comprehension of more difficult situations and therefore an intellectual capacity which is of greater magnitude.
The primary purpose of the Mentimeter tests is to measure intellectual capacity rather than school training. For this reason very few tests which may be classified as primarily educational have been included. Where they have been inserted, they have been arranged to measure the ability of the person to do more difficult tasks rather than his ability to do simple tasks more rapidly.
Mentimeter No. 11
MEMORY FOR NUMBERS
Character of the Test.
This test is planned as an individual examination to be given to any candidate who understands the English language. The test is borrowed directly from the Binet series and was used as a group test in the first form of the Alpha examination in the United States Army.
The usefulness of this test is probably limited to the selection of candidates for very simple mechanical operations and to the classification of pupils in the schoolroom. It might be employed as one of a series of tests in the selection of telephone operators, but its use in such a case is probably more obvious than practical.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The candidate should be seated comfortably in a quiet place and should be instructed to listen carefully. The examiner should fill out the blanks at the top of the title page, recording only such facts as seem to be necessary. The examiner should then repeat the following formula:
“I am going to read to you sixteen series of numbers. The first series will be very short and the last series will be quite long. When I have read a series I want you to repeat all of the numbers it contained. I shall read them slowly so that you can be sure to get them. Listen very carefully and try not to forget any number. Do not repeat any number until I have finished the whole series and stopped speaking.”
The examiner should announce each time just how many numbers will appear in the series. The digits should be read at the rate of one per second, taking care to avoid any rhythmic grouping of the numbers. The examiner should look up expectantly as soon as he has finished reading a series. No intimation should be given a candidate as to whether or not he is being successful. The first series should be read as follows:
“The First Series contains two numbers which are, 5, 6.” As soon as the candidate has repeated these numbers the examiner should say:
“The Second Series contains two numbers which are, 2, 7.”
| First | Series | 5 | 6 | |||||||
| Second | 〃 | 2 | 7 | |||||||
| Third | 〃 | 9 | 3 | 5 | ||||||
| Fourth | 〃 | 4 | 1 | 6 | ||||||
| Fifth | 〃 | 7 | 4 | 9 | 3 | |||||
| Sixth | 〃 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 7 | |||||
| Seventh | 〃 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 8 | ||||
| Eighth | 〃 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||||
| Ninth | Series | 2 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 9 | |||
| Tenth | 〃 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 7 | |||
| Eleventh | 〃 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 4 | ||
| Twelfth | 〃 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 3 | ||
| Thirteenth | 〃 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 9 | |
| Fourteenth | 〃 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 4 | |
| Fifteenth | 〃 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| Sixteenth | 〃 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 8 |
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The examiner should keep on the test leaflet, out of the sight of the candidate, a notation of exactly which series cause failure. Misplacement of any digit in the series should count as an error and bring no credit for that series. The total score obtained by counting the number of series in which each number was correctly repeated in its right order should be written in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the leaflet.
Scores from 0 to 7 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 8 to 9 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 10 to 12 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 13 to 14 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 15 to 16 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 12
REPEATING NUMBERS BACKWARD
Character of the Test.
This test can only be given as an individual examination and to people who understand spoken English. The presence of other people in the room where the test is being given is frequently the cause of low scores.
This test is borrowed bodily from the Binet series, in which it has won a distinct place for itself as a useful measure of the ability to think about symbols and abstract ideas.
This test will be of little value as an entertainment feature but will be useful to the public school teacher, or to the employer who wishes to have a brief but fairly accurate test to apply to individual people whom he may be considering for positions of responsibility. The reliability of the test is unusually high for an examination taking no more time than is required for this.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The examiner should read the following instructions clearly:
“I have twelve lists of numbers to read to you. I want you to listen carefully as I read each list, and when I say ‘Now’ you are to repeat the same numbers backward, that is, in the reverse order. For example, if I should read the numbers, 3, 4, 5, when I said ‘Now’ you should repeat them 5, 4, 3. If I read 9, 8, 7, you should say 7, 8, 9. You are to say the same numbers I read, but you are to say them just backward from the way I read them.”
The examiner should read each series very distinctly and at the rate of one digit per second. About five seconds before the reading of each series the examiner should call the candidate’s attention by saying, “Now listen to this set.” Allow two seconds after reading the last digit of each series before saying “Now,” or, “Now say them backward.” If the candidate has not begun to repeat the digits within thirty seconds the examiner should say “Now try this set” and should read the next list to him.
| First | Series | 5 | 8 | |||||
| Second | 〃 | 6 | 4 | |||||
| Third | 〃 | 3 | 5 | 2 | ||||
| Fourth | 〃 | 8 | 4 | 9 | ||||
| Fifth | 〃 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 4 | |||
| Sixth | 〃 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 8 | |||
| Seventh | 〃 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 3 | ||
| Eighth | 〃 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 6 | ||
| Ninth | 〃 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 7 | |
| Tenth | 〃 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 7 | |
| Eleventh | 〃 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 4 |
| Twelfth | 〃 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 5 |
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of series repeated backward without error. Any misplacement in the order of the digits should be considered an error and no credit should be given for that series. The examiner will need to keep a record of just which series were correctly repeated, and will need to keep this record from the view of the candidate being examined, at least until after the examination is complete.
Scores from 0 to 4 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 5 to 6 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 7 to 8 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 9 to 10 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 11 to 12 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 13
MEMORY FOR SENTENCES
Character of the Test.
At the age of two years and frequently before, the vocabulary of the ordinary child has developed to such an extent that it contains two or three hundred individual words which can be used rather effectively. By the time the child is four years of age he has increased his vocabulary very extensively and can repeat entire sentences, if they are not too long, without error. The Mentimeter here provided is intended to measure the complexity and length of a sentence which an individual can repeat correctly after having heard it only once. The reliability of this test is not very well determined and its field of usefulness is almost as indefinite. It will be interesting in social groups as a recreation and will be useful to the teacher in comparing her pupils, but it is doubtful if it can be employed in industrial work with any large group of employees. It would seem that it might, however, be found valuable as a test of telegraphers, stenographers, and dictaphone operators. The fact that it is to be given as an individual test still further limits its usefulness.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The examiner, after recording or having the candidate record on his leaflet the identifying information required, should repeat the following explanation:
“I have ten sentences which I shall read to you slowly, one sentence at a time. You are to listen very carefully while I read and then after I have finished reading a sentence you are to repeat it to me exactly as it was read.”
Each sentence should be read only once. The reading should be done slowly and distinctly with sufficient emphasis to make clear the meaning of the sentence as well as the words spoken. The candidate should be encouraged to try each sentence and should not be informed as to whether or not his attempts are successful. The sentences to be read are as follows:
1. It snows in the winter. 2. Men usually have more dignity than boys. 3. There is no excuse for being thoughtless about the rights of other people. 4. The price of peace may sometimes be much greater than a nation can afford to pay. 5. It is unfortunate that war should ever be necessary among civilized nations. 6. Their harbour is a shallow body of water connected with, but protected from, the open sea. 7. Conscience asserting itself as the voice divine within the human soul is then a real actuality. 8. Each state appoints a number of electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives. 9. These discoveries—gunpowder, printing-press, compass, and telescope—were the weapons before which the old science trembled. 10. The use of italic type is indicated in the author’s manuscript by underscoring the letters, words, phrases, or sentences that are to be italicized.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The candidate is to be scored as successful on each sentence repeated correctly, or repeated with the omission of not more than one unimportant word such as “the” or “a.” The omission of more than one word or of a word which changes or limits the meaning of the sentence should be considered as a failure to remember what was said.
The examiner should keep on the test leaflet a note of just which sentences were correctly repeated and which were not. The candidate should not be allowed to see or know his record. The total score is the number of sentences on which the candidate was successful.
Scores from 0 to 2 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 3 to 4 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 5 to 6 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 7 to 8 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 9 to 10 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 14
SPEAKING-VOCABULARY TEST
Character of the Test.
One of the best measures of the intellectual capacity of a community or of a race of people is the complexity of the language which they find it necessary to use in their life and social intercourse. The speaking vocabulary of a tribe or of an individual is therefore an unusually accurate index of mental capacity. The present test of speaking vocabulary is designed to be used as an individual test for measuring the vocabulary of English-speaking persons. With some alterations in the directions which are given below the test might be used as a group test, but the results from such a group test would be quite different and practically not comparable with the results to be obtained when the test is given according to directions.
The individual to be examined need not be able to read English but must be able to understand ordinary conversational words and sentences. The examiner pronounces very distinctly the word which appears on his list and asks the candidate to explain the meaning of the word. The list used by the examiner contains fifty words, which are roughly graded, from the most common and well-known words used in every-day life up to very unusual and little-known words that would be found very rarely in newspaper or magazine articles. Any definition is accepted which shows that the candidate really understands the nature and use of the thing mentioned.
This test is modelled directly upon the Vocabulary test included in the Stanford Revision of the Binet tests. It has been shown by careful scientific investigations that a test of this type is very reliable as a measure of general intellectual capacity. The excuse for having, at the end of the series, words which are little known and of no great practical value is that without such words it would be impossible to obtain a real measure of the vocabulary of writers, well-trained lawyers, and other specialists in the use of the English language. The good scientific test of intelligence always begins with elements which are so simple that the dullest mind will master them and progresses steadily to elements which are so complex and difficult that even the keenest minds have difficulty in reaching satisfactory solutions.
A test of this sort measuring general vocabulary will be very useful to employers in the selection of stenographers and other clerical workers. In the public schoolroom teachers will find it very helpful in the classification of new pupils coming to their room for the first time or in the comparison of pupils who have been observed for a long period. The disadvantage of the test is that it must be given to one individual at a time. Such procedure makes it possible, however, for the teacher or the psychologist to study the more or less intangible attitudes and reactions of the pupil which cannot be observed in group examinations. These peculiarities of the pupil are of tremendous value to the trained psychologist or to the psychiatrist in making a careful diagnosis of special mental defects.
Directions for Giving the Test.
This test should not be given in the presence of outsiders. The examiner should take the individual to as quiet a place as possible, should seat the candidate in a comfortable chair, and converse with him until he is thoroughly at ease and ready to answer any sort of question. The examiner may write on his list the response which is made by the candidate to each word in the vocabulary. The formula which should be used by the examiner should be as nearly as possible that of ordinary conversation, although care must be used to avoid suggesting by the form of the question any clue to the proper response. Beginning with the first word, after introducing the general idea by some such phrase as “Now, I am going to ask you the meanings of a list of words,” the examiner should say, “The first word is coat. What is a coat?”
If the candidate does not seem to understand, the question may be repeated or it may be presented as follows: “You know what a coat is, do you not? Well, what is a coat?”
Similarly, with the second word one could say, “What does the word buy, b-u-y, mean? What is the meaning of buy?” If the candidate does not understand, the question may be restated as follows: “Did you ever buy anything? What does the word buy mean?” Special care should be taken at all points to avoid suggesting the answer, giving special hints, discouraging the candidate or telling him whether or not he is being successful. He may be told at any time that he is doing well but he should not be informed whether his answer is correct or incorrect.
Not more than forty-five seconds should be allowed to the candidate for thinking about any one word. At the end of the forty-five seconds the examiner should repeat the question. If at the end of thirty seconds after the question is first repeated the candidate has still said nothing, the examiner should pass on to the next word with this introduction, “Well, here is another word. What does the word ‘book’ mean?” Under no circumstances should the candidate being examined be allowed to take or to see the word list.
Speaking-Vocabulary Test.
1. coat 2. buy 3. book 4. store 5. piano 6. rent 7. beef 9. disease
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score of this test is the number of words which the candidate demonstrates clearly that he understands and can use. A list is provided in the appendix showing the chief meanings and uses which are likely to be mentioned by the candidate. A repetition of a word by the candidate should not be counted as evidence that he understands. For example, the candidate who replies that “doubt” means “when you doubt something” or that “greed” means “when you are greedy” has not fully proved by such a reply that these words are familiar to him. In such cases as those just mentioned the examiner may well ask, “Does it mean anything more to you?”
The best method of keeping record is to write on the test blank a notation of what reply was received, although it will be sufficient to make a check mark after each word satisfactorily explained and to cross out each word that is unknown if from his reply there is no doubt about the ability of the candidate to use the word. The maximum score obtainable in this test is fifty words. The score actually received should be entered on the title page of the test blank for purposes of record.
Scores from 0 to 10 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 11 to 20 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 21 to 30 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 31 to 40 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 41 to 50 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 15
WORD DISCRIMINATION
Character of the Test.
Intellectual ability has usually been attributed in the greatest degree to those people who were best able to use their native language. This test is calculated to measure the ability of individual candidates to discriminate between the meanings of different words. Insofar as ability to draw distinctions between similar words can be taken as a measure of intellectual capacity, this test will be found useful.
It is quite certain to be entertaining as a social diversion and distinctly useful as a measure of the general familiarity of any child in the public schools with the English language. Industrial and commercial establishments may very well find that it has a distinct relationship to the kind of intelligence it would pay them to employ in certain parts of their organization.
There is no simple way of converting this test into a group test because of the added complexity of the problem which is presented when candidates are asked to write their answers. It is very much simpler to explain the difference between two words than to write out the explanation. It is recommended that this test be given in a quiet place where no persons other than the examiner and the candidate are present. This rule, of course, will not apply when the test is used as a parlour game.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The examiner should use the regular printed leaflet which contains the list of words to be explained. On the title page, he should enter such facts about the candidate as will identify him and satisfy the purposes of the investigation. The word list should not be shown to the candidate at all. The examiner should make a notation on his word list showing just what difference was mentioned by the candidate for each pair of words.
