Procedure. Say to the child: “You know what a rhyme is, of course. A rhyme is a word that sounds like another word. Two words rhyme if they end in the same sound. Understand?” Whether the child says he understands or not, we proceed to illustrate what a rhyme is, as follows: “Take the two words ‘hat’ and ‘cat.’ They sound alike and so they make a rhyme. ‘Hat,’ ‘rat,’ ‘cat,’ ‘bat’ all rhyme with one another.”
That is, we first explain what a rhyme is and then we give an illustration. A large majority of American children who have reached the age of 9 years understand perfectly what a rhyme is, without any illustration. A few, however, think they understand, but do not; and in order to insure that all are given equal advantage it is necessary never to omit the illustration.
After the illustration say: “Now, I am going to give you a word and you will have one minute to find as many words as you can that rhyme with it. The word is ‘day.’ Name all the words you can think of that rhyme with ‘day.’”
If the child fails with the first word, before giving the second we repeat the explanation and give sample rhymes for day; otherwise we proceed without further explanation to mill and spring, saying, “Now, you have another minute to name all the words you can think of that rhyme with ‘mill,’” etc. Apart from the mention of “one minute” say nothing to suggest hurrying, as this tends to throw some children into mental confusion.
Scoring. Passed if in two out of the three parts of the experiment the child finds three words which rhyme with the word given, the time limit for each series being one minute. Note that in each case there must be three words in addition to the word given. These must be real words, not meaningless syllables or made-up words. However, we should be liberal enough to accept such words as ding (from “ding-dong ”) for spring, Jill (see “Jack and Jill”) for mill, Fay (girl’s name) for day, etc.
Remarks. At first thought it would seem that the demands made by this test upon intelligence could not be very great. Sound associations between words may be contrasted unfavorably with associations like those of cause and effect, part to whole, whole to part, opposites, etc. But when we pass from a-priori considerations to an examination of the actual data, we find that the giving of rhymes is closely correlated with general intelligence.
The 9-year-olds who test at or above 10 years nearly always do well in finding rhymes, while 9-year-olds who test as low as 8 years seldom pass. When a test thus shows high correlation with the scale as a whole, we must either accept the test as valid or reject the scale altogether. While the feeble-minded do not do as well in this test as normal children of corresponding mental age, the percentage successes for them rises rapidly between mental age 8 and mental age 10 or 11.
Closer psychological analysis of the processes involved will show why this is true. To find rhymes for a given word means that one must hunt out verbal associations under the direction of a guiding idea. Every word has innumerable associations and many of these tend, in greater or less degree, to be aroused when the stimulus word is given. In order to succeed with the test, however, it is necessary to inhibit all associations which are not relevant to the desired end. The directing idea must be held so firmly in mind that it will really direct the thought associations. Besides acting to inhibit the irrelevant, it must create a sort of magnetic stress (to borrow a figure from physics) which will give dominance to those associative tendencies pointing in the right direction. Even the feeble-minded child of imbecile grade has in his vocabulary a great many words which rhyme with day, mill, and spring. He fails on the test because his verbal associations cannot be subjugated to the influence of a directing idea. The end to be attained does not dominate consciousness sufficiently to create more than a faint stress. Instead of a single magnetic pole there is a conflict of forces. The result is either chaos or partial success. Mill may suggest hill, and then perhaps the directing idea becomes suddenly inoperative and the child gives mountain, valley, or some other irrelevant association. The lack of associations, however, is a more frequent cause of failure than inability to inhibit the irrelevant.
If any one supposes that finding rhymes does not draw upon the higher mental powers, let him try the experiment upon himself in various stages of mental efficiency, say at 9 a.m., when mentally refreshed by a good night of sleep and again when fatigued and sleepy. Poets questioned by Galton on this point all testified to the greater difficulty of finding rhymes when mentally fatigued. In this and in many other respects the mental activities of the fatigued or sleepy individual approach the type of mentation which is normal to the feeble-minded.
It is important to note that adults make a less favorable showing in this test than normal children of corresponding mental age, Mr. Knollin’s “hoboes” of 12-year intelligence doing hardly as well as school children of 10-year intelligence. Those who are habitually employed in school exercises probably acquire an adeptness in verbal associations which is later gradually lost in the preoccupations of real life.