When the examiner has put the candidate at his ease and is ready to begin the test, he should read the following directions: “I have a list of twenty-four pairs of words. I shall read one pair at a time, and I wish you to tell me what differences you know between the two things mentioned. First, what is the difference between a bird and a fish?” If no answer is given within half a minute, the examiner may say: “You know what a bird is, do you not? You know what a fish is, don’t you? Well, what is the difference between a bird and a fish?” No additional help of any sort may be given and not more than thirty seconds should be allowed after the second asking of the question. The only formula to be used is: “What is the difference between —— and ——?”
What is the difference between
1. A bird and a fish? 2. A snake and a fly? 3. A pen and a pencil? 4. An eagle and a chicken? 5. A book and a magazine? 6. An orange and a lemon? 7. A teacher and a preacher? 8. Luck and pluck? 9. Stone and china? 10. A balloon and an airplane? 11. To plod and to plot? 12. To wither and to shrivel? 13. To surprise and to astonish? 14. Rash and reckless? 15. Lonely and solitary? 16. Sorrow and sadness? 17. Plutocrat and autocrat? 18. A rascal and a rogue? 19. To plunder and to devastate? 20. To relinquish and to resign? 21. Shrewd and sagacious? 22. Dormant and quiescent? 23. Reconstruction and rehabilitation? 24. Reparation and indemnity?
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of pairs of words between which the candidate gives at least one real difference. The differences which appear in Appendix D are suggestive of the type of differences which may be mentioned by the candidate, but the list there furnished is not complete. One should not assume that the candidate knows the difference between the two things for which the words stand until the candidate has described one real difference pretty clearly. Such answers as, “Oh, they are different, entirely different,” or “One is one thing and the other is something else” should not be considered as correct in any respect. The idea that the person knows a difference without being able to explain it should not influence in any way the judgment of the examiner. The difference must not only be known, but must be clearly expressed before credit is given for any pair.
The total score possible in this test is twenty-four points. The total score actually made by any candidate should be entered in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the leaflet.
Scores from 0 to 4 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 5 to 9 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 10 to 16 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 17 to 20 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 21 to 24 indicate Superior Ability.
Mentimeter No. 16
NAMING OPPOSITES
Character of the Test.
The Opposites test in one form or another has been used for a long while with remarkable accuracy as a measure of one’s familiarity with language and his general intellectual competence. The Mentimeter form is superior to the ordinary form of the Opposites test in that it is fairly well graded in its difficulty, from simple problems to very difficult problems, thus securing an added value as an intelligence test. It differs from the Alpha form used in the Army in that it is necessary in the Mentimeter test to write the word which is the opposite of the key word given, while in the Army two words were given which might be opposites or synonyms and the soldier was asked to check whether the words meant the “same” or the “opposite.” One difficulty with the military form was that if a man knew nothing at all about the words used, he would, nevertheless, by chance have half of his answers correct. In the present Mentimeter form, a man must not only use his judgment to decide between two words but he must have fairly rich associations between the key word and its opposites and be able to select from all of these associations the one which is most appropriate.
This test may be given as an individual examination, but it is planned as a group examination for as many candidates as can be conveniently seated in the room provided for the examination. Only persons who can read and write the English language should be tested with this Mentimeter.
Directions for Giving the Test.
As soon as the blanks on the title page of the booklet have been correctly filled in, under the direction of the examiner, the candidates should be asked to read silently the directions printed below these blanks while he reads them aloud: “When you open your booklets, you will find on the inside forty words each followed by a dotted line on which you are to write a corresponding list of forty words. You are to write after each word the word which in your mind means just the opposite to the word that is printed. Notice the three samples printed below:
On the line after each word, write the word which means just the opposite of the printed word.
(Samples) A. bad good B. girl boy C. down up
“The opposite of bad is ‘good’ and therefore ‘good’ has been written after the word ‘bad’; the opposite of ‘girl’ is ‘boy’ and therefore the word ‘boy’ has been written after the word ‘girl’; the opposite of the word ‘down’ is ‘up’ and therefore ‘up’ has been written after the word ‘down’.
“You will be allowed exactly four minutes in which to write the opposites of as many words as you know in the list. Begin with the first word. Ready! Open your books! Go to work!”
Exactly four minutes after saying “Go!”, the examiner should call, “Stop! Close your books and hand them to me!” The papers should be collected immediately.
On the line after each word, write the word which means just the opposite of the printed word.
1. good 2. rich 3. little 4. new 5. hard 6. dark 7. dirty 8. sick 9. north 10. empty 11. push 12. wrong 13. beginning 14. narrow 15. morning 16. nowhere 17. stale 18. busy 19. to float 20. smooth 21. wild 22. strength 23. innocent 24. wisdom 25. positive 26. inferior 27. ancient 28. result 29. stingy 30. abstract 31. partiality 32. diligent 33. frugal 34. spurious 35. elation 36. expedite 37. diffident 38. homogeneous 39. intrepid 40. sycophantic
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the total number of words for which the exact opposite has been written. Some considerable time will be saved by using the stencil provided with each package of test booklets. The total score as finally obtained should be written in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the booklet.
Scores from 0 to 7 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 8 to 12 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 13 to 25 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 26 to 32 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 33 to 40 indicate Superior Ability.
Mentimeter No. 17
SPELLING TEST
Character of the Test.
All of the investigations which have been made into the subject of spelling in relation to general intelligence seem to indicate that good spellers are “born and not made.” Of course intelligent people also are “born and not made.” Strange to say, a person may be very intelligent without being an expert speller or a person may be a fairly able speller without being keen intellectually. This Mentimeter is therefore not to be considered as reliable an index of intelligence as most of the others.
There are two methods by which one might determine the ability of any average individual in spelling. One might measure how difficult a word was necessary in order to cause failure or one might take words all of the same difficulty and measure what percentage of them were misspelled by the candidate. List A in the series which follows is of the first sort, measuring how difficult a word must be before it causes trouble and List B is of the second sort, measuring how many words of the same difficulty can be spelled correctly by the individual tested. These words are selected from the Ayers Measuring Scale for Ability in Spelling. Mentimeter List A consists of two words from each degree of difficulty from B to Z in the Ayers list. Mentimeter List B is chosen from List R of the Ayers Scale.
Directions for Giving the Test.
Whether the examination is to be with List A or with List B the candidates should be supplied with the Mentimeter leaflet and should be asked first of all to write their names, ages and other necessary information on the title page. When this information has been obtained the examiner should read the following directions:
“I shall pronounce to you a list of fifty words. You are to listen carefully and then to write on the blank provided for it the word which I pronounce. Be very careful to form your letters distinctly in order that I may know whether or not you know how to spell these words. Do not ask any questions, for I shall not answer them. Each word will be pronounced only twice, so listen carefully in order not to make it necessary to ask for a further repetition.”
The examiner should pronounce each word very distinctly. He should, before pronouncing the word, give the serial number of the word in order that it may be recorded on the proper blank by the candidate. The formula to be used should be as follows:
“The first word is ‘go,’—go.” After waiting for ten or not more than fifteen seconds, the next word should be pronounced as follows: “The second word is ‘at,’—at.”
It is the intention that each individual shall have ample opportunity to understand the word to be spelled and to write his spelling of it, but that the conditions shall remain uniform for all.
List A
1. go 2. at 3. can 4. run 5. ten 6. bed 7. good 8. little 9. like 10. book 11. make 12. hand 13. tell 14. five 15. spring 16. plant 17. game 18. hard 19. week 20. mile 21. summer 22. express 23. railroad 24. ticket 25. death 26. learn 27. district 28. pleasure 29. prison 30. family 31. factory 32. president 33. illustrate 34. education 35. century 36. difference 37. organize 38. estimate 39. foreign 40. difficulty 41. reference 42. secretary 43. athletic 44. February 45. preliminary 46. annual 47. decision 48. principle 49. judgment 50. recommend
List B
1. Christmas 2. interest 3. popular 4. treasure 5. search 6. complete 7. against 8. consider 9. tomorrow 10. general 11. distribute 12. injure 13. service 14. article 15. feature 16. manner 17. increase 18. convention 19. together 20. diamond 21. common 22. purpose 23. director 24. attention 25. already 26. according 27. provision 28. object 29. different 30. prefer 31. busy 32. vessel 33. prepare 34. wreck 35. promise 36. illustrate 37. secure 38. adopt 39. success 40. toward 41. machine 42. publication 43. visitor 44. salary 45. entertain 46. wear 47. education 48. avenue 49. combination 50. forenoon
Directions for Scoring the Test.
No word should be given credit unless it is spelled correctly. If a word is so illegible that the examiner cannot easily tell whether or not it is correctly spelled it should be counted as wrong. The total number of words correctly spelled should be entered in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the test leaflet, and should be followed by a notation of the list used.
In List A
Scores from 0 to 20 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 21 to 35 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 36 to 45 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 46 to 50 indicate High Average or Superior Ability
In List B
Scores from 0 to 10 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 11 to 24 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 25 to 40 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 41 to 46 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 47 to 50 indicate Superior Ability
It is not to be expected that an individual’s score will be the same exactly in List A as in List B or that his classification based on this score will be just the same. The two lists are not perfectly adjusted in this matter and if they were it would still be possible for a person of “Average Ability” in List A to obtain “Low Average” scores in List B.
In public school work teachers will probably find List A more instructive than List B, although List B will be almost as useful in classifying pupils, especially when used in connection with the following table of average results.
The average Second Grade pupil should spell 6 words in List B
The average Third Grade pupil should spell 14 words in List B
The average Fourth Grade pupil should spell 25 words in List B
The average Fifth Grade pupil should spell 33 words in List B
The average Sixth Grade pupil should spell 40 words in List B
The average Seventh Grade pupil should spell 44 words in List B
The average Eighth Grade pupil should spell 47 words in List B
Mentimeter No. 18
RANGE OF INFORMATION
Character of the Test.
This test is a very entertaining and useful task for any group to work upon. It is based upon the assumption that general intelligence will result in the extension of one’s general knowledge and information about affairs in many fields. The test requires, for its perfect solution, knowledge of all sorts of facts in a great variety of fields.
The General Information test used in the Army Alpha series was very frequently subject to criticism from officers and men because not a sufficient number of questions was asked about matters which pertained to their own field of work. The physicians, for example, expressed regret that there were so few questions referring to medicine or anatomy, while the engineers were just as much inclined to believe that the test would have been improved had it included a larger number of questions applying directly to their field. Of course the purpose of the test is to avoid specializing in any particular field and to cover just as wide a range as possible of general information.
An effort has been made to graduate the difficulty of the questions asked in the Mentimeter form of this test, in order to obtain as much additional merit as possible in the measurement of intellectual capacity. This test will be useful in almost any educational or industrial organization. It is probable, however, that its usefulness in school will not be as great as in life outside of the schools. As little of the material has been drawn from educational experiences as seemed possible. A great deal of amusement can be obtained in a social group by reading aloud the answers checked by members of the group.
Directions for Giving the Test.
When the candidates are comfortably seated and provided with pencils, the examiner should distribute the booklets to them with the request that they be not opened until directions are given. When the information blanks on the title page have been filled out satisfactorily, the examiner should ask the candidates to read silently the directions printed on the title page while he reads them aloud.
“On the inside of this booklet, when you are told to open it, you will find 40 different sentences, at the end of each one of which there is a list of words from which you are to choose the proper one to be the last word. When you are told to turn the page, begin with the first sentence and make a check mark (✓) in the little square in front of the best word to use as an ending. Choose the word which will make the truest sentence. Choose only one word for each ending. If you are not absolutely certain which is the most truthful, make a guess and try the next sentences. Ready! Go!”
(FOR TESTS SEE PAGES [204]–207)
Make a check mark (✓) in the square in front of that one of the four words which makes the best sentence and tells the most exact truth.
1. The JERSEY is a kind of ☐ COW ☐ DOG ☐ CAT ☐ HORSE 2. GOLF is played with ☐ CARDS ☐ DICE ☐ CLUBS ☐ BUTTONS 3. FATIMA is the name of a ☐ CIGAR ☐ CLOTH ☐ PIPE ☐ CIGARETTE 4. A SAW is used by a ☐ PAINTER ☐ PLUMBER ☐ CARPENTER ☐ PLASTERER 5. An EMERALD is ☐ GREEN ☐ RED ☐ BLUE ☐ BLACK 6. DETROIT is noted for its ☐ BREWING ☐ TEXTILES ☐ AUTOMOBILES ☐ PRINTING 7. A SPANIEL is a kind of ☐ SHEEP ☐ GOAT ☐ DOG ☐ MULE 8. MAUDE ADAMS is noted as a ☐ DANCER ☐ ACTRESS ☐ NURSE ☐ WRITER 9. CANDY is made by ☐ FORD ☐ HUYLER ☐ COLGATE ☐ MACMILLAN 10. The CIVIL WAR began in ☐ 1848 ☐ 1860 ☐ 1861 ☐ 1865
At the end of four minutes the examiner should call “Stop! The time is up!” He should use care to see that no answers are checked after the signal to stop has been given.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of sentences in which the right conclusion has been checked. Credit should not be given for checking any other word than the correct one. The use of the stencil, which is provided with each package of test booklets, will save a great deal of eye strain, mental fatigue, and time in marking these tests. This stencil makes it possible for an ordinary clerk to score the 40 sentences accurately in a fraction of a minute.
The total score in the test should be entered at the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the test booklet.
Scores from 0 to 3 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 4 to 10 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 11 to 23 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 24 to 30 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 31 to 40 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 19
READING VOCABULARY
Character of the Test.
One of the most valuable measures of any individual or group of individuals is the extent of the vocabulary found necessary for communication and social activities. The Vocabulary test which is used in connection with the Stanford Revision of the Binet test, and which is quite similar to Mentimeter No. 14, has been shown to be unusually reliable as a measure of general intelligence. The Reading-Vocabulary test is probably not so widely usable as the Speaking-Vocabulary test, but it can be applied as a group test and is therefore probably destined to much more extensive usefulness than the individual test.
The Reading-Vocabulary test cannot, of course, be given to individuals whose ability in reading is less than that ordinarily possessed by third-grade public school children. The candidate must not only be able to recognize the words that appear in the test and to know their meanings, but he must also be able to classify them as belonging to a particular group of objects. The method of the test requires the child to make a check mark under the family name which would include the particular word appearing on the vocabulary list. The instructions will not be understood except by fairly intelligent persons, but for those who can understand the instructions and who do their best on the test, a very useful measure will be the result.
Although this test would seem at first glance to be particularly well adapted to the selection of clerical workers, past experience has convinced the writers that it is also useful in the selection of organizers and directors of men as well as of organizers and directors of thought. The relationship between the score in this test and the general efficiency of an employee is unusually high.
Teachers will find the Reading Vocabulary a splendid index of the advancement attained by new pupils coming into their rooms for the first time or of the pupils who have been with them for some time. It is useless to try to have pupils explain the meaning of magazine articles or of selections from their geographies when they do not even understand the words used in these discussions. It would be very much worth while for a teacher, when she has employed this test, to compare the difficulty of the words which cause the majority of her class to stumble and fail with the difficulty of the words used in the ordinary text-books of the school.
In any social group the classification of the forty words in this list would be found rather interesting particularly when the errors made by different members of the group were read aloud for the amusement of the entire group. It should not be suggested, when the test is to be used in this way, that there is any distinct relationship between achievement in the test and achievement in life, else some of the group will be very much disappointed in their scores.
Every effort should be made to have such a group feel that this was simply a new type of puzzle. The results obtained under such conditions should not be compared with the results obtained under the standard conditions outlined below.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The candidates to be examined should be comfortably seated and provided with well-sharpened pencils. The examiner should then announce that the booklets which he would distribute were not to be opened until instructions to that effect were issued. Booklets should be distributed unopened, one to each individual. Further directions should be issued as soon as each candidate is supplied with the booklet, authorizing each individual to write his name, his age, and such other information as is desirable on the title page of the booklet. When these preliminaries have been finished the examiner should say:
“When I ask you to open your booklet, you will find on the inside a list of forty different words. The test is to determine how many of these words you can read and identify. At the top of the page you will find the words, Animal, Body, Bird, Colour, Clothes, Fish, Time, Tool, and War. Each of the forty words to be identified is connected with or is a kind of Animal, Body, Bird, Colour, or other kind of thing mentioned at the top of the page. The page is ruled both ways. You are to look at each word in the column on the left and to make a check mark at the right of it, under the general word showing whether the word you are marking is an Animal, a Body, a Bird, or something else. You will be allowed exactly four minutes in which to check the words. Mark as many of the words as you possibly can but be sure to check them correctly. Ready! Go!”
| Indicate the meaning of each of the forty words in the column on the left by making a mark (✓) under the proper word. | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CONNECTED WITH, OR A KIND OF | ||||||||||
| ANIMAL | BODY | BIRD | COLOUR | CLOTHES | FISH | TIME | TOOL | WAR | ||
| arm | 1 | |||||||||
| cow | 2 | |||||||||
| stocking | 3 | |||||||||
| yellow | 4 | |||||||||
| sparrow | 5 | |||||||||
| shirt | 6 | |||||||||
| calf | 7 | |||||||||
| hammer | 8 | |||||||||
| shin | 9 | |||||||||
| saw | 10 | |||||||||
| wren | 11 | |||||||||
| tan | 12 | |||||||||
| cod | 13 | |||||||||
| troops | 14 | |||||||||
| year | 15 | |||||||||
| conquer | 16 | |||||||||
| stag | 17 | |||||||||
| minnow | 18 | |||||||||
| month | 19 | |||||||||
| kimono | 20 | |||||||||
| rampart | 21 | |||||||||
| thigh | 22 | |||||||||
| carmine | 23 | |||||||||
| partridge | 24 | |||||||||
| sturgeon | 25 | |||||||||
| ratchet | 26 | |||||||||
| interim | 27 | |||||||||
| peccary | 28 | |||||||||
| mauve | 29 | |||||||||
| citadel | 30 | |||||||||
| ephemeral | 31 | |||||||||
| tartan | 32 | |||||||||
| peritoneum | 33 | |||||||||
| petrel | 34 | |||||||||
| tench | 35 | |||||||||
| vomer | 36 | |||||||||
| burgonet | 37 | |||||||||
| burin | 38 | |||||||||
| desman | 39 | |||||||||
| tinamou | 40 | |||||||||
At the end of exactly four minutes the examiner should call “Stop! Time up! Close your papers and hand them to me.” All papers should be collected at once.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The total score in this test is the number of words correctly checked. The work of checking the accuracy of marks made by the candidates is very much simplified by the stencil which accompanies each package of examination booklets. This stencil indicates exactly where a check should be made in each case.
The total number of words correctly checked should be entered in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the examination booklet.
Scores from 0 to 8 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 9 to 14 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 15 to 24 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 25 to 29 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 30 to 40 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 20
READING: DIRECTIONS
Character of the Test.
In the United States Army an officer frequently calls one of his orderlies to his desk and issues orders somewhat as follows: “Present my compliments to Lieutenant Smith and ask him to report at my office to-morrow afternoon at 3.15 for his orders regarding the disposition of garbage from the kitchen of Company E. Tell Corporal Jones in Barracks 17 to take a detail of four men and report at 5.00 o’clock this evening to Sergeant Katz at the Second Battalion Officers’ Mess. Deliver this package to the Adjutant of the Base Hospital and ask him to let me know at once what should be done with the S. C. D. papers brought to me this morning by Lieutenant Johnson.” The orderly must be able to carry out these orders without their repetition or explanation. He should reply, “Yes, sir,” by way of making it clear that he has understood and will obey the directions, but should say nothing more.
The first test in the Alpha series used in the Army was intended to measure how complicated a series of directions could be grasped by the soldier and executed without errors. The Mentimeter test differs from its military counterpart in that the directions are to be printed rather than spoken, and in that the increasing difficulty arises from the increasing complexity and obscurity of the words employed rather than from the length of the directions to be held in mind. Whether these changes will increase or decrease the value of the test cannot be stated in advance of actual trials.
Directions for Giving the Test.
As soon as the candidates have been provided with pencils, writing surfaces, and comfortable seats, the examiner should distribute the examination leaflets with the instruction that the blanks at the top of the title page be filled out at once and that no one should turn the leaflet until the direction to do so be given.
The test should be introduced by the request from the examiner that everyone look at the directions on the title page while they are being read aloud, “When you are told to turn your leaflet and go to work, you will find on the other side very full directions as to what you are to do. This is a test to find out how well you can understand directions, so read them carefully and do exactly what they tell you to do. Ready! Turn your leaflets and go to work.”
Exactly three minutes should be allowed for this work. At the end of three minutes the examiner should call “Stop! The time is up! Turn over your leaflet and hand it to me.” The test sheets should be collected at once.
Do what it says.
1. Write your name on this line. ..........
2. Make a cross in the square. □
3. Make a cross in the circle and a dot in the square.
□ ○ ▭
4. Make a figure 1 under the letter M and a figure 2 under the letter W.
A N W V H M Z U Y
5. If Decoration Day comes in the winter, write the word “No.” If not, write the word “Yes.” ..........
6. Cross out the shortest word in this sentence and draw two lines around the ninth word.
7. Look at the three blanks printed below. On the first blank write the number of days in a week, on the second the number of months in a year, and on the third the number of years in a century. __________ ___________ __________
8. Write in the square on the left the right answer to the question: “How many dimes make a dollar?” In the second square make a small circle, and in the third triangle write the letter “C.”
□ △ □ △ □ △
9. If a peck is a greater magnitude than a bushel, cross out the word “pint” unless a pint holds a smaller quantity than a quart, in which case draw a line under the first word after bushel.
QUART BUSHEL PECK PINT
10. If a centimeter is more than half as long as an inch, write in the square the number of inches in a yard. If a meter is more than three feet, then write in the circle the number of meters in a kilometer.
○ □
11. If the oscillations of a pendulum were not facilitated by any other force than gravity, what would be the effect upon their amplitude? Check the best reply:
It would gradually be
☐ augmented.
☐ flagellated.
☐ diminished.
☐ swaged.
12. If ontogeny invariably ingeminates phylogeny, circumscribe the word giving the location of the OURCQ; if not, underscore the word that locates the MANDIBLE.
England Foot Utah Face Peru France Arm India
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score is the number of directions which were perfectly obeyed without error. A failure to do any part of the thing directed or the performance of extra things not asked should act to withhold credit for an element. The total number of credits should be entered in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the test leaflet.
Scores from 0 to 2 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 3 to 5 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 6 to 8 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 9 to 10 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 11 to 12 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 21
READING: INTERPRETATION
Character of the Test.
This test is a specially devised method of determining the ability of an individual to secure from the printed page the ideas which are expressed in sentences and paragraphs. It is probable that no single test of reading can be devised which would measure all phases of the subject equally well. This particular test attempts to measure the special ability to interpret the meanings of sentences and paragraphs, although it assumes that the words of which these larger units are composed are recognized and understood by the reader.
The test is arranged with very simple sentences at the beginning followed by more and more difficult sentences until at the last there are statements the meaning of which very intellectual people might fail to grasp at first sight. The questions which are asked regarding the paragraphs likewise increase in difficulty so that the ultimate score obtained by the candidate indicates rather distinctly how difficult are the sentences or paragraphs he is able to understand and answer questions about.
It is not probable that a great field of usefulness will be found for this test in industrial life, although it might very well be used in any establishment where the question of the degree of literacy in the employee was of any importance. Tests fashioned on this order would be tremendously valuable as a basis for classifying according to degree of literacy the immigrants entering this country. Some such objective measure as this is very much needed in the taking of the census. Where at present almost any man or woman who can barely write his or her name is entered on the census records as being able to read and write, the crude examination for literacy which was employed by the psychologists in the U. S. Army illustrates conclusively that about three times as many people are unable to make any practical use of reading and writing as the census figures would lead one to believe. It seems certain from the facts obtained in the Army that at least one half of the population of the United States would be unable to answer more than eight of the sixteen questions included in this Mentimeter.
Directions for Giving the Test.
It is particularly desirable that the room in which the test is given should be well lighted and comfortable. Before distributing the tests the usual caution, “Do not open this booklet until you are told to do so,” should be given. One test booklet should then be given to each candidate. As soon as all have received their blanks the examiner should give the directions for filling out the information blanks on the title page of the booklet. If very young children or very dull adults are being examined it will be necessary to give specific directions about these blanks. As soon as the blanks are filled the examiner should ask the group to read silently the directions as he reads them aloud.
“When you are told to turn the page you will find on the inside three paragraphs of printed matter. You are to read these paragraphs very carefully and then, turning the page once more, you will find sixteen questions about the three paragraphs you have just read. You are to write the answers to the questions on the blank lines provided for the purpose. You may turn back to the printed matter and look for the answers as often as you need to, but you will only have ten minutes in which to do your reading and the answering of the questions, so be sure to answer all the questions you can. The first questions are easier than those which follow, so answer them in the order in which they come.
“Remember that when I say ‘Go’ you are to begin reading and to read as fast as you can, then to answer as many questions as you can on the next page. Ready, Go.”
Exactly ten minutes after saying “Go” the examiner should call “Stop! The time is up! Close your papers and hand them to me.” All papers should be collected at once.
FIND THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS BY READING WHAT IT SAYS BELOW
Boys like to run and play in the street. Girls like to stay in the house and play with their dolls. As the girls grow older some of them learn to cook and to help their mothers in the home, while others learn to work in shops, mills, and offices. Some boys learn as they grow up to work on the farms, while others obtain positions in stores, mines, and factories. Even before they grow to be men and women, people differ in the things they enjoy and in the things they are able to do.
It is fortunate that people are so different, for the world has all sorts of work that must be done. Wheat, corn, and cattle must be raised to supply the world with food. Cotton and wool must be made into clothing to keep us warm, while wood and stone must be made into houses to protect us from the rain and the snow. The work of the world requires that some people be farmers, others manufacturers, others merchants, others doctors, and so on. If we were all exactly alike in our tastes and abilities, much of the world’s work would have to be done by persons whose inclinations and capacities were in fields of endeavour entirely different from those in which they would be required to labour. The fact that people are so different makes possible an adjustment whereby the ability and interest of the labourer may be in proportion to the difficulty of the undertaking to which he is assigned.
Perhaps nothing makes a larger contribution to the happiness and contentment of the world than this adjustment of the individual to his vocation, and yet the problem of securing such an adjustment is complicated by an enormous number of practical difficulties. One of the most annoying elements in this problem of adjustment has been the impossibility of making expeditiously an effectual classification of candidates according to native capacity and endowment. Psychologists and statisticians have, however, during the past decade evolved methods of intellectual measurement which demonstrate the feasibility and economic utility of the procedure and adumbrate to some extent the social satisfactions that will ensue when the science of personnel engineering has been consummated.
WRITE THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS
1. Who like to play in the street? 2. Where do little girls like to play? 3. Who learn to help their mothers? 4. Where do older boys find jobs? 5. In what two ways are people said to differ early in life? 6. What kinds of food are mentioned? 7. For what purpose do people work with wool and cotton? 8. What reason is given for building houses? 9. What is the topic of the first paragraph? 10. Why are differences between people spoken of in the second paragraph as a wise provision of nature? 11. Check the right answer to this question: What does the second paragraph suggest as the probable result upon the world’s work if all people were just alike? ☐ It would not be done. ☐ Some of it would be improved. ☐ It would be well done. ☐ Much of it would be poorly done. 12. What characteristic of a task needs to correspond to the ability of the worker? 13. What is suggested in the third paragraph as the probable result of failing to place men in positions suited to their abilities? 14. It is quite common to determine a man’s ability by trying him out in the job. What objection to this plan does any word in the third paragraph suggest? 15. What procedure is said to be a practical means of saving time and money in the selection of men for positions? 16. What is stated as a probable cause for general gratification at some future time?
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of questions correctly answered. A stencil is provided with each set of test booklets by the aid of which it is fairly simple to mark an answer as right or wrong. An answer should be considered wrong if it does not prove in itself that the candidate had read the paragraph and obtained his information from it. Any answer which is true in general life but which is not suggested by the reading material on the previous page, should not be accepted.
Scores from 0 to 3 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 4 to 7 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 8 to 12 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 13 to 14 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 15 to 16 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 22
DISARRANGED SENTENCES
Character of the Test.
Publishers and editors have for many years insisted upon having intelligent compositors and type-setters. The printer’s pi is probably as comprehensive a test of intelligence as any in the Mentimeter series. In the Binet tests, one of the most interesting parts of the examination is where children are asked to take certain words and rearrange them to make a sentence. This is not exactly the same problem that the type-setter faces with pi, but it is related to it. A disarranged sentence test was used in the military examinations, but in order to make the scoring simple and to include elements of intellectual capacity other than ability to rearrange words, the soldiers were asked to check the resulting sentence as “true” or “false.” Here again, without being able to read a single word of the sentences which had been disarranged, the soldiers would be able to make check marks in the correct place by mere chance in half the cases. The method of scoring used in the Army was calculated to overcome this difficulty, but even then the results were not as reliable as they should be in the case of the Mentimeter form presented below.
This test contains twenty-five sentences in each one of which the words have been mixed up and disarranged so that a real amount of imagination is necessary in order to guess what the sentence was in the first place. The first sentence contains only three words and is very easily arranged, while the later sentences are quite complicated and difficult. In order to indicate what the true arrangement of the original sentence was, each candidate is asked to place a period at the end of the word which would be last if the sentence were properly arranged. The resulting score may be taken as a fairly reliable index of ability to “unscramble” words in sentences.
This test is very closely related to several of the other tests which appear in the Mentimeter series in that it involves the ability to think about words and the things for which words stand and the relationships between these words and these things. The type of ability necessary for this test is the sort which makes for success in education and the learned professions, provided social and personal qualities are equal to the intellectual attainments.
This test is also very entertaining as a parlour game and may be used without offense to any one, if no mention is made of the relationship of the results to mental ability.
Directions for Giving the Test.
When the candidates have been seated and supplied with pencils, the examiner should distribute copies of the test booklets with the direction that none be opened until the instruction to do so is given. After having the identifying information called for on the blanks of the title page filled out by the candidates, the examiner should ask that all candidates look carefully at their papers and read silently the directions while he reads them aloud: “A sentence is a list of words which says something that we can understand. When you open the papers, you will find on the inside twenty-five sets of words which are not good sentences as they stand, but which would make good sentences and would sound sensible if they were changed around and put in a different order. Look at the samples given below:
Sample A: KILL MICE CATS
Sample B: HAS BOOK IT PICTURES THE IN
“Sample A would make a good sentence if it were arranged in the order ‘CATS KILL MICE’ and therefore there should be a period after the word ‘mice’ to show the end of the sentence. In Sample B, we should have a good sentence if the words were changed around to read: ‘THE BOOK HAS PICTURES IN IT.’ The end of the sentence is ‘it,’ and therefore there should be in sample B a period after the word ‘it.’
“When you turn the page, begin with the first set of words and study out what the sentence would be, then put a period after the word which would come last. Work right down the page until time is called. You will have two minutes in which to put in the periods of as many sentences as possible. Ready! Open your books! Go to work.”
Exactly two minutes after saying the word, “work,” the examiner should call “Stop! Close your books! Give them to me.” The papers should be collected at once.
| Put a period at the end of the word which would come last if the words on each line were arranged in a sentence. | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. | IS WHITE SNOW | 1 |
| 2. | THE IS BIRD A ROBIN | 2 |
| 3. | WATER IN FISH SWIM | 3 |
| 4. | WHITE IN LIVE HOUSES PEOPLE | 4 |
| 5. | WITH TO ARE HEAR EARS OUR | 5 |
| 6. | THE IN SETS WEST SUN THE | 6 |
| 7. | GOOD FIGHT COUNTRY SOLDIERS THEIR FOR | 7 |
| 8. | WINTER THE COLDEST THE ARE MONTHS | 8 |
| 9. | IS A MILK AND FOOD HEALTHFUL GOOD | 9 |
| 10. | FROM EARTH DIAMONDS THE MINED ARE | 10 |
| 11. | FOOD VALUABLE POTATOES AS ARE A | 11 |
| 12. | AND ON GROW ORANGES TREES APPLES | 12 |
| 13. | FOUGHT FRANCE GERMANY AND AGAINST ENGLAND | 13 |
| 14. | ALWAYS DEEDS SHOULD BAD PUNISHED BE | 14 |
| 15. | SEVERAL OCEAN THE TAKES DAYS CROSS TO IT | 15 |
| 16. | FEW MAKING A IMPOSSIBLE AVOID IT TO IS MISTAKES | 16 |
| 17. | CAN NIGHTS ON BE MANY NOT THE SEEN MOON | 17 |
| 18. | CLOTHING USEFUL ARE FOR AND MAKING WOOL SILK | 18 |
| 19. | BY COMMONLY IS DEBATERS VERY METHOD IRONY A USED | 19 |
| 20. | EXTREMELY POISONOUS WARFARE MANY THE OF ARE IN USED GASES | 20 |
| 21. | UNFORTUNATE IT MANUAL CONSIDERED IS THAT SOMETIMES LABOUR DEGRADING | 21 |
| 22. | CERTAIN THE ARE OF AND CRIMES NAMES BIGAMY LEGAL PERJURY | 22 |
| 23. | THE BETWEEN BY AND ARE DIFFERENCES STUDIED REASONING PSYCHOLOGISTS HABIT BEING | 23 |
| 24. | MORE TRAITS DESIRABLE CHARACTER STEALING TIMIDITY OF AND ARE MEEKNESS THAN | 24 |
| 25. | FACT CAN OBSERVED MAY KIND METHODS TO APPLIED EVERY STATISTICAL THAT BE OF | 25 |
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of sentences in which the period has been correctly placed. If a mark appears to be accidental, it should not be held against the credit of the candidate. The stencil provided with the test leaflets simplifies very greatly the marking of this test.
The total number of points credit should be entered in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the test leaflet.
Scores of 0 to 3 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores of 4 to 7 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores of 8 to 16 indicate Average Ability
Scores of 17 to 20 indicate High Average Ability
Scores of 21 to 25 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 23
COMPLETION OF SENTENCES
Character of the Test.
This is one of the most satisfactory group tests available for persons with a reading knowledge of the English language. The test consists of a series of sentences in each of which certain words have been omitted. Dotted lines appear at those places where words are missing. The persons being examined are asked to write on the dotted lines the words which have been left out. The blanks left in the sentences are all of the same length in order not to suggest the word to be used. The Mentimeter form of the test contains 20 sentences, graduated in difficulty, from very simple sentences which the average second-grade public school pupil can complete easily, to very difficult sentences which the average college student will be unable to complete satisfactorily within the time limit.
The ease with which one can understand what is to be done in this test makes it particularly useful with children in the elementary schools, and with adults of little education, as a measure of language ability and general intellectual capacity in the manipulation of ideas and words. Although it has been used by many teachers and supervisors as a test of reading ability, it should probably be classified rather as an intelligence test than as an educational measuring instrument. Teachers do not and should not give direct instruction in the art of writing missing words, for almost no situation will arise in practical life where this sort of skill would be necessary.
It is very difficult to determine just what mental powers are tested by the sentence completion test. Quite certainly the result obtained is a complex effect. The person who is successful in this test must first of all be able to read and understand the words which are actually present in any sentence; he must have certain habits of associating other words not present with those which do appear; from all of the words which come to his mind as associates of the printed words, he must choose those which fit most aptly the thought expressed; and from those words which would fit into the thought of the sentence he must use good judgment in selecting and writing the one which makes the smoothest and best sentence. Lack of mental ability or of familiarity with the English language will result in a poor showing at almost any step of the process and in a low score in the test as a whole.
This test will probably be found most useful in selecting those commercial and industrial workers who in the course of their work will be called upon to make extensive use of language and printed symbols, although it has been used successfully in many parts of the country in the selection of salesmen, shop foremen, firemen, policemen, and other non-clerical workers. The relationship between success in this test and general success in life is extraordinarily close.
In the public schools this test is particularly valuable as a first means of identifying pupils of unusual ability. Any child who makes five or more points above the average for his grade should be further tested with the Number Series Completion (Mentimeter No. 9) and the Analogies tests (Mentimeter No. 24). If his scores in these tests are distinctly above the average, he should be sent to the psychologist for special examination, and if the psychologist’s findings agree with the findings of these tests, as they usually will, then the child should be given special opportunities for rapid progress and more varied activities in school. Similarly, if a pupil obtains a score which is five or more points below the average for his grade, he should be examined with the Completion of Form Series test (Mentimeter No. 6) and the Pictorial Absurdities test (Mentimeter No. 2), and if his scores in these tests are also below the average, he should be referred to the psychologist for special examination and recommendations as to type of instruction best suited to his mental abilities.
Directions for Giving the Test.
When all candidates have been seated and provided with convenient writing materials, one copy of the examination booklet should be given to each candidate. A general announcement should be given either before distributing the booklets or while they are being distributed, to the effect that no one is to open the booklet or turn it over until directed to do so. The candidates may be instructed to fill out the blanks on the title page if they are intelligent enough to understand what is wanted on these blanks. If young children are being examined, the examiner should state very clearly just what is to be done. For example: “Write your name on the dotted line after the word ‘Name.’ Write your age at your last birthday on the dotted line which follows the words ‘Age at Last Birthday’.” Care should be taken that no child gets an unfair advantage by opening his book and beginning work before the following directions have been read aloud by the examiner while the children read them silently from their booklets.
“When you open your booklets you will find on the inside twenty sentences, from each of which one or more words have been left out. You are to guess what words were left out and to write them on the dotted lines which show where these words should be. Be very careful to write the best word you can think of on each blank. Write only one word on each of the blanks. Make each sentence sound just as sensible as you can. You will have ten minutes in which to write. Work rapidly and carefully. Ready! Go!”
Exactly ten minutes after saying, “Go!” the examiner should call “Stop! Time up! Give me your papers!” All papers should be collected at once.
Write only one word on each blank.
1. The dog’s name .......... Jack. 2. Little children go .......... bed early. 3. The boy .......... two dollars to the Red Cross. 4. The little .......... likes .......... play with her dolls. 5. Puppies .......... kittens grow to be .......... and cats. 6. The best children .......... the most friends. 7. One should .......... be rude to his .......... 8. The poor .......... was hurt when he slipped and ..........on the street. 9. It .......... amusing .......... watch men chasing their hats on a..........day. 10. Almost any man .......... if he really tries. 11. The elephant is a favourite .......... with children because of .......... .......... and shape. 12. The .......... who .......... a club and .......... a uniform was a policeman. 13. .......... a hot day nothing .......... thirst so well as a .......... of .......... water. 14. .......... is more than merely .......... a flag and cheering when the soldiers .......... .......... home. 15. Anything .......... is not .......... doing .......... is hardly worth .......... at all. 16. One .......... not .......... money to .......... worthy charity. 17. .......... learning a new operation it is sometimes .......... not to .......... .......... all than to practise the .......... way of .......... it. 18. Those things .......... .......... no fear .......... sometimes .......... harmful. 19. .......... drink .......... one is .......... is a .......... pleasure. 20. .......... one .......... their presence .......... not, .......... does .........., .......... a rule, .......... one’s guests.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of sentences completed perfectly within the time limit. No credit should be given for any sentences in which the language is not smooth and meaningful, although errors in spelling should not be counted against the person tested. This test is intended to measure ability to complete sentences rather than ability to spell words. No credit should be allowed unless every blank in a sentence has been properly filled. One error in any one of the blanks will leave the sentence imperfectly done and therefore without credit.
The stencil for scoring this test is less convenient than those furnished with the majority of the Mentimeter tests. The reason for this is the very great possibility of new variations appearing, even after long experience in scoring the test. When more than one blank appears in a single sentence the question as to whether or not a certain word is proper for one of the later blanks depends entirely upon what choice was made in the first blank. It should be held in mind by those who score this test that the stencil does not give all of the possibilities, but only suggests the type of completion which should be considered correct. Anything that is as good as the completions appearing in the stencil should be given full credit, while anything which is not as perfect should be considered incorrect.
The final score obtained by counting the number of sentences perfectly completed should be entered in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the booklet.
Scores from 0 to 5 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 6 to 9 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 10 to 16 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 17 to 18 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 19 to 20 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 24
ANALOGIES OR MIXED RELATIONS TEST
Character of the Test.
The Analogies test lends itself easily to wholesale or group administration. It cannot be used with illiterate candidates but requires at least three years of educational background in order to give a satisfactory index of mental capacity. The test blank presents the tasks to be done in a manner so easily understood that little explanation needs to be given orally by the examiner. It is also simple in its method of scoring and yields a very reliable measure of an individual’s clearness of thought about the relations of words and the things for which the words stand.
Psychologists have used various forms of this test for many years and have found it unusually accurate and reliable. It is considered particularly valuable as a test of ability to adapt one’s self quickly and accurately to new situations, which is undoubtedly one of the most important elements in what is called “general intelligence.”
The method of the Analogies test is known as the “controlled-association method.” Two words are presented having a very definite relation to each other. A third word is then presented, followed by a blank space upon which the candidate is to write a fourth word which will have the same relation to the third word as the second word has to the first. The relation between the first two or key words in each element of the test differs from the relation between the key words of the previous element, resulting in a constant change in the problem to be solved, which requires quick readjustments in the candidate’s thought processes. The candidate must be intellectually alert to discover the true relation between the key words, his mind must be well supplied by experience with words and ideas associated with the third word, and then he must use good judgment and discrimination in the selection of that word which has the proper relation to the third word. A slip at any of these points will mean failure. The value of the present series as a test of intelligence is greatly increased by the fact that there is a progressive increase in the difficulty of the elements presented, so that the number of elements correctly supplied has a very definite relation to the difficulty of the tasks the candidate can do.
Because of its relation to intelligence, the Analogies test will be found very useful in the classification of candidates for clerical and administrative positions in industry. Any group of tests selected for classifying such employees should contain a list of graded analogies such as that here supplied. Unless a candidate makes a record of at least fifteen correct responses out of a possible thirty in the three minutes’ time allowed in the test, he should be studied very carefully before being entrusted with a task where ideas and symbols must be handled quickly. Such a man might be able to work with things and people, but he will probably be found slow in his grasp of abstract principles and ideas.
In the schoolroom, the Analogies test may be used with some confidence in classifying pupils for instruction. If it is found that a pupil is far below his grade in ability in this test, and if he is also found below his grade in the Completion of Sentences and Number series, it may be assumed that the pupil will probably not succeed in the abstract work of the school. Such pupils should be sent to the clinical psychologist for special study, and a special type of training should be prescribed upon the basis of the psychologist’s diagnosis. In the same manner, pupils unusually brilliant in the handling of abstractions may be located through the use of this and other tests of this nature.
The Analogies test is also a very entertaining type of parlour amusement, especially when some of the absurd answers are read aloud for the amusement of the group. When it is so used, however, no suggestion should be made of the relation between ability in this test and general intellectual quickness, lest someone should take offence. If the test is given without the exact and formal directions, and if the spirit of fun is introduced by the examiner, certain clever persons are quite certain to write words which have very amusing associations with the words which serve to set the problems in the various lines.
Directions for Giving the Test.
All candidates should be furnished with pencils and writing surfaces—either tables, chair-arms, or writing boards. One test booklet should be supplied to each candidate, the blank being presented unopened and with the title page up. The examiner should announce clearly as the papers are distributed that, “The booklets are not to be turned over or opened up until the signal is given to do so.” Candidates should also be directed to sign their names, ages, group numbers, and locations on the blank spaces provided on the cover of the booklet for this information. When each candidate has properly filled out the information blanks on the outside of the test booklet the examiner should speak as follows:
“This test is to find out how carefully and how rapidly you can think about the relations of words and of the things for which these words stand. Now look at your papers and read silently the directions, while I read them aloud.
“When you are told to open your booklets, you will find on the inside thirty lines of words—three words and a blank space being printed on each line. In each of these lines, the first two words are related to each other in a certain way which you are to study out. You are then to write, in the blank space at the end, a fourth word which has the same relation to the third word as the second word has to the first.
“Look, for example, at the first sample, in which the second word is the plural of the first. Boxes means more than one Box, so the fourth word should be Cats, meaning more than one Cat.
| Write a fourth word which fits the third in the same way the second word fits the first. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Sample: | BOX | Boxes | CAT | ........ |
| 2nd Sample: | DOWN | Up | IN | ........ |
| 3rd Sample: | EYES | See | EARS | ........ |
“In the second sample, the fourth word should be Out, because Up is the opposite of Down, and Out is the opposite of In.
“In the third sample, the fourth word should be Hear, for See tells what Eyes are used for, and Hear tells for what Ears are used.
“You will have three minutes in which to write the fourth word in the thirty lines on the next pages. Work as rapidly as you can without making mistakes. Be sure to stop as soon as I call ‘Time up.’ Now turn your papers and begin.”
Allow exactly three minutes (180 seconds) after saying “Begin,” and then say “Stop! Time up! Turn your papers over.” All papers should be collected at once to avoid corrections with resulting unfairness.
| Write a fourth word which fits the third in the same way the second word fits the first. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIRST | SECOND | THIRD | FOURTH | ||
| 1. | CAR | Cars | DOG | ........ | 1 |
| 2. | FRONT | Back | NEAR | ........ | 2 |
| 3. | HAT | Head | SHOE | ........ | 3 |
| 4. | BOY | Boy’s | CAT | ........ | 4 |
| 5. | ICE | Cold | FIRE | ........ | 5 |
| 6. | BIRD | Flies | FISH | ........ | 6 |
| 7. | MEN’S | Man | HENS’ | ........ | 7 |
| 8. | BREAD | Eat | WATER | ........ | 8 |
| 9. | ACTOR | Theater | TEACHER | ........ | 9 |
| 10. | HE | Him | SHE | ........ | 10 |
| 11. | PRIEST | Religion | ATTORNEY | ........ | 11 |
| 12. | CAT | Kitten | HORSE | ........ | 12 |
| 13. | DO | Did | BUY | ........ | 13 |
| 14. | SCULPTOR | Statue | PAINTER | ........ | 14 |
| 15. | BOY | Man | LAMB | ........ | 15 |
| 16. | TOP | Bottom | CEILING | ........ | 16 |
| 17. | WATER | Fish | AIR | ........ | 17 |
| 18. | TRAIN | Engineer | AUTOMOBILE | ........ | 18 |
| 19. | STAND | Stood | BE | ........ | 19 |
| 20. | CATTLE | Herd | FISH | ........ | 20 |
| 21. | WORK | Day | SLEEP | ........ | 21 |
| 22. | THREW | Thrown | ROSE | ........ | 22 |
| 23. | GOOSE | Gander | DUCK | ........ | 23 |
| 24. | BANTAM | Fowl | MERINO | ........ | 24 |
| 25. | GIRL | Girls’ | WOMAN | ........ | 25 |
| 26. | WRONG | Right | STEAL | ........ | 26 |
| 27. | FOOT | Feet | AVIATRIX | ........ | 27 |
| 28. | HOUSES | House | CRITERIA | ........ | 28 |
| 29. | QUEEN | Queens’ | JONES | ........ | 29 |
| 30. | PESSIMIST | Optimist | EXOTERIC | ........ | 30 |
Scoring the Test.
The Analogies test is scored according to the number of lines in which the candidate has written the proper fourth word. With each package of test blanks a stencil is furnished by means of which any one may score the results very quickly. The stencil is to be placed along the page next to the written column of words, and where the written word on the page corresponds to the word or words printed on the stencil at that level the written word stands as correct. Where there is disagreement between the written word and the words printed at that level on the stencil, a diagonal line (/) should be drawn through the number at the end of the written word to indicate that an error has been made. Where no word has been written on the blank, the number at the end of the blank may be circled to indicate the omission.
The final score should be written in the lower right-hand corner of the front cover of the test booklet. This final score is found by adding all the correct responses (the numbers not crossed out or circled). Since there are thirty lines, the maximum score possible is 30.
Scores from 0 to 5 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 6 to 12 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 13 to 23 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 24 to 26 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 27 to 30 indicate Superior Ability
About 30 per cent. of a group of college graduates should be expected to secure Superior ratings, about 50 per cent. High Average, and the remainder only Average ratings.
Mentimeter No. 25
HANDWRITING
Character of the Test.
Many pseudo-scientists have claimed the ability to interpret character and intelligence, and the past and the future, by means of an individual’s handwriting. The present test has no relation to such misguided efforts. This test is designed to measure accurately the speed at which one can write, and to indicate the general quality of the product produced at that speed.
Large groups of individuals may be examined at the same time by this test, although it may be used as a test of an individual if necessary. It is quite certain that an individual who works at such a task as that set by this test in the company of other people will succeed better than if he works at it alone. The results obtained when an individual is tested alone are not exactly comparable, therefore, to the results which would be attained if he were tested in a group.
The general quality of one’s handwriting has very little relation to his general intellectual ability. Some of our most intelligent men write a hand which is hardly legible, and the authors have seen some beautiful handwriting produced by feeble-minded children. It is, nevertheless, worth while for many employers to have in their records of the qualifications of employees an exact record of the speed and quality of each employee’s handwriting. This record may never be of any use, but, on the other hand, it may at some time be of very great value unexpectedly.
In the public schools, measurements of handwriting quality may be crudely done with the present Mentimeter or more accurately done with the scales of Thorndike, Ayres, or Starch. It seems probable that by the time children have attained the “Average” quality contained in the Mentimeter and are writing at “High Average” speed it would be worth while for the teacher to excuse them from further drill as long as they maintain that standard in their every-day work. It will hardly be found necessary in practical life outside the school to write a better quality than “Average” except in a very few specialized occupations.
Directions for Giving the Test.
Candidates should be supplied with pen and ink and seated at a convenient table or desk. The test leaflet should then be passed out and explanations given of how to fill out the blanks on the title page. When all of the identifying information has been entered on the title page, the examiner should direct as follows: “This test is intended to discover how rapidly and how well you can write with pen and ink. Turn your papers over and notice at the top of the page the two printed lines:
“Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow.
“When you are told to begin you are to copy these two lines over and over again just as many times as you possibly can before I call ‘Stop.’ Try to use your very best handwriting every time you copy. I shall allow you two minutes in which to write. As soon as I say ‘Stop,’ I want you to hold your pen up so that I can see you have obeyed the command. Remember that when I say ‘Write,’ you are to copy the two lines over and over again as rapidly and as well as you can. Ready, Write.” Exactly two minutes (120 seconds) after saying “Write” the examiner should call “Stop! Hold up your pens! Now lay them down on the table. Blot your paper and hand it to me.” All papers should be collected at once to avoid unfair work.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
Each handwriting leaflet is to receive two scores, one for quality of handwriting and one for speed. The score in speed should be obtained by counting the number of letters written and dividing the result by two, this will be simplified somewhat by remembering that the sentence, “Mary had a little lamb” contains 18 letters and that the sentence, “Its fleece was white as snow” contains 23 letters, which makes 41 letters for each time the two sentences are repeated. The score in speed thus obtained by taking half of the total number of letters written should be entered on the proper blank at the lower right-hand corner of the title page.
Speed score from 0 to 30 indicates Inferior Ability
Speed score from 31 to 50 indicates Low Average Ability
Speed score from 51 to 75 indicates Average Ability
Speed score from 76 to 90 indicates High Average Ability
Speed score from 91 and upward indicates Superior Ability
The score in quality of handwriting is to be determined by comparing the candidate’s handwriting with samples on the Mentimeter for Handwriting Quality:[[3]] a grade of “A,” indicating superior quality, should be assigned if the candidate’s handwriting is as smooth, beautiful and legible as the sample marked “A,” or if the quality more nearly approaches the quality of sample “A” than the quality of sample “B.” The sample should be given a rating as quality “C” if its general beauty and quality be nearer to the printed sample “C” than to printed samples “B” or “D.” Give to any sample that grade which indicates the printed quality that most nearly equals it in beauty, legibility, and general merit.
[3]. The samples in the Mentimeter are selected from the Thorndike list and have the following values on the Thorndike Scale E, “Inferior” equals 8.0; D, “Low Average” equals 10.5; C, “Average” equals 12.2; B, “High Average” equals 13.4; A, “Superior” equals 16.
In making a record of any candidate’s performance in the handwriting test both quality and speed should be recorded. “C–71” would mean that in the Mentimeter test this individual had written quality “C” at a speed of 71 letters per minute. The speed and quality together are necessary in order to know the entire truth about one’s handwriting, for many people produce a beautiful handwriting by taking great pains and wasting much time.
Mentimeter for Handwriting Quality
Mentimeter No. 26
ENGLISH COMPOSITION
Character of the Test.
Only persons who have had the benefit of a fairly complete elementary school education will succeed very emphatically in this test of ability to write a composition in the English language. The test may be given to large numbers of people at the same time just as readily as to a single individual. The result of the test is, however, a very good index of the general intellectual capacity of the individual, unless he is handicapped by lack of familiarity with the language.
The most common use which most of us have for ability at composing in English is in writing letters to our friends or to those with whom our business brings us into contact. For this reason, the test consists in the statement of a condition under which any one of us might find ourselves and in asking the candidates to write an appropriate letter. The result is graded into one of five groups, according to its general quality.
The problem presented to the candidate is fairly complex. First of all, he must be able to understand the situation described by the examiner and to appreciate what type of letter would be most appropriate under these circumstances. He must also be able to write the words which would express his feelings in the described situation, and in order to make his feelings clearly understood he should be able to punctuate and organize his sentences effectively. The result is a useful index of the general efficiency and maturity of any candidate who has been taught to write in English.
In industrial life there are many types of positions for which persons whose ability to compose written English need not be better than “Inferior,” although there are other positions which would require “High Average” quality of English composition. The advantage of the following Mentimeter lies in the possibility it gives of identifying more exactly just what quality is meant when one speaks of “High Average” composing ability.
In the public schools the Mentimeter will serve as a crude basis for classifying the general quality of the compositions written, but for highly scientific work it would be desirable to secure some form of the “Hillegas Scale” which is much more exact and well standardized. A very entertaining evening could be enjoyed by giving this test to a group of people gathered together for social purposes, especially with a group which had tired of the ordinary means of entertainment. Reading the products written should in such a case be entrusted to some one or two individuals of good reading ability and wise judgment. Frequently the results would contain very amusing paragraphs.
Directions for Giving the Test.
Each candidate should be comfortably seated and provided with writing material before any instructions are given. It will usually be well to furnish paper on which there are lines, as many people find the lack of ruling a distinct hindrance to the flow of their thoughts. When everyone is ready, the examiner should direct that each individual write his or her name, age, address, and any other information which seems desirable. The following directions should then be given:
“This test is planned to discover how well you can use the English language in expressing your thoughts and feelings. Imagine yourself employed in a large business house in the city. While you are waiting to find out whether or not you are going to be one of those fortunate people who will be granted a vacation, imagine that you receive a letter from a friend in the country asking you to spend your vacation on the farm. Since you do not know that you will have a vacation, it is impossible for you to accept the invitation at once, but it is necessary for you to acknowledge the fact that you have received the invitation. Write a letter to this friend in the country saying that the invitation has been received and that you appreciate it. You need not make the letter long, but write it just as well as you can.” At least twenty minutes should be allowed for the writing of this letter. At the end of twenty minutes all papers should be collected, whether the letters are complete or not—enough will have been written to demonstrate the quality of letter each can write.
MENTIMETER FOR QUALITY OF ENGLISH COMPOSITIONS
Quality: Superior, A.
My Dear Jean:—
Your letter made me peculiarly happy this morning. The joys of last Summer so wrapt themselves about me that, instead of hurrying down Broadway to business, I was sitting on the veranda with you and little Bobby at sunset watching the Hudson creep slowly in and out among the hills. One by one the little villages dropt out of sight as the fog came down from the Catskills, crept across the river, up through the woods and finally nestled among the neighbour’s fir trees. Black crows cawed as they flew lazily over the house, and the little birds came up close to the edge of the woods to sleep in the barberry bushes. Bobby said they came up close so we would hear if anything got them. The little dear! Tell him I have saved a number of stories for him—two new ones about light-houses.
I am rather doubtful as to whether I will be granted a vacation this year. Business conditions are so far from normal, and we are very short of help. However, I may be lucky, and if I am nothing would make me so happy as to spend every day of it with you and little Bobby. I expect to know definitely by the end of next week concerning my vacation and shall write to you immediately.
I thank you more than I can say, Jean. Your invitation has made me very happy.
Sincerely,
Quality: High Average, B.
My Dear Mr. Smith:
I appreciate your invitation expressing the desire to entertain me again at your farm during my Summer vacation. I should enjoy coming back this Summer, although I have occasionally been afraid that I was something of a hindrance to your work. It is such a change for me to get to the country that I shall certainly come if possible.
I shall let you know just as soon as I find out whether or not I am to have a vacation this Summer. Thanking you for your kind invitation, I remain,
Sincerely yours,
Quality: Average, C.
My Dear Friend:
Your letter of June 10th has been received, and in reply I would say that I am not sure that I will get my vacation this summer. The boss hasn’t said anything about vacations yet. I would like to come just as much as you would like to have me, but I can’t promise until the old man lets us know. I’ll write to you just as soon as I learn what to expect. Thanks for your invitation.
Yours,
Quality: Low Average, D.
Dear Friend
I got your letter alright, but it don’t look like I was going to get any vacation this summer. We have all been tryin to hint to the boss about how tired we all was but he has to be knocked down to take a hint I guess.
I sure do hope he lets me off. You know how I’d like to come and I want you to keep plenty of green truck growin in the gardin for me to eat.
Yours truly
Quality: Inferior, E.
Der Frend
id lik to cum out to yer farm ef the flise ant tou bad but i got to wate the boss hant told us we can tak ar vakashins yit hous the frut & burys this yere il cum ef i can
Directions for Scoring the Test.
Each composition should be compared with the five contained on the Mentimeter for English Composition quality. Give the written composition a mark as “Average,” “Superior,” or “Low Average” according to its quality. If a composition seems to be better than the one on the Mentimeter which is called “Average” but poorer than the one called “High Average,” try to decide which it is nearer in general quality. “Average,” therefore, will mean that a composition is nearer in its quality to the sample printed as “Average” than it is to the sample printed as “High Average,” or to the sample printed as “Low Average.” Any composition which is distinctly better than “Superior” should be rated as “Superior,” and any composition which seems poorer than the one printed as “Inferior” should be rated as “Inferior.”
Mentimeter No. 27
POETIC DISCRIMINATION TEST
Character of the Test.
Differences in the intellectual abilities of people manifest themselves in three fairly distinct ways: first, in ability to accomplish results; second, in ability to think clearly about the situations in which they find themselves; and third, in the feelings which these situations arouse. Practically all of the tests now available for measuring educational achievements or intellectual ability are concerned primarily with the ability to do or to think about situations. This member of the Mentimeter family is concerned chiefly with the way in which one feels about different types and qualities of poetic expression. The test cannot be given to illiterate or foreign language speaking persons. It is planned as a group test of persons who read and understand English readily.
The test consists of six short stanzas selected from recognized English poets.[[4]] Two false versions of each stanza have been prepared and appear on the same page with the original. The group being examined are asked to read each version, trying to think how it would sound if read aloud, and to choose the one which they like “best” and the one which they consider the “poorest” poetry. The differences between the false versions and the true in the first set are smaller than the differences found in the succeeding ones. The score obtained by any individual therefore depends upon how small a difference he can notice.
[4]. The Best Version in each set is selected from the writings of recognized poets:
Set I William Wordsworth in “She Dwelt Among.” Set II Agnes Millay in “My Tavern.” Set III Percy Bysshe Shelley in “To——” Set IV Algernon Charles Swinburne in “Étude Réaliste.” Set V Edward Coote Pinkney in “Health.” Set VI James Thompson in “Sunday Up the River.”
Mr. Earl Hudelson contributed the Middle and Poorest Versions for Set II. One of the present authors is responsible for the mutilated forms of the other selections. A much more scientific and accurate instrument for measuring poetic discrimination is being developed by Prof. Allan Abbott and one of the present authors.
Although this test is very interesting and entertaining its reliability is not determined and its usefulness is as yet questionable. It certainly would have no great value in industrial life and only small importance in public school work; its chief service will be entertainment in the home and at social gatherings. It is surprising how poor the judgment of many people is regarding the quality of poetic products. It would be interesting at social affairs at which this test is used to make a tabulation of just how many of those present have selected each different version.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The examiner should distribute the examination booklets and writing materials with the following instruction:
“Do not open this booklet until I tell you to do so. Notice on the title page a number of blanks for your name, your age, and the like. Fill out these blanks at once but do not look inside the booklet.”
As soon as the blanks on the title page have been filled the examiner should ask the candidates to read carefully the directions while he reads them aloud.
“When you open your book you will find six different sets of poetic stanzas. Each set appears in three different versions. You are to read each version carefully, trying to think how it would sound if read aloud, and then to record on the blank space provided for it which version you think is ‘best,’ which version you think is ‘poorest’ and which version you think is of ‘middle’ value. If you decide that version Y is best then write ‘Y’ after the word Best. If Z is the worst, then write ‘Z’ after the word Poorest, and ‘X’ after the word Middle.
“Think carefully about each set and choose the one which you really think is the best poetry. You will be allowed fifteen minutes in which to read and decide about the six sets. Begin with set No. I and take them in order. Ready! Open your papers and begin work.”
Exactly fifteen minutes after saying “Begin” the examiner should call, “Stop! The time is up. Let me have your papers.” All papers should be taken up at once.
SET I
Read each version carefully and try to think how it would sound if it were read aloud.
Which version is the poorest poetry, and which is the best poetry?
Best ........
Middle ........
Poorest ........
Version X
Once there was a violet,
Growing near a stone;
It reminded me of a star
All alone in the sky.
Version Y
A violet grew by a mossy stone,
Where it was hard to see;
It looked like a star, for it shone
As pretty as could be.
Version Z
A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
—Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.
SET II
Read each version carefully and try to think how it would sound if it were read aloud.
Which version is the poorest poetry, and which is the best poetry?
I’ll keep a little tavern
Below the high hill’s crest,
Wherein all gray-eyed people
May set them down and rest.
Best ........
Middle ........
Poorest ........
Version X
There shall be plates a-plenty,
And mugs to melt the chill
Of all the gray-eyed people
Who happen up the hill.
Ay, ’tis a curious fancy—
But all the good I know
Was taught me out of two gray eyes
A long time ago.
Version Y
There shall be dishes a-plenty,
And something to take off the chill
Of as many gray-eyed people
As are willing to climb the hill.
’Tis truly an odd fancy,
But everything good that I know
I learned out of two gray eyes
Many years ago.
Version Z
And when those gray-eyed people
Have entered in the gate,
We’ll pass the cheering mug around,
And also pass the plate.
It may sound rather funny,
But I was helped a lot
By someone who had gray eyes
When I was a little tot.
SET III
Read each version carefully and try to think how it would sound if it were read aloud.
Which version is the poorest poetry, and which is the best poetry?
Best ....
Middle ....
Poorest ....
Version X
Music, when faint voices cease,
Continues in the memory—
Odours, when the violets fade,
Linger where their smell was made.
Version Y
Music lives in the memory,
Though the songster’s voice is done.
Sweet odours haunt the nose,
Though the violets that waked them are gone.
Version Z
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory—
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
SET IV
Read each version carefully and try to think how it would sound if it were read aloud.
Which version is the poorest poetry, and which is the best poetry?
Best ....
Middle ....
Poorest ....
Version X
No rosebud yet has e’er been seen,
Or flower in tropic lands,
To equal these, more beauteous e’en—
A baby’s hands.
Version Y
No rosebuds yet by dawn impearled
Match, even in loveliest lands,
The sweetest flowers in all the world—
A baby’s hands.
Version Z
No flower that grows,
In this or any other lands,
Compares with these, of daintiest rose—
A baby’s hands.
SET V
Read each version carefully and try to think how it would sound if it were read aloud.
Which version is the poorest poetry, and which is the best poetry?
Best ....
Middle ....
Poorest ....
Version X
She speaks in tones of silver
With the voice of morning birds,
And every word that’s spoken of her
Echoes the music of her words.
Version Y
Her every tone is music’s own,
Like those of morning birds,
And something more than melody
Dwells ever in her words.
Version Z
Her tones are pure as silver chimes,
Her notes of birdlike beauty;
The words she speaks are at all times
Replete with life and beauty.
SET VI
Read each version carefully and try to think how it would sound if it were read aloud.
Which version is the poorest poetry, and which is the best poetry?
Best ....
Middle ....
Poorest ....
Version X
A pipe and a book,
By the side of the brook,
With the world and her troubles forgot;
Just to read and to smoke,
Man forgets that he’s broke,—
And he finds, after all, that he’s not.
Version Y
Give a man a pipe he can smoke,
Give a man a book he can read;
And his home is bright with a calm delight,
Though the room be poor indeed.
Version Z
Let a man smoke,
And let a man read;
A pipe and a book in any old nook,
Lend peace which is wealth indeed.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is determined in a somewhat more complicated manner than is the case of any other of the Mentimeter series. Two points are allowed each candidate for selecting as “Best” the original version in any set and one point of credit is allowed for selecting the poorest version as “Poorest.” It will be observed that the maximum score on any set will be three points if the candidate arranges the versions in the correct order, two points for selecting the best and one point for selecting the worst. This makes the total maximum score, for six sets, eighteen points.
The correct order of merit for each set of selections has been determined by the judgment of approximately one hundred competent judges. It is as follows:
| SET | I | II | III | IV | V | VI |
| Best | Z | X | Z | Y | Y | Y |
| Middle | Y | Y | X | X | Z | Z |
| Poorest | X | Z | Y | Z | X | X |
Write the final score obtained on the total of the six sets in the lower right-hand corner of the title page of the examination booklet.
Scores from 0 to 3 indicate Very Inferior Ability
Scores from 4 to 7 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 8 to 11 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 12 to 14 indicate Superior Ability
Scores from 15 to 18 indicate Very Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 28
ARITHMETIC REASONING
Character of the Test.
Teachers in schools have for a long while based a large part of their judgment about any individual’s intellectual ability almost exclusively upon the facility with which he solved arithmetic problems. Although the ability to solve arithmetic problems has not been so frequently recognized by investigators as an index of intellectual ability as has ability in English, the teachers have found it much easier to estimate intellectual ability upon the basis of showing in arithmetic, because it is easier to judge of success in arithmetic than to judge of success in English or other fields. A child can either solve the problem or else he cannot. This objective nature of the subject of arithmetic has made it a very important subject for the teacher in deciding upon promotions.
In practical life, arithmetic has been recognized as being of value because the training in arithmetic was supposed to enable a student to keep other people from cheating him in financial transactions. The writers have known employers, on a small scale, who used certain tricky arithmetic problems as the basis upon which to judge the intellectual ability of prospective employees. Arithmetic problems have had and will continue to have a distinctive place in the measurement of intellectual capacity. It is probable that this place is well deserved.
Directions for Giving the Test.
As soon as the candidates are seated, they should be supplied with pencils, and the examination leaflet should be distributed with the instruction that it is not to be turned over until special instructions are given to that effect. In order to keep the candidates busy, the examiner should ask them to fill out the blanks on the title page, giving name, age, etc. When this information has been obtained, the examiner should ask the candidates to read the directions silently while he reads them aloud.
“On the other side of your papers you will find fourteen problems in arithmetic. The first problems are simple and easy and the last ones are more difficult. Begin with the first problem and solve as many as you can in the four minutes after I say ‘Go!’ Write your answer at the right-hand side of the questions on the dotted lines provided for the answers. You may figure on the left-hand side or on the back of the blank, if you wish. Solve as many problems as you can but be sure to get the answer right. Ready! Go!”
Allowing exactly four minutes after saying the world “Go!” the examiner should call “Stop! Turn your papers over. Give them to me.” All papers should be collected immediately.
| Write the answers to these problems on the blanks | ||
|---|---|---|
| Use the other side of the sheet to figure on | ||
| ANSWERS | ||
| 1. | How many are 5 men and 3 men? | .......... |
| 2. | If you earn 2 dollars each day, how much do you earn in 6 days? | .......... |
| 3. | If you have 10 nickels and lose 3 of them, how many would you have after you found 2 of those that were lost? | .......... |
| 4. | How many benches will be needed in order to seat 20 people at a picnic, if 4 people sit on each bench? | .......... |
| 5. | If James sold 3 Sunday papers for 5 cents each and then bought an apple for 3 cents and an orange for 4 cents, how much money had he left? | .......... |
| 6. | How much change should you get from a dollar bill after buying 39 cents’ worth of potatoes, 12 cents’ worth of celery, and 26 cents’ worth of butter? | .......... |
| 7. | If the price of lemons is 2 for 5 cents, how many can you buy for 40 cents? | .......... |
| 8. | If 29 merchants each bought 34 quarts of canned peas at a wholesale house which had previously sold 2,387 quarts of the same brand, what was the total number of quarts of this brand sold? | .......... |
| 9. | If a wholesale merchant sold for $50 sugar which he had purchased for $45 and thereby gained 1 cent per pound, how many pounds of sugar were there? | .......... |
| 10. | If four and a half pounds of fancy onions cost 27 cents, how much will eight and a half pounds cost? | .......... |
| 11. | Half of the people in a certain city block were born of American parents, one eighth have American fathers and foreign-born mothers, one eighth have American mothers and foreign-born fathers, and both parents of the rest are foreign-born. Of the 1,200 people living in this block, how many have American fathers? | .......... |
| 12. | A factory used 1,288 tons of coal in 23 days. During the first ten days after a new addition to the factory was opened, the average daily coal consumption was 78 tons. How many more tons were burned per day than previously? | .......... |
| 13. | A man spent for cigars and tobacco one sixteenth of his wages for one day. He spent five times as much for food, and half of what remained for repairs on his watch, which left him a dollar and a half. How much did he receive per day? | .......... |
| 14. | At the middle of the month a merchant had $1,200 in the bank. He deposited $30 each day for six days and on Monday morning wrote checks for two thirds as much as his deposits for the week. Tuesday afternoon he deposited a check one fourth as large as his balance in the bank. What was his balance on Tuesday night? | .......... |
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of problems with absolutely correct answers. No credit should be given for partially correct answers. The total score of the test should be entered on the blank at the lower right-hand corner of the title page.
Scores from 0 to 3 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 4 to 7 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 8 to 10 indicate Average Ability
Scores of 11 and 12 indicate High Average Ability
Scores of 13 and 14 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 29
PRACTICAL JUDGMENT TEST
Character of the Test.
This test is applicable to all persons who can read English as readily as the average third-grade public school pupil. For persons of less ability to read but of good ability to understand English, the questions may be asked orally in an individual examination. The results obtained when the questions are asked orally should not be compared with the results obtained when the printed test booklets are employed in a group examination. It is very strongly recommended that the test be used primarily as a group test, according to the instructions given here, in order that direct comparisons may be readily made between the results obtained in various places by different examiners.
The present form of the test is a lengthening of the form used in the Army Alpha series. Twenty-four elements are contained in the Mentimeter form, while only sixteen elements were used in the Army form. Another advantage of the present form over the military edition is the more definite attempt at arrangement of the elements in the test according to their difficulty. Having the series graduated in difficulty, from easy to hard, is a distinct advantage, particularly with young or dull persons, who quickly stop trying unless their first efforts are successful.
The use of questions, in the answering of which thoughtful judgment about every-day affairs would be required, has always been a favourite method of discovering the degree of intelligence possessed by a child or by an adult. Binet, the French psychologist who developed the mental age scale for testing feeble-minded subjects, included in his series a number of test questions of this type. The Stanford Revision of the Binet tests includes three such questions in the Eight-Year-Old series, and three other more difficult questions in the Ten-Year-Old list.
The chief modification of the method in adapting it for group testing was the supplying of three or four answers from which the subject should select the correct reply. This change makes the markings of the results quite simple, but it takes from the test itself some of its virtue as a measure of the richness of ideas possessed by the person tested. Instead of having to think out an appropriate answer, one needs only to read the answers printed and to use good judgment in selecting the one to be checked as “best.”
The Mentimeter form of the test, although superior in its length and arrangement to the military version, is nevertheless not yet ideal as an intelligence test. The simplest questions and answers that can be printed are too difficult for first- and second-grade school pupils to read and understand, while the most difficult questions and answers one could devise would not be general enough in their subject matter to be included in a “general intelligence” test. In other words, the range of ability that this test will measure is not so wide as that measured by some other Mentimeter tests, with the result that the speed of reading and of making judgments plays a larger part in determining the final score than it would in a perfect intelligence test. In spite of the large part played by speed, the test is a useful index of ability to learn in certain lines of work where rapid decisions on practical problems are necessary.
It is probable that the Practical Judgment test will be found more useful in the measurement of intelligence among school children and clerical workers than in the classification of general employees, although the reader may find unexpected relationships between this test and certain routine occupations. Reliance should be placed upon it only after it has demonstrated in actual trials that it has a close relationship to the special ability desired.
Its use in social gatherings as a form of entertainment will be greatest where each person marks the papers of some other member of the group and reports the judgments found incorrect. Most persons are surprised, when they come to look over their booklets carefully, to find how many foolish errors have crept into their records while working at high speed. In order to increase the number of imperfect records and thereby add somewhat to the amusement of the group, the examiner may announce and use two minutes as the time limit, and urge everyone to try to work all of the 24 questions in that time. The general confusion will be increased if the examiner signals the end of the first minute and the end of a minute and a half. Under such conditions, of course, no serious use can be made of the results obtained. The score on the test is not to be used seriously except where the instructions and procedure are exactly as specified below.
Directions for Giving the Test.
Candidates should be comfortably seated at a table or supplied with a convenient writing board. A well-sharpened pencil (or pen with ink) should be in the hands of each candidate before any blanks are passed out. The test booklets should then be distributed, the announcement being clearly made beforehand that “no one will be allowed to open the booklet or turn it over until the signal is given to do so.”
When each candidate has been supplied with a test booklet, title page up, the examiner should say: “Now, write your name on the blank following the word Name.” After a pause long enough to allow this direction to be carried out, the examiner should continue with a similar instruction for each of the other pieces of information required by the title page blanks. “Age at last birthday” should be insisted upon, if there is any question of reporting age in any other way. Group numbers and locations may be left blank where only small numbers of persons are being tested and where there is no probability of getting the papers from one place mixed with those from some other place. The name of the school, factory, or city will usually be sufficient for the blank headed “Location.”
After the necessary identifying information has been entered at the top of the title page, the examiner should ask the candidates to read silently the directions while he reads them aloud. He should then read slowly and distinctly:
“The following pages contain 24 questions and 4 answers to each question. You are to vote for the best answer to each question by making a check mark (✓) in the square that stands before it. The questions are not hard, and you will be allowed 3 minutes to check the best answers, but be sure to work carefully and rapidly. Vote only for the one best answer to each question. Turn the page! Go!”
At the end of exactly 3 minutes after saying “Go!” the examiner should call “Stop! Close your booklets and pass them to me.” All papers should be collected at once in order to avoid unfairness and cheating.
MARK (✓) THE SQUARE IN FRONT OF THE BEST ANSWER TO EACH QUESTION
1. What should one do when he is thirsty? ☐ Cry until someone gives him a drink. ☐ Eat a piece of salt pork. ☐ Get a drink of water. ☐ Read a Coca Cola advertisement. 2. Why do children like to eat candy? ☐ It makes them fat. ☐ It tastes good. ☐ It is good for them. ☐ It is a cheap food.
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of questions correctly answered. A stencil is furnished with each package of tests, which makes it possible to check up at a very rapid rate the accuracy of the votes cast, without ever reading a single word of the answers. The stencil is merely to be adjusted to the page, according to directions given on its face, and where the check mark made by the candidate corresponds to the printed mark on the stencil the question has been correctly answered, while if there is not agreement between stencil and candidate’s check no credit is to be allowed on the question. Any fairly careful clerical worker can learn in two minutes to score such a test with a stencil as rapidly and accurately as a thoroughly trained psychologist could do it.
The final score should be entered in the lower right-hand corner of the front or title page, where it will be easily associated with the name and other information about the candidate.
Scores from 0 to 3 indicate Inferior Ability
Scores from 4 to 8 indicate Low Average Ability
Scores from 9 to 14 indicate Average Ability
Scores from 15 to 19 indicate High Average Ability
Scores from 20 to 24 indicate Superior Ability
Mentimeter No. 30
LOGICAL CONCLUSIONS TEST
Character of the Test.
This test is to be given to large groups of individuals at the same time, although it may be given as a part of an individual examination. It will not be found worth while to give this test to individuals who have not had at least the equivalent of an elementary school education. The solution of the problems contained is so difficult that not more than half of the pupils of the sixth or seventh grade of the elementary school would be able to answer correctly more than five or six of the problems.
The method of the test is to present a short hypothesis, introduced by the word “if” and followed by four different conclusions introduced by the word “then.” The individual being examined should read carefully the first part of the statement and understand exactly what it means, and should then put a check mark before the conclusion which would logically follow the hypothesis. There are twelve of these problems, beginning with one which is quite simple and elementary, and progressing to more difficult and more complex statements of a similar nature. The explanations by which this test is introduced are illustrated by an example and are not difficult to understand. The difficulty of the test lies in keeping clearly in mind just what are the implications of the introductory statement or hypothesis.
The present test is almost entirely new, both in its form and in its content. The nearest approach to this particular test was made by Dr. Agnes L. Rogers at the suggestion of Professor Thorndike, when she prepared a list of six problems of which the following is a good sample: “P is larger than Q, R is smaller than Q, therefore P is ........ R.” The blank is to be filled in. It will be observed that the present Mentimeter differs from Doctor Rogers’s test in that names of familiar persons or objects are used in place of the capital letters and that four conclusions are stated from which the subject is to select the proper one, rather than leaving to the subject the formulation of his own conclusion.
Because of its newness, it will be impossible to state here just what is measured by this test, but certainly the ability to read and understand the words is one factor, and the ability to think clearly about the logical implications of these words is another very important element making for success. The ability to see the relations between the words is probably as near to what may be called “logical ability” or “reasoning” as to any other popularly recognized “mental qualification.” Although Doctor Rogers found a coefficient of correlation of .65 between her form of the logical reasoning test and a composite measure of mathematical ability, the present Mentimeter is so different that its true value can only be indicated by the comparisons which its users will be able to make between their results and the most accurate measures obtainable of special ability.
This test will probably have very little usefulness in commercial or industrial fields, although it may be very helpful for a professional group such as lawyers, educators, etc., in the selection of clerical or professional assistants. In the public schools, it is quite certain that it should not be used below the high school grades. Even in the high school, it is probable that only those with very great ability in handling abstract ideas and symbols of ideas will be able to make a high score.
The subject matter of those statements which appear in the test is such as would not be found in ordinary life and has very little value in itself. As an entertainment feature, this test will not be successful except among a very specially selected group of people who believe themselves to be extraordinarily keen intellectually. It might be held in reserve as a special “stunt” for any persons who seem to think that they have demonstrated their “high-brow” qualities by making high scores in other tests. Shortening the time limit from five minutes to three minutes would further add to the consternation of such persons.
Directions for Giving the Test.
The examiner should distribute one test booklet to each candidate, announcing at the beginning of the distribution that the booklets should not be opened or turned over until an order to that effect is given. Since the blanks on the front cover of the booklet will be self-explanatory to any person capable of taking the test, the examiner may direct that each candidate fill out the blanks on the title page of his booklet as soon as he receives it.
When the information blanks have been filled satisfactorily the examiner should ask the candidates to read the directions silently while he reads them aloud. This reading should be at a very deliberate rate and in good, clear tones:
“The following pages contain twelve sentences, each sentence being printed with four different endings. Only one of these endings can be true if the first part of the sentence is true. You are to decide which ending or conclusion is truest or agrees best with the first part, and to make a mark in the square standing in front of that best ending. Notice the example:
“If roses cost more than violets, then violets
☐ cost more than roses
☐ cost as much as roses
☐ do not cost as much as roses
☐ do not cost less than roses
“The only one of the four endings which can be true, if the first part of the sentence is true, is the third, ‘violets do not cost as much as roses,’ so the square in front of this third conclusion should be check-marked.
“You will have five minutes in which to read and mark the twelve sentences. Think carefully and get all of your marks correctly placed. Ready! Go!”
At the end of five minutes exactly, call “Stop! Time up! Give me your papers.” All papers should be collected at once.
MARK (✓) THE SQUARE IN FRONT OF THE TRUEST ENDING TO EACH SENTENCE
1. If John is older than James, then John is ☐ younger than James ☐ older than James ☐ not as old as James ☐ not older than James 2. If Mary is younger than Will, then Will is ☐ younger than Mary ☐ not older than Mary ☐ not as old as Mary ☐ older than Mary 3. If Dot is taller than Pet, then Pet is ☐ as tall as Dot ☐ shorter than Dot ☐ not shorter than Dot ☐ taller than Dot 4. If May is heavier than Jean, then Jean is ☐ not lighter than May ☐ as heavy as May ☐ not heavier than May ☐ heavier than May
Directions for Scoring the Test.
The score in this test is the number of sentences for which the correct conclusion is checked. The stencil furnished with the test booklets makes this process of counting the number correct so simple that a child can do it almost at a glance. The degree of intellectual capacity is indicated roughly by the score as follows:
Scores 0 to 1 indicate Low Average or Inferior Ability
Scores 2 to 5 indicate Average Ability
Scores 6 to 8 indicate High Average Ability
Scores 9 to 12 indicate Superior Ability
Attention should be invited here again to the fact that this is a new test and that its reliability and implications will need to be carefully tested and measured before one can be sure what it measures or how accurate it is.
CHAPTER XI
TRADE TESTS OR TESTS OF SKILL
While the determination of individual skill in the performance of a given operation is not, strictly speaking, a test of intelligence or of mental capacity, it has been established that the most accurate and speedy method of discovering the precise degree of skill possessed by any artisan is closely analogous to the scientific method of mental measurement. It has been found, moreover, that there is quite a close relation between an individual workman’s skill at his trade and the degree of mental capacity disclosed by the Mentimeter or similar scientific tests; the more intelligent the worker, the greater his skill if he has any natural aptitude for his trade.
Many persons view with skepticism the idea that a workman’s degree of skill at his trade can be determined by tests that require but a few minutes. A month, they argue, is little enough for an expert foreman to classify justly the men under him, after observing their skill with his own eyes. When it is proposed that those who apply the tests for any trade need not themselves be skilled in it and may, in fact, know nothing about it, it is no wonder that they doubt the practicality of a method so foreign to previous conceptions and practice.
Psychologists have long realized that the same methods by which mental qualities, abilities, and capacities are determined, analyzed, and measured, could be applied to the measurement of manual dexterity or the combination of manual dexterity, judgment, perception, adaptability, and patience that, taken together, make the skilled workman. For, as the reader who has perused this book thus far will long since have recognized, there is included in the foregoing list of qualities a predominance of those which come quite definitely under the classification of mental abilities or capacities. As has been previously pointed out, it is impossible to separate mental and physical powers, and psychologists do not regard the mind as a separate entity, but merely as a convenient term for the definition of certain of the higher physical powers and their manifestations. And just as a certain type of nervous (physical) organism manifests itself in the development of abilities which we are accustomed to term “intellectual” or “mental,” so the abilities which we call “physical” or “manual” are merely other manifestations of a different type of nervous organism.
The principal distinction, scientifically, between a trade test and an intelligence test, is in the purpose to be served by the test. In the intelligence test the aim is to ascertain the subject’s general capacity; in the trade test, to discover his present ability or degree of skill in some special direction. Capacity, as has been previously pointed out, is only to be measured in terms of demonstrable ability, so that in the application of trade tests, although limited in their scope to a single class or kind of ability, there is also obtainable as a by-product a partial measure of the subject’s mental capacity.
While trade tests devised by psychologists had been demonstrated, in a number of industries, to be superior to any other method, both in picking the most skilful workers from among all applicants for positions, and in transferring workers from one department to another in large industries, it was in the classification and placement of the personnel of the Army during the war that the first really large-scale demonstration of the precision and effectiveness of scientifically devised trade tests was made. While one group of psychologists, working under the direction of the Surgeon-General’s Office, was engaged in classifying the Army personnel by means of intelligence tests the Personnel Branch of the Operations Division of the General Staff, organized and officered by trained psychologists, was undertaking the task of determining the special technical and vocational ability of the millions of men drawn into the Army through the medium of the selective draft.
This personnel organization had a multiplex duty to perform. First, it had to ascertain with precision what particular kinds of work had to be done in the preparation of an army for battle and in its transport and maintenance. This involved not only finding out just what needed to be done but translating this need into terms of trades and occupations.
For example, the Army might report that it needed a number of men capable of making all sorts of repairs to electric generators and motors. The Personnel Division proceeded to analyze the special qualifications required of electricians to enable them to meet this demand. These were listed, along with the qualifications required for every other army occupation, in a thick book entitled Trade Specifications Index. There were 239 pages in this book and in it were set forth in specific detail the exact qualifications needed by 565 different kinds of trade and technical experts. Chauffeurs, for instance, were classed as auto drivers, auto drivers with pigeon experience, motorcycle drivers with pigeon experience, plain motorcyclists, heavy auto-truck drivers, motor truck drivers, and plain chauffeurs. There were sixteen different classes of electricians, each of which required a man with special experience and knowledge. Nine different kinds of chemists were used in the Army.
It was a big job, in the first place, to determine exactly how men should be classified. After the classification had been decided upon, it then became necessary to devise simple, rapid, and accurate methods of placing every enlisted man in the Army in his proper classification, and then of so indexing three or four millions of men that any particular demand could be met. For example, one camp might ask for three farriers, nine sanitary engineers, two car carpenters, six boilermakers, and a pipe fitter. It was necessary that some system be perfected to permit of the filling of this order instantly by taking the men qualified to perform these duties out of the camps where they were undergoing military training.
The whole system had as its basis a card for each soldier, on which, by a simple system of marginal numbers, punch holes, and coloured index tags the record of each man’s precise ability was kept. Every man, as he was inducted into the service, was required first to make a preliminary, rough classification of himself—that is to say, he recorded himself as a tailor, a blacksmith, or a milk wagon driver. But the Trade Specifications Index was as precise in its detail as a dictionary. It was, in fact, a collection of definitions of what was meant by occupational titles which had vague or various meanings in different parts of the country. Thus, a man might have classified himself as a tailor who, if called upon to make a uniform, would have been unable to do so. Tailoring had to be subdivided, from simple pressing and repairing up to expert fitting. One might be a good coat maker while another had never worked on anything but trousers.
So there was devised a system of trade and occupational tests to which every man claiming skill at a trade was subjected, and which determined, as nearly as it is humanly possible to do, exactly the degree and kind of vocational skill possessed by every man in the Army.
When the problem of formulating tests was analyzed, it was seen that certain requirements were fundamental. Trade tests to be absolutely satisfactory,
1. Must differentiate between the various grades of skill;
2. Must produce uniform results in various places and in the hands of individuals of widely different characteristics;
3. Must consume the least amount of time and energy consistent with the best results.
Now it must be recognized that trades useful in the Army are of many kinds and of widely differing requirements. Trade ability in any one of them, however, means about the same thing. It means that the workman is not simply the possessor of a single item of information, nor simply able to execute one particular movement required by the trade, but that he has many items of information more or less systematized together with the ability to execute various movements not only singly but in combinations.
While there are all degrees of trade ability among the members of any trade, it is convenient to classify them in a few main groups. Ordinarily the terms Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, and Journeyman Expert (or Expert) are employed. The Novice is a man who has no trade ability whatever, or at least none that could not be paralleled by practically any intelligent man. The Apprentice has acquired some of the elements of the trade but is not sufficiently skilled to be entrusted with an important task. The Journeyman is qualified to perform almost any work done by members of the trade. The Expert can perform quickly and with superior skill any work done by men in the trade.
It is sometimes desirable that the Trade test should differentiate between the skill of different members of the same group, for instance, of the journeyman group. It is essential that it should differentiate between the journeyman and the apprentice and the apprentice and the novice. Trade tests devised to make this classification are of three kinds: oral, picture, and performance.
The oral tests are most generally used because they are of low cost and they may be applied to a large number of men in a comparatively short time and without much equipment. They are satisfactory in determining the presence or absence of trade ability and in many instances determine the degree of ability with such accuracy that no other tests are required.
As a preliminary to the preparation of a trade test, there is required a thorough inquiry into the conditions of the trade. This inquiry has a threefold purpose:
1. To determine the feasibility of a test in this field. Does the trade actually exist as a recognized trade? It was found, for example, that the trade of gunsmith was not a recognized trade, though there were gun repairers.
2. To determine the elements which require and permit of testing. In other words, can men be graded in it according to degrees of skill? In some trades it was found that the trade required simply the performance of a single set of operations and there were no gradations among the members of the trade.
3. To determine the kinds of tests that can be used. Some trades, such as truck driving and typewriting, are mainly matters of skill, and for them performance tests are better than oral tests. Other trades, such as interior wiring and power-plant operation, are mainly matters of knowledge. For these trades oral and picture tests are best.
After having discovered by inquiry that the trade is a recognized trade and can be tested, information is collected from all available sources. In the Army’s preparation of trade tests experts in the trade, trade union officials, the literature of the trade, trade school authorities, employers, and the like were consulted. In this way it was discovered what are the elements of the trade and what constitutes proficiency in it.
As a result of this collection of information it was possible to compile a number of questions, usually from forty to sixty, each of which called for an answer that showed knowledge of the trade. Experience in the formulation of such questions has shown that a good question meets the following requirements:
1. It must be in the language of the trade.
2. It must be a unit, complete in itself and requiring no further explanation.
3. It must not be a chance question that could be answered by a good guess. The extreme example would be a question calling for the answer “yes” or “no.”
4. It must be as short as possible and must be capable of being answered by a very short answer.
5. It must not be ambiguous; the meaning must be unmistakable.
After the large number of questions originally formulated has been sifted down by application of the requirements stated above and others of less importance they are used in a preliminary sampling on a number of artisans engaged in the trade, usually from nine to twelve, whose answers indicate the merits of the different questions and their grades, from easy to difficult. In this sampling, tradesmen from different shops or plants are tried in order to guard against specialized methods or modes of expression confined to a single locality. At least two examiners worked on each set of questions at this stage, in the Army’s work, to get the benefit of more than one point of view for revision.
This preliminary sampling affords a means of checking on the following points:
1. Is the test applicable to trade conditions?
2. Does the test represent good trade practice?
3. In what way can parts be profitably modified, supplemented, or eliminated?
4. Does the test represent the whole range of the trade, from the novice to the expert?
5. Is it a representative sampling of the whole range of trade processes?
In the light of the answers to these questions, the test is revised during this sampling process and is then ready to be formulated. This formulation consists of limiting the questions to a small enough number to be handled in a short space of time and to a wide enough range to represent every possible degree of trade skill. The questions are tabulated and are then ready to be used in the final sampling process.
Final sampling is made by testing twenty men who are known to be typical representatives of each group (novice, apprentice, journeyman, expert). Among the novices tested are some highly intelligent and mature men of good general knowledge but no trade ability. Three testing stations were used in the Army’s work: one in Cleveland, one in Newark, and one in Pittsburgh, in order to get the benefit of wide geographical distribution. Examinations were given to men whose record in the trade was already known and who were tested as nearly as possible in the same manner as men in the camps.
The results of this final sampling are turned over to experts who make a careful study of the results and of the answers to each question. This enables them to determine the relative value of each individual question and the selection that makes a proper balance.
If a trade test is good, a known expert, when tested, is able to answer all, or nearly all, the questions correctly; a journeyman is able to answer the majority; an apprentice a smaller part, and a novice practically none. This does not mean that each question should be answered correctly by all the experts, a majority of the journeymen, some apprentices but no novices. There are a few questions which show this general result. A graphic curve when plotted for such a question is almost a straight line.
Other types of questions, however, are more common. Some show a distinct line of cleavage between the novice and the apprentice. Novices fail, but apprentices, journeymen, and experts alike answer correctly. There are likewise questions that are answered correctly by nearly all journeymen and experts but only a few apprentices, and questions that only an expert can answer correctly.
Each type of question has its value in a good test. The main requirement is that the tendency of the curve should be upward; a question which is answered correctly by more journeymen than experts or more apprentices than journeymen is undesirable and is at once discarded. A proper balance is made of the others.
One task still remains; namely, that of calibrating the test. As each question is allowed four points, it becomes necessary to determine how many points should indicate an expert, how many a journeyman, etc. Obviously the way to do this is to note how many points were scored by the known experts and the known journeymen when they were tested. Ordinarily the expert scores higher than the journeyman and the journeyman higher than the apprentice. It frequently happens that a few journeymen score as high as the lowest of the experts and a few apprentices as high as the lowest of the journeymen. There are consequently certain overlappings between the classes. In calibrating, the object is to draw the dividing line between classes so that the overlapping shall be as small as possible.
When these dividing lines, or critical scores as they are usually called, are established, the test is ready for editing, printing, and distribution to camps.
Picture tests are made in practically the same way as oral tests. The peculiar characteristic of picture tests is that the questions making up the tests relate to illustrations of trade tools and appliances.
The performance tests are now being used in many trades for those who make a satisfactory showing in the oral or picture tests. These performance tests are devised by conference with experts in the trade. They consist of some apparently simple tasks that can be performed quickly and with a small amount of apparatus but that nevertheless indicate clearly the degree of skill of the performer. As a result of experience the following have been drawn up as the requirements for a good performance test:
1. It should require the smallest possible quantity of tools and materials and these should be capable of standardization;
2. A journeyman should not require more than 45 minutes to perform it;
3. It should be typical of the work required;
4. The operations should be exact so that a correct standard form of product is always obtainable. Performance tests undergo much the same processes of sampling as do the oral and picture tests and they are calibrated in the same way. The principle followed here, as elsewhere, is that the value of a test lies not in its theoretical exactness but in its proved ability to pick out and classify correctly men of all degrees of skill within the trade. If the test does classify men in the groups in which they are known to belong, then it can be relied upon to classify correctly men about whom nothing is known in advance.
The method which the Army pursued is adaptable for any private enterprise. The work done under the direction of the Army General Staff in analyzing the essentials of nearly seven hundred trades and subdivisions of trades and in preparing tests for a large proportion of these was pioneer work, the results of which, in the shape of the tests themselves, while not issued for general distribution, are available as a time-saving guide to those who are interested in the building and application of trade tests